A giant inflatable water slide featuring two Coca-Cola bottles will no longer feature at the Splash Festival event at Sydney Olympic Park following claims it was marketing to children.
The slide has featured for 15 years but members of a parents advocacy group, Parents' Voice, called to have the slide removed, according to AdNews.
Parents' Voice campaigns' manager, Alice Pryor, said the inflatable bottles meant that Coca-Cola Amatil was “arguably in breach of its own Advertising and Promotion to Children Policy”.
Sydney Olympic Park and Coca-Cola Amatil said they'd agreed to remove the slide from future events in response to the complaints.
“When we drew the issue to the attention of Coca-Cola Amatil and Sydney Olympic Park, we pointed out that one in four Australian children are obese or overweight and that sugary drinks play a major part in weight gain and tooth decay in children,” Pryor said.
“Our members also believe that venues such as Sydney Olympic Park should be a safe space where children are not subjected to this type of promotion.
“Our members are concerned about the environmental causes of obesity in children and we are very encouraged to see Coca-Cola Amatil and Sydney Olympic Park acting responsibly by responding to our call to remove this slide.
“We would like to see an end to all marketing of sugary drinks to children and we applaud this positive step of removing the promotional slide.”
