Coca-Cola: The surreal thing is its brand appeal

Sweet success needn't be about sugar sources, so long as this fizzy-drink brand's marketers keep its target market well engaged. It's why Trump's cane nudge didn't make its stock budge

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The Coca-Cola Company, based in the US, saw its stock shrug off the cost impact of a revised sweetener plan revealed this week. Earlier too, its share price had been flat after President Donald Trump posted that he'd been "speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL cane sugar in Coke" in America; it had agreed, he said, and was thankful. As the company told investors a few days later, it plans to launch a cane variant of its fizzy drink this autumn as an extra choice. This leaves space for business as usual; specifically, for cheaper corn syrup to remain its US bulge-bracket sweetener. It also tips this legendary brand into a swirl of political intrigue. Just recently, Trump's health secretary talked about the risks of corn syrup, all but calling it toxic. In the land famed for its free market, we thus have the spectacle of a nudge that has stunned corn farmers, left folks puzzled over how cane sugar is any better, and prompted critics of the White House to link it with the alleged sway held by a rich sugarcane lobby, one that's happy with sugar prices