Separation of beverage and state

We support Costa Mesa officials’ search for creative ways to find

revenue to fill in multimillion-dollar funding gaps, but we urge

caution when it comes to corporate sponsorships.

Remember the old Coca-Cola slogan, “Have a Coke and a Smile”?

We’re not so sure everyone will be smiling with the specter of having

corporate images -- possibly even Coca-Cola -- dotting public spaces

around what in some cases is an already visually blighted city.

On Aug. 2, the City Council approved an agreement with Public

Enterprise Group, a firm that will prepare a corporate-sponsorship

plan at a cost of $36,000.

We live in age of ubiquitous advertising. Slogans and symbols pop

up unexpectedly, even on our computer screens. That’s part of the

price we pay for surfing the Web, watching television or listening to

the radio. Indeed, radio and television shows (not to mention

newspapers) don’t exist without advertising. But we believe, or at

least we hope, a city can. Costa Mesa has.

The public has a right to expect that the spaces paid for with

public dollars don’t carry with them the caveat that a soft-drink

vending machine or some product message must be in those spaces.

But we also understand the times. Local governments are being

squeezed by a dearth in revenue streams at the same time advertisers

are looking for new outlets to advertise, said Jack Kyser, chief

economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

“It’s the way of the world,” Kyser said of public/private

partnerships. “I think you’ll see more of it, because the era of

mass-marketing advertising is over. The audience you used to snag on

network television is much reduced and continuing to decline.”

We take the firm at its word that in developing a sponsorship

plan, they will be sensitive to public input.

Some public input has come in already.

“We have too many signs that can’t be controlled by adding a bunch

more to them,” resident Judi Berry said in a recent Pilot article.

Officials can respond, convincingly, by pointing out the $42

million in guaranteed revenue raised by hospitals, counties and

cities, including Long Beach and Huntington Beach, in partnerships.

But a plethora of vending machines, as in Huntington Beach, is a

kind of sign and hopefully not a sign of things to come. After

Huntington Beach made its deal with Coca-Cola in 1999, more than 100

beverage machines surfaced in the city. It was enough to rile one

resident, who at the time voiced his concern about cluttered views

and city endorsement of a soft drink.

“They haven’t used any class at all,” resident Jim Smith said at

the time. “It seems to me like we’re selling our souls.”

In making the deals, let’s not sell the city’s soul.