Receiving a message in a bottle is supposed to be romantic and heart-warming, right? Not for Edmonton local Blake Loates who received an offensive message underneath her Vitaminwater bottle cap that said, “You Retard.”
Coca-Cola Refreshments Canada has cancelled a promotion that paired randomly generated English and French words inside bottle caps in order to create humorous sentences with a combination of bottle caps. A valiant effort made by the marketing team at Coca