Coca-Cola Death

A tragic but interesting story was reported in the New Zealand media – , “Coca-Cola® Death.” We came across the story, “Cola Habit Behind Death of 30-year-old New Zealand Woman,” which immediately brought to mind the overwhelming number of, “TASER Death,” headlines we see all too often when in fact the TASER ECD is not found to be the cause of death.   While it does appear that the astonishing habit of Coca-Cola consumption caused this woman’s death, we can relate to the overall negative press this story is generating for one of America’s best known brands.

Coca-Cola must be feeling this poorly written headline intended to grab readers eyes is far from the facts of the case.  We can imagine Coca-Cola execs are reacting to a “Coca-Cola Death” headline in a similar fashion as when we see “TASER Death”  headlines.  These so called “TASER death” headlines are often premature & not based on facts but supposition yet they’re Tweeted, blogged, headlined, discussed, & eventually become the first few pages found by search engines.

Today a news story originally headlined, “Officers won’t be indicted in Taser death“ was corrected.  Why is it a “TASER death?”  The story clearly reports the cause of death is “‘excited delirium’” brought on by cocaine intoxication and a heart condition — and not the use of the Tasers.”  Despite this, the headline editor describes it as a “TASER Death.” 

The correction, by the way, is ridiculous, “Lancaster officer won’t be indicted in death that followed Tasering. “  The newspaper corrects the headline but insists on  including TASER but fails to mention the large amount of cocaine, marijuana and alcohol found in the toxicology. 

Perhaps these headline editors should try & grab readers attention with accurate headlines such as “Unhealthy Lifestyle Death” or “Cocaine Death.”