Yoga-wear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. has removed a reference suggesting soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi will be known as “the cigarettes of the future” from its corporate manifesto, which adorns the popular retailer’s shopping bags and website.
The line, which had appeared in the top left corner of the manifesto poster, had read: “Coke, Pepsi and all other pops will be known as the cigarettes of the future. Colas are not a substitute for water. They are just another cheap drug made to look great by advertising.”
“We update the manifesto regularly in order to stay fresh in message,” Lululemon chief executive Bob Meers wrote in a e-mail Tuesday about the change.
Meers said the change was a decision by Lululemon and not in response to any threat by the soft drink industry.
The manifesto, which includes such statements as “do one thing a day that scares you” and “stress is related to 99 per cent of all illness,” is company founder and chairman Chip Wilson’s vision and point of view, Meers said.
The move by the company regarding the manifesto follows a controversy last year about the seaweed content and health benefits of its VitaSea clothing line.
Lululemon had claimed the clothing releases marine amino acids, minerals and vitamins into the skin upon contact with moisture to provide anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, stress reducing, hydrating and detoxifying features.
However the company was forced by the Canadian Competition Bureau to remove all assertions alleging healthful benefits until it could produce scientific evidence to back the assertions.
The New York Times also questioned the seaweed fabric, and commissioned a laboratory test of a Lululemon shirt made of VitaSea and found there was no “significant difference in mineral levels between the VitaSea fabric and cotton T-shirts.”
The company said independent tests confirmed the content of the VitaSea product line to be consistent with the garment care and content labels.
