The Open Truth Campaign

The Open Truth campaign is a youth-focused effort to highlight the health impacts of sugary drinks and expose precision marketing practices that target young people and communities of color. The multimedia campaign includes videos created by Bay Area youth from The Bigger Picture Campaign. The youth videos and other features of the Open Truth campaign are at www.opentruthnow.org.

Almost one-quarter of teens today have pre-diabetes – double the rate of just 10 years ago. One in three youth born in the U.S. after the year 2000 will get type 2 diabetes in their lifetimes (1 in 2 African American and Latino youth) along with some or all of its major health consequences including stroke, kidney failure, amputations and blindness. 

A major cause of this epidemic is the consumption of sugary drinks. Just one 12-ounce soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar — more than the AHA recommended daily maximum for adults and 3 times the recommended maximum for kids. Studies show that drinking just one 12-oz can of soda per day can increase your risk of dying from heart disease by nearly one-third and can lead to significant increased risk of diabetes, tooth decay and other health problems.

Studies show that sugary drink companies spend more than $28 million a year on marketing campaigns specifically targeting youth of color. Through the Open Truth campaign, Bay Area youth are talking back to the sugary drinks industry, demanding the truth about the negative health effects of sugary drinks and an end to marketing tactics that target them.

The Open Truth campaign aims to:

1. Increase awareness about how sugary drinks are making us sick;
2. Expose the tactics of the sugary drinks industry, which targets young people, parents, and communities of color in order to increase profits and brand loyalty; and
3. Inspire policy changes that will increase access to healthy drinks, limit marketing to kids, educate consumers, and provide funds for sugary drink education.

The Open Truth Campaign is a collaboration between the Shape Up San Francisco (project of the Population Health Division of the SFDPH) and The Bigger Picture (Youth Speaks and Center for Vulnerable Populations/UCSF), Alameda County Department of Public Health, Sonoma County Department of Health Services, and the American Heart Association.