Snapple Sniping
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
As Comptroller William Thompson works tirelessly to undo the deal between Snapple and New York City that nets Gotham $106 million (plus $60 million worth of marketing) in exchange for giving the beverage company exclusive rights to sell drinks and snacks on municipal property for five years, it seems clear that this is a dispute over more than whether the Department of Education or the city’s new Marketing Development Corporation filled out all the right forms in the right ways. At its heart, this looks to be a battle motivated by partisanship and political posturing.
While Mr. Thompson has limited his questioning of the Snapple deal to the details of the bidding process, others have laid bare their anti-corporate agendas. Council Member Charles Barron, a Democrat, objected to Newsday that “The mayor’s rich friends can profit from this. “Various Naderites have also decried the corrupting corporate influence. The New York Observer ran a profile, shortly after the Snapple deal was inked, of a New York University nutritionist and anti-corporate crusader, Marion Nestle. “Just when I think I’ve heard everything, I learn that Snapple is buying out our school system,” she said. “What’s next? Naming New York public schools after corporations?”
As far as we’re concerned it wouldn’t be the worst thing if some of the schools being funded by Microsoft founder William Gates were named after him or his company. But Ms. Nestle’s point is sure to resonate with New Yorkers made uncomfortable by Mayor Bloomberg’s strategy of promoting the New York City “brand”and using it to bring revenue to the city, through corporate partnerships. And thus Mr. Thompson, a presumed Democratic challenger to Mr. Bloomberg in 2005, has found a perfect political storm on which to ride.
Perhaps corporate sponsorship won’t prove to be the right move for New York City. But if every corporate sponsorship is going to be made into a political football to be kicked around, Mr. Thompson and his cronies may just make it so that the taxpayers’ pockets will be the only option left. Given that Mr. Thompson wants those taxpayers to elect him in a few years time, he is betting an awful lot that they will fall for his ancient leftist gambits. Voters are smarter than that, we’d like to think, or they wouldn’t have elected Mr. Bloomberg in the first place.
