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For me good alternatives are good coffee and plain or sparkling water. About this latter choice I have to give an unironical shootout to /hydrohomies and to Cristiano Ronaldo [1] [1] this video

8.9M views · Jun 15, 2021 · 0:42 · 0 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2023–2026
A one-minute Telegraph news clip of Cristiano Ronaldo moving two Coca-Cola bottles aside at a Euro 2020 press conference and saying 'Drink water.' The moment went viral and drew praise from anti-obesity campaigners.
Why Hacker News points people here: Cited in threads about sugary drinks, alcohol and advertising as a famous example of a star publicly rejecting a sponsor's product.
“Ronaldo's Coke/water moment gave me a vast amount of respect for him”HN comment, 2025
For me good alternatives are good coffee and plain or sparkling water. About this latter choice I have to give an unironical shootout to /hydrohomies and to Cristiano Ronaldo [1] [1] this video
“Ronaldo's Coke/water moment gave me a vast amount of respect for him”
I don't understand why you think there would have been 0 evidence. The countless respiratory illnesses associated with smoking are readily obvious by taking even a small sample of longterm smokers - a decent chunk of them will sound like smokers, be occasionally hacking up a lung, and so on. People obviously knew smoking was unhealthy, but chose to do so anyhow. And companies naturally worked to trt to strengthen that cognitive dissonance. Same thing today, but it's slightly more subtle. For instance in a typical Coke ad you'll generally see people that look nothing like regular Coke drinkers - health, fitness, and good body weights abounds. Ronaldo's Coke/water moment gave me a vast amount of respect for him - this video It's how the sort of people Coke gets to pose with their product actually feel about it.
> you can drink Coke, too I drink water. Which means I'm just like Cristiano Ronaldo[1]. [1] this video