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Anti-Bloomberg-Drink-Ban Advocates Hit the Beach for Petition Signatures

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“This is New York City. No one tells us what neighborhood to live in, what team to root for or what deli to eat at.” Or so the logic goes.

In the New Yorkers for Beverage Choices‘ first viral video, the narrator attacks Mayor Bloomberg’s sugary drink ban by sticking to the basics: Big Apple denizens know what they’re doing. The YouTube advertisement for the start-up, industry-laden advocacy group is just the beginning of the group’s attempt to push the issue into the forefront.

And they’re hitting Coney Island and Rockaway Beach in this heat wave to ask us all, “What’s next?” in the form of an increasingly popular, good ol’ fashioned petition.

On Friday, fellow Voice scribe Victoria Bekiempis reported on what she called the “supersized PR hit”: this included the prop-plane banner that read “No Drink 4 U!” (Get the Soup Nazi reference?!) and anti-ban ads popping up in Brooklyn and Battery Park City. The PR efforts continued with the on-the-ground forces swarming the beaches to grab signatures. Because what better place to find people that are against the soda ban then a beach during a heat wave?

As we all know by now, the sugary drink ban that Mayor Bloomberg is behind is simple in definition: no containers bigger than 16 ounces can be sold in movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas or wherever else you go to indulge in cola. But, as we also know, the opposition to it has started a soda pop war between the pro-choice and pro-ban posses.

According to its website, the group, made up of 450 coalition members or so, has over 25,000 signatures already – an intimidating number for the Hozziner, especially before the set public hearing on the ban that will happen at the end of July.
Also, weather-wise, the petition couldn’t have come at a better time: if you’re sweating buckets and someone decides to take away the 32 oz. cola you just bought to dump on your head, you’d be pretty pissed off. But, as we have discovered this weekend with the crime wave, you do not exactly think straight in 100 degree weather.