Abstract
To assess corporate electoral campaign contributions from industries related to sugary drinks production and the characteristics of the elected officials financed by the sector. Cross-sectional analysis of electoral campaign contributions from corporations related to sugary drinks production (sugary drink industries and sugary drink input industries) to candidates to the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil. Elections to the 55th Congress (2015-2019), held in October 2014. Candidates to the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil. Forty-nine companies or corporate groups that produce sugary drinks and fifty-two corporations that produce inputs for sugary drinks manufacturing contributed to electoral campaigns of candidates in the 2014 Election. Contributions from this industry sector represented 7·3 % of all corporate contributions and helped finance 11·7 % of the candidates and 46·2 % of the elected officials. The transnationals Ambev and Coca-Cola were the first and second biggest donors, respectively. Revenues mediated by political parties, from sugary drink industries and from corporate members of some industry associations (Abir, Unica and CitrusBR), were more prevalent. Among elected officials, a significant association was found between being financed by the sector and representing the south-east region, having higher education level and referring themselves as being professional politicians. In the multivariate model, financed candidates were 27 % more likely to be elected. Corporations related to sugary drinks production have contributed to the electoral campaigns of almost half of the Federal Deputies in Brazil in 2014. This possibly facilitates access to decision-makers and could help buy influence on legislative proposals, including health-related food policies.
Highlights
There is a wealth of evidence on the negative impact of sugary drinks on human health
Objective: To assess corporate electoral campaign contributions from industries related to sugary drinks production and the characteristics of the elected officials financed by the sector
We aim to assess corporate electoral campaign contributions from industries related to sugary drinks production to the candidates to the 55th Congress (February 2015 to February 2019) of the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil, as well as the characteristics of the elected officials financed by the sector
Summary
There is a wealth of evidence on the negative impact of sugary drinks on human health. It is widely accepted that efforts to tackle obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases must include government regulation of sugary drink industry activities and practices, because industry’s voluntary self-regulation initiatives have been shown insufficient to achieve this goal[6,7,8,9,10]. Studies have shown that this industry sector is highly engaged in CPA Practices such as sponsoring health-related organizations, funding and influencing health-related scientific research, disseminating messages in the media to shift the blame away from the sugary drink industry in the obesity epidemic, casting doubt on scientific evidence linking sugary drinks to obesity and other diet-related non-communicable diseases, using corporate social responsibility actions, lobbying against government regulation, and threatening to use legal measures against government regulation have been reported [18,19,20,21,22,23,24]. CPA strategies and practices of the ultra-processed food and drink industry can be undertaken individually by companies, but when it comes to publicly opposing regulation, the literature has provided evidence that collective action through industry associations is often preferred[17,25,26,27], as this could help mitigate reputational risks for individual companies
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