I used to love the Coca-Cola Polar bear TV ads at Christmastime. I marveled at the quality of the CGI animations when they first came out, like this one:
They were fun and entertaining to watch, even though not reality based because papa polar bear would just as soon rip the heads off the cubs as he would to have a Coke. But there was never a hint of any political message. Just good clean fun and lightly pushing a uniquely American product I enjoyed.
But recently this started showing up on WUWT, courtesy of Google Ads:
You might even see it show up below this entry. Coke and Christmas always went together. To find out Coke has surrendered their famous Christmas polar bear ads to a political cause is like the day I found out Santa Claus wasn’t real.
This is where it takes you:
But it gets worse, on that page is a link to the real group behind it:
Egads! It’s the scummy WWF, purveyors of the 9/11 video ad showing airplanes hitting New York City.
Message to the Coca-Cola Company.
I don’t need your political views to quench my thirst. I now choose Pepsi* Tea, a company that has the good sense to not try hanging their hat on questionable causes or tactless eco-political organizations.
Maybe WUWT readers can enlighten the Coca-Cola company via their contact page on just how well polar bears are doing these days. See below.
A few countering reports:
Global warming leads to too many polar bears
Christian Science Monitor, May 3rd, 2007 – Despite global warming, an ongoing study says polar bear populations are rising in the country’s eastern Arctic region.
Science Daily May 10th, 2008 – Federal Polar Bear Research Critically Flawed, Forecasting Expert Asserts
National Post March 6th, 2007 – Polar bear numbers up, but rescue continues
WUWT May 9th 2009 – The “precarious state of the U.S. polar bear population”
Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a biologist with Nunavut Territorial government in Canada wrote this letter (PDF) on April 6th, 2006 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
Some excerpts:
At present, the polar bear is one of the best managed of the large arctic mammals. If all the arctic nations continue to abide by the terms and intent of the Polar Bear Agreement, the future of polar bears is secure.
…
Polar bears are believed to have evolved from grizzly bears during the Pleistocene era some 200-250,000 years ago (Amstrup 2003). Polar bears were well developed as a separate species by the Eemian interglacial approximately 125,000 years ago. This period was characterized by temperature fluctuations caused by entirely natural events on the same order as those predicted by contemporary climate change models. Polar bears obviously adapted to the changing environment, as evidenced by their presence today. That simple fact is well known and part of the information contained in the reference material cited throughout the petition, yet it is never mentioned. This fact alone is sufficient grounds to reject the petition. Clearly polar bears can adapt to climate change. They have evolved and persisted for thousands of years in a period characterized by fluctuating climate. No rational person could review this information and conclude that climate change pre-destined polar bears to extinction.
…
The petition admits that there is only evidence for deleterious effects from climate change for one polar bear population (Western Hudson Bay [WH]) at the southernmost extreme of polar bear range (Fig. 1). The petition argues that the likelihood of change in other areas is reason enough to find that polar bears should be regarded as a species at risk of imminent extinction. I hope the review considers the precedent set by accepting this argument. Climate change will affect all species to some extent, including humans. If the likelihood of change is regarded as sufficient cause to designate a species or population as “threatened,” then all species around the world are “threatened.”
Some data. With hunting no longer allowed, bear populations have increased 4-5 times:
Fig. 1. Circumpolar distribution of polar bear populations. The Western Hudson Bay population (WH), for which data on negative impacts of climate change exist, is highlighted. Polar bears of WH comprise approximately 4% of the world total population polar bears.
* From comments: Turns out that Pepsi is involved in a carbon fund, looks like tea for me now.
Sorry Anthony, but Pepsi sucks. Coke will learn along with the rest of the blinkered corporate world what we already know. What they’re doing is just marketing. If you want to boycott something important, boycott the Citgo Petroleum sold to us by the hypocrite thief Chavez.
PiperPaul (19:37:55) :
“You know me, I’m Bigfoot. You’ve heard about me a few times, but there’s not really any evidence for my actual existence. I’d like to tell you something about Global Warming and Climate Change…”
“You know, recently people caught me in a freezer, and I have to tell you, that despite everything you may think about freezers, it was actually hot in there. Speaking of hot, I have the proof for global warming in a desk drawer at my house. My address is….(static)”
And, of course, the ultimate poley bear advertisment from Bundaberg Rum on YouTube, given that these scenes could have been shot at East Anglia:
Even Pommies enjoy a Bundy!
Check out many other poley bear videos if you follow the link. None will drown, and none eat their young.
The Coke connection worries me……..
RDay (19:46:48) :
” . . . the UN should move the next climate meeting from Mexico to Churchill, Manitoba. “
Indeed they should build the conference center out by the city dump too. They would look like a responsible stewards of the environment and as we all know, the bears will definitely NOT be there since they will have become extinct from global warming.
I now choose Pepsi, a company that has the good sense to not try hanging their hat on questionable causes or tactless eco-political organizations.
Keep looking: Yes, We Can (Try to Hop on the Obama Marketing Bandwagon)
REPLY: ah, crap…. -A
Polar Bears and Cannibalism. Polar Bears are a subspecies of the Brown Bear, a viciously territorial species whose males will kill young males and eat them to reduce competition. They are easily among the most vicious mammals on earth. There is only one subspecies that is solely carnivorous, the Polar. He is also the most ill-tempered.
