Soda scrap: Michael Bloomberg “Nanny” ad to run in New York Times

The Center for Consumer Freedom is fighting back against York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal, announced Thursday, to ban sugar-sweetened drinks more than 16 ounces in size from restaurants, movie theaters and a variety of other venues in the city.

The restaurant trade group says that tomorrow’s New York Times will contain a full-page ad from the CCF headlined “The Nanny: You only thought you lived in the land of the free.” It features an image of the mayor wearing nanny-like garb (i.e. a frumpy pale blue dress suit and matching pastel scarf), his arms stretched out protectively to clasp you.

He is standing, Godzilla-like, above the New York City skyline.

“New Yorkers need a Mayor, not a Nanny,” the ad concludes. Take a look at it.

“We can only ask what savories are next in line for Bloomberg’s ban-hammer,” the CCF said Thursday in a statement. “Will the Nanny-in-chief ration cream cheese? Will he unilaterally halve the size of a New York pizza slice? Will the pastrami sandwich go the way of the dodo? Will the foot-long hot dog lose its foot? This precedent could put all those on the table, and we’d hate to see what that could do to the city’s vibrant food heritage and consumer freedom.”

“We’re not taking away your freedoms,” Mayor Bloomberg said Friday on The Today Show, likening the move to anti-smoking city ordinances that have helped cut smoking rates.

You can always buy two 16-ounce sodas if you want, he said, but chances are you won’t because studies show that people who are presented with smaller portions consume less.

The move, he said, is “not exactly taking away your freedoms. It’s not something the Founding Fathers fought for.”