Dem Convention At The Pepsi Center: A No Coke Zone

Oh, the sacrifices of corporate sponsorship. The Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center is officially a no Coke zone.

After Tuesday's festivities, a senior official helping to organize the convention shared an amusing anecdote: earlier in the day, volunteers who had been provided box lunches and soft drinks were prevented from entering the arena due to a rule banning outside food and drink.

Convention staff were upset; the vending operations at the arena weren't running and the volunteers needed something to eat during the day. So reps from the Pepsi Center were consulted and a rule was set: the volunteers could bring their lunches, with one exception -- absolutely no Coca Cola products would be permitted inside the Center.

Comments

[Active]

Hmmm.. why are big corporations even sponsoring the DNC?

[normalkid0615]

Your single vote is too weak to influence the government. ;(

[smilodon1]

Pepsi with a dash of vodka is palatable. Or, better yet, vodka with a dash of pepsi is better.

[zippywpinhead]

Do the Dew!

(actually, who cares what soft drink other people prefer? A bit of a fluff piece)

[FaceYourFears]

They should have applied the same rule to all the wing nut republicans walking around the convention:

NO REPUBLICANS ALLOWED

[ArmchairPatriot]

That would have been a better rule to enforce.

[PuppaX]

I understand Coke not being sold at the event, but volunteers can't carry it in?!?

[blowhard]

This is very good. They should not be allowed to powder their noses during the convention. We don't want any high and power drunk politicians on TV.

[WasteNJ]

Who cares, soda makes you fat anyway. That's why this story could only happen in the US.

[iambusto]

for an event you need sponsorship.

If the organizers accepted money from Pepsi (not saying they did or didnt, i dont know the facts) then they MUST listen to the sponsors. its simple as that.

otherwise, dont accept sponsorship and you can have coke-pepsi-whatever. is this even an issue?

[dctackett]

are they f*ing kidding?... and pepsi sucks... coke is better.

[Moka11]

OMG I disagree....Coke is like acid water with sugar. I would take a PEPSI any day. yum

[FaceYourFears]

THANK YOU!

[ArmchairPatriot]

I love my acid water with sugar. Pepsi tastes a little too much like medicine for my tastes.

[whiteboyblues]

They both suck, only Mexican made soft drinks with REAL sugar . . . what's with all the high fructose corn syrup??? Also, did you not see the Pepsi Challenge?

[cmarsh]

I did the Pepsi Challenge like 20 years ago. Chose Coke.

[rwe]

Yikes, you don't bring a crucifix into a mosque, A whopper into McDonalds, or substance into the Obamaplatform

[loucreattie]

Your right. He should run on fear like McCain.

[CitizenJ]

Or reality into the republican platform.

[ojim]

Or intelligence to you home.

[MilesTone]

What are they afraid of? Losing market share? America is about competition.

[Minako]

Drink water.

[reader110]

This is no surprise to me. I live in Atlanta - just TRY to get a Pepsi in this city...

[midknightryder13]

I bet that WOULD be a challenge.

[BassMent]

If the delegates would just stick to beer, wine and cocktails they could avoid all of this nonsense.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

I like the way you think Sir

[mntnguy]

This is a typical thing for coke and Pepsi however I can tell you there was alot of diet coke cans and bottles in the trash cans. I Think it is sick for the DNC to agree to or allow such a policy. If Democrats came out against that policy Pepsi would change there strong arm tactics real quick

[sarchasm]

All of these fiercely competitive companies do this.

I was once hired as an independent contractor for a Coke sponsored event in Atlanta and the venue had a large blue velvet stage curtain. The Coke folks wanted to install a red curtain but when they found out how much it would cost (appx. 120k) the lighting people came up with a solution to make the curtain red with stage lighting. Those lights stayed on for about a week!

Later that year Coke held a convention in Palm Springas at a hotel and removed all the Pepsico products from the hotel and even replaced all the hotels vending machines with Coke machines.