Whilst, in the 1030’s…
Here is a bunch of stuff on polar bear, esp the Petition to List them as Endangered, which basically agrees the populations are stable, but the problem is all in what the models show will happen.
http://www.nofreewind.com/2009/06/polar-bear-populations-are-stable-and_08.html
Here is where you can leave feedback to Coke and tell them what you think.
https://secure.thecoca-colacompany.com/ssldocs/contactus/cokefeedback/index.shtml
Get use to drinking water. The EPA has declared carbon dioxide a poison. Therefore Coke and Pepsi are purveyors of poison for their carbonated drinks. So when is the EPA going to shut them down?
as far as polar bears go: i say keep them up north, WAY north.
nice to know they are there, keeps the seals at bay.
I quit googling when their little ad on their homepage took me to a link of an Al gore video that started autoplaying with at least a dozen other “related” videos from other know-nothing celebutards listed in the left hand margin of the webpage. Dropped Google and will be using bing until microsoft does something equally stupid (insert operating system joke here).
I’m drinking coke right now. It wouldn’t matter what kind of feedback I left, I’m just a sucker for their product. January is national hot tea month. Maybe I’ll switch.
Polar bears went from 5000 in the 1960s to 25000 in 2005? Wow. What an inconvenient truth for the Gore meister.
What’s even more surprising is that the caption cites the New York Times as one of the sources for this info. Isn’t the NYT one of the more zealous promoters of Gore’s criminal propaganda? This is a crime against humanity that calls for a Nuremberg-type trial. The mass media should not be given a free pass out of jail, in my opinion, because it is the job of journalists to seek and investigate the truth.
I’m going to start a new Pseudo-science blog detailing all the improbable, if not impossible, consequences of global warming. My first story will say how global warming killed off the Arctic penguins and the Antarctic polar bears as well as Bigfoot. The last surviving Bigfoot became so overheated that his body was vulcanized into a rubber gorilla suit. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26298733/
That’s why I drink Dr Pepper. They have a cool musem in Waco Tx where they offer classes to elementary schools on business & marketing. Free market capitalism at its best.
I like the Barq’s Root Beer, and Fresca, both Coke products. I will continue to drink them, whenever I can find them on sale.
As to Pepsi, I’m not so sure the frying pan is any worse than the fire.
http://www.cnsnews.com/Public/Content/article.aspx?RsrcID=41969
I was appalled in New Zealand 2007 that their huge Auckland Christmas bash had all the participants wearing Coke tshirts. Not sure why it bothered me, except that many didn’t hesitate to express their hostility towards Christians and Americans . Dripping with green scorn, while whacked out on meth, booze and pot. (Sorry Kiwis, I don’t mean everyone)
An anecdote about Japan, their vending machines are everywhere and filled with a Coke product that is a green tea “nutrient” mixture that tastes like something siphoned from the oily Osaka harbor. I did drink one of those, it was very hot. Evidently, it takes an entire nuclear plant there just to operate all the drink vending machines.
So if I drink a beverage that burps CO2 , I choose a store brand.
No Coke No Pepsi.
nofreewind, thanks for the links.
http://www.nocapandtrade.com/boycott/
Bad news. Pepsi is on the list too. I’m a tea drinker.
How about a potential craziness of the decade? One that might wipe out man-made anything?
Back in July 09 I wrote about Near Earth Orbits of bodies in space:
“I understand that Victor Kilo 184 becomes more a worry each time new info comes in; there is now a credible probability that it will pass the earth closer than the Moon is. Its size has been better estimated when passing in front of a light object and it ain’t small.”
Recent unconfirmed reports are:
It’s about 130 m in diam in one view, but cannot be assumed spherical. It’s also dense (not ice).
Its orbit is nearly in the same solar plane as earth’s, giving a 4x possibility for impact if they cross coplanar (coming or going, left or right side).
Watch this space in the next few months.
Jim Owen (19:32:46) :
I reviewed the Polar bear decision documents last spring. The decision was based entirely on the output of climate models. No field work was involved at all. Is there anyone here who fails to understand that there was no science involved either? Your tax dollars at work.
i know that you are not saying that a decision was based on models, with no field work? you must work for the government, delete this after reading! i’m just kidding, it sounds like you care.
IF SO, god help you.
I note that Coke replaced some of their vending machines with CO2 as the refridgerant (rather than CO2).
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/23/climate-craziness-of-the-week-why-im-a-pepsi-drinker-now/
I love the comment from the MIT student, who rightly points out that CO2 is an inferior refridgerant and therefore uses more electricity than HFCs. Where’s the CO2 savings Mr Coca Cola Co…
I cannot live without Pepsi since my early days; I left it for four years, when I was in a boarding school. Have you tried Pepsi with lemon juice? It’s tasty.
Dump both Pepsi and Coke!!
http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MzMzOTY
Coke with the WWF. Pepsi with Carbon Trust!!
Being large multi-nationals means they WILL get involved in the worst of International POLITICS!!