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Once, the image of Diet Coke was about calorie counting, breaks and well -defined abs. Today, it is the rocket fuel of the United States machismo work habits.
President Donald Trump is a superfan, drink Up to 12 cans a day and installing a red button in its White House office to call a recharge. His political ally Elon Musk has called the inventor of the coca -cola of the diet “a genius” and once accompanied a mail About his “problem of drinking” with a photo of his night table covered with empty soft drinks. Geddit? His response response acolytes certainly did.
What the two have in common beyond a habit of soft drinks and a nationalist policy is the valorization of punishing white collar routine. The deployment of Diet Coke as a strategy of Cafeination Chimes with the repeated Trump statements that no president has worked as hard as him. Meanwhile, Musk likes to boast that his commitment means that 120 hours of weeks ago when necessary and once his own birthday was lost. After its purchase of Twitter in 2022, he declared plans to impose a “hardcore” work culture. When advertisements were published that were looking for engineering applicants, an employee wrote: “In addition: there is a ton of coca -co light.”
The couple’s plan for government review supports the same work ethics. Musk wrote online that his so -called government efficiency department “is working 120 hours[s] a week. Our bureaucratic opponents work optimistic 40 hours a week. That’s why they are losing so fast. “
Coca-Cola has shown appreciation for the president’s approval. Last month, James Quincey, executive director and president of Coca-Cola Company, presented Trump a bottle of Coca-Cola Diet that commemorates the inauguration.
Diet Coke’s reputation to promote productivity is prior to the president of the United States, of course. It was said that the financial Bob Diamond, the former CEO of Barclays, had dedicated failures of Coca -co Light in his office. The co -founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, once said: “I think that if I stopped drinking it, it would have a little retirement.”
All this is quite different from Coca-Cola’s own choice. The company has traditionally established in female consumers, recruiting the Kate Moss Supermodel (which once said: “Nothing knows as it feels skinny”) and creating links with the fictitious and unfortunate Bridget Jones. In the 1990s, television ads presented women who watched a succession of handsome men who take “diet coke” of their physically demanding works, removing their blouses to reveal bright sculpted chests with sweat accounts.
In the world of Musk, of course, there is no time of inactivity.
Coca-Cola does not divide the sales of Diet Coca-Cola. But Stephanie Mattucci, director of Food Sciences in Mintel, says that the company leads the soft carbonated market of the diet, and those who drink it tend to hook themselves. “Of 37 percent of US consumers who drink diet tail, 29 percent drink diet queue once a day or more than once a day and 27 percent drink diet tail several times a week.”
Some consider that Coca -co Diet is not only a dietary drink, but also an alternative to alcohol. “These products are usually more affordable than other drinks or alcohol alternatives. This is an important part since 48 percent of consumers who drink less alcohol do it to save money. “
The tenacity of the drink is still surprising given the volume of health warnings that it has attracted and the variety of alternative options available.
Eve Turow-Paul, author of Hungry: avocado toast, instagram influential people and our search for connection and meaning, He says that concerns about ultra processed foods and changing tastes caused by GLP-1 medications for weight loss should be obsolete with the diet.
“Coca-Cola has tried for years to build on health and well-being trends, infusing Coca-Cola products with” better for you ‘ingredients. That never lands well because people know that soft drinks is an indulgence. “
Perhaps this means that drinking fans accept those indulgences in exchange for an impulse. (Or even, in some cases to point to your vice). “No one collects a diet coca-cool thinking that they are doing something great for their health,” says Turow-Paul. “They are drinking something that provides comfort and a caffeine kick.”