Coke or Pepsi?

Or, I'll See Your Medical School Dean and Raise You a SuperModel


It seems like only yesterday that Mr. B. was whining again about the Coke-Pepsi fiasco at BigU. Actually it was January 23:

Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi?
A Tough Choice at the University of Minnesota

Therein a recent study by researchers at the University of Minnesota about the ill-effects of diet soft drinks upon heart health was cited: "Meat, Diet Soda, Linked to Heart Disease."

At Minnesota we currently have an institutional contract with Coke and OurDean is on the Board of Directors of Pepsi, a post for which she knocked down about 100K in the first year of her contract. (See: It's the Ick Factor, BigU MedSchool Dean Sits on Pepsi board)

But the Coke folks have upped the ante by enlisting the flavor of the month supermodel, one Heidi Klum, to wear a red designer dress to the Academy awards. As one of an avalanche of press releases put it:

ATLANTA, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Supermodel Heidi Klum is joining Diet Coke to help raise awareness of women and heart disease through the Diet Coke Red Dress Program. The program is part of Diet Coke's new partnership with The Heart Truth, a national awareness campaign about women and heart disease, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Mr. B. is flummoxed by this one. Diet Coke? Heart Health? Heidi Klum? The NIH? I give up - for a day or two, anyway.