When we think about The Coca-Cola Company and the holidays, it is inevitable to go back to the different mascots the multinational beverage corporation has created for their Christmas advertising such as, Coca-Cola drinking Santa and our favorite family of polar bears.
This year however, the company decided to portray the holiday spirit by releasing a video that aimed to promote unity amongst Mexicans, but resulted in an offensive message for indigenous communities in Mexico. In the clip, we see a group of city teens travelling to Totontepec, Oaxaca with the intention to bring joy and build a wooden Xmas tree for the Mixe community residents.
“81.6% of indigenous Mexicans have felt rejected for speaking a different language,” can be read in the first 7 seconds of the ad. After the commercial was posted on Coca-Cola’s YouTube channel, several organizations and social media users started a conversation that accused the company of racism and discrimination.
According to Aristegui Noticias, Elvira Pablo, a member of the Mixe community, said that she “considers that this kind of publicity encourages discrimination and racism, in addition to foment the rupture of the social tissue by imposing a consumer culture that is foreign to the communities.”
Diana Turner, El Poder del Consumidor spokesperson, added that the advertising was “offensive for indigenous communities” and joined the group of organizations that demanded the video to be taken down from the Internet and other media.
On December 5, Coca-Cola issued a public apology and announced that the advert had been removed from their website. “We are sorry that the message was misinterpreted. Our intention was exactly the opposite,” said Coca-Cola’s Content and Creative Excellence Director Diego Bracamontes during an interview with Radio Fórmula. “Our intention was to give a message of unity between the communities. We never wanted to offend anyone, or underestimate anyone with this video. Most of the comments we’ve received on social media have been negative. Our intention was definitely misinterpreted,” he finalized.
Watch Coca-Cola’s Christmas commercial and let us know what you think. Did they cross the line? Or do you see the unity message they were trying to promote?
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