Bad Publicity led Bayer to cut ties to Fed. of Competitive
Eating Inc.
ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)
Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/
FYI
Our colleagues in Germany, the Coalition Against Bayer
Dangers,
scored a public relations victory. Its criticism of the
company for
sponsoring a "speed eating" competion in Las
Vegas embarassed the
company:
Bayer's [Alka-Seltzer division sponsored the gorging
competition: "It is obvious to all that excessive
eating is a danger
to health. Paradoxically, Bayer offers remedies to cure the
diabetes
that is often caused by the very events they are
sponsoring."
Evidently the bad publicity for such a cynical sponsorship
led the
company to sever its ties with a revulting eating
competition
organized by the International Federation of Competitive
Eating, Inc.
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
212-595-8974
veracare ahrp.org
http://www.bloomb
erg.com/apps/news?
pid=10000100&sid=aiDtOZABNUvs&refer=germany#
Bloomberg News
Bayer cuts ties to speed eating
Bayer AG, the German maker of the Alka-Seltzer heartburn
pill, has
severed ties with a U.S. group that promotes speed eating, a
spokesman says.
Last year's U.S. Open of the International Federation of
Competitive
Eating Inc., which organizes eating contests around the
world, was
sponsored by Alka-Seltzer, according to the IFOCE's
website. "This
was a one-off marketing event, which won't be
repeated," Bayer
HealthCare spokesman Hartmut Alsfasser said. Bayer's U.S.
marketing
staff took the decision to sponsor the event, Mr. Alsfasser
said. "We
became aware of it and stopped it immediately."
Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas, who hold the top two
positions on
the IFOCE's eaters ranking, competed with 30 other
contestants for a
total $40,000 (U.S.) in prize money at the event in Las
Vegas last
July. Nagano, Japan-based Mr. Kobayashi, 27, is famed for
swallowing
57 cow brains in 15 minutes, while Ms. Thomas, from
Alexandria, Va.,
has eaten 65 hard-boiled eggs in six minutes and 40 seconds,
according to IFOCE.
"People overdo it," according to Bayer's latest
U.S. ads for Alka-
Seltzer. "That's why for 75 years they've reached
for Alka-Seltzer to
break up and dissolve away stomach discomfort and pain,
fast."
Bayer's association with IFOCE drew criticism from the
Coalition
Against Bayer Dangers, a group that campaigns against the
German
company, saying it causes "ecological, social, ethical
and political
problems around the world."
"It is obvious to all that excessive eating is a
danger to health,"
said Hubert Ostendorf, a spokesman for the group in an
e-mailed
statement yesterday. "Paradoxically, Bayer offers
remedies to cure
the diabetes that is often caused by the very events they
are
sponsoring."
Almost a third of adults, or around 60 million people, in
the U.S.
are obese, according to the American Obesity Association Web
site.
The chronic condition is linked to diabetes, heart disease
and cancer
and is the second-highest killer among preventable diseases,
AOA
says. It estimates annual health-care costs related to
obesity at
around $100 billion.
ANGELA CULLEN (Bloomberg News), April 24
Coalition against BAYER Dangers
www.CBGnetwork.org
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Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer, Krefeld,
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the
Bundestag,
Burgwald
Wolfram Esche, attorney, Cologne
Dr. Sigrid Müller, pharmacologist, Bremen
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the Bundestag, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist, Neubeuern
Dorothee Sölle, theologian, Hamburg (died 2003)
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian, Berlin
Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatrician, Dormagen
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