Objectives: Research identifies that multinational corporations, including The Coca-Cola Company (‘Coca-Cola’), seek to influence public health research and policy through scientific events, such as academic and professional conferences This study aims to understand how different forms of funding and sponsorship impact the relationship between Coca-Cola, academic institutions, public health organizations, academics, and researchers.
Design: The study was conducted using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and systematic website searches.
Setting: Data were collected by 22 FOI requests to institutions in the US and UK, resulting in the disclosure of 11,488 pages, including emails and attachments relating to 239 events between 2009 and 2018. We used the Wayback Machine to review historical website data to evaluate evidence from 151 available official conference websites.
Participants: N/A
Results: Documents suggest Coca-Cola provides direct financial support to institutions and organizations hosting events in exchange for benefits, including influence over proceedings. Coca-Cola also provided direct financial support to speakers and researchers, sometimes conditional on media interviews. Also, indirect financial support passed through Coca-Cola-financed non-profits. Often, such financial support was not readily identifiable, and third-party involvement further concealed Coca-Cola funding.