When the World Health Organization (WHO) flagged aspartame as a potential carcinogen, a surge of media discussions and concerns followed. However, has this buzz changed the mindset of the everyday soda drinker?
Our data indicates customers feel indifferent about the report, contrary to speculations from news agencies like CNBC that suggested the WHO’s report could hurt diet soda sales or lead manufacturers to find an alternative to aspartame.
Analyzing more than 150,000 pieces of customer feedback from 91 non-alcoholic beverages, we find:
Diet soda drinkers seem unphased by recent negative attention on their ingredients, with Consumption Intent for diet sodas (which include aspartame), increasing 2% from May through August, more than up 1% for regular soda. This is despite the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) classifying non-sugar sweetener aspartame as a possible carcinogen in June.
Since May, Consumption Intent is up 2% for Diet Coke, and 3% for Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Pepsi, indicating drinkers of the top diet soda brands across the board aren’t swayed by the WHO report.
While both diet and regular soda drinkers acknowledge their beloved beverages are not that healthy (net favorability towards healthiness is deeply negative for both), they are actually less negative on balance following the WHO’s aspartame report. Net favorability toward “Healthy” is up 1% for diet sodas since May, and 2% for regular sodas.
At the same time, net favorability toward Ingredients has remained within 2% range for diet sodas over the past three months. It increased by 2% for regular sodas since July.
Interestingly, diet soda drinkers are less pleased with the taste of diet soda lately. Since May, net favorability toward Taste dropped 2% for diet soda, while dropping less than 1% for regular soda.
Please contact our team for a deeper look at HundredX's data on beverages, which includes more than 400,000 pieces of customer feedback across 91 non-alcoholic beverage brands.
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