Diet coke is the 2nd best selling soda in the country. But recently, it’s been getting the type of attention that no business wants.

Coca-Cola’s own executive admitted on Tuesday’s conference call where he and analysts were discussing business, that there has been some pressure on them. Why? The ingredient controversy – again. People are smarter consumers than ever before and are growing tired of artificial ingredients.

Coca-Cola is headed by Steve Cahillane in Latin and North America. According to him, the pressure really isn’t exclusive to their brand, but a general consensus against all diet products in the U.S.

He put forth his assurance that he very much believes in what the future has to hold for Diet Coke. After all he said, it is the number two selling soda in the country every since they knocked Pepsi from that pedestal in 2010.

He announced that the’re upping the ante and putting more funds into the brand to boost its performance. It’s not hard to find an example of that. Just look at the promotion they recently ran with Taylor Swift.

Soda has been receiving negative media attention for a while. Consumers in the U.S. have been reducing the amount of soda they purchase, as well. Maybe because of the warnings that have been released about diet sodas, the amount of diet soda being sold is drastically lower than that of regular sodas.

Last year alone, Coke sales dropped a mere one percent. But diet coke sales dropped three percent. That’s three times as much! Poor Diet Pepsi seen a whopping 6.2 percent drop.

So what warnings are we referring to? First of all, there have been multiple warnings about aspartame. However, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has released statements about aspartame. They claim that it can be safely used as a sweetener. The American Cancer Society stepped in saying that claims aspartame can cause cancer is not true, too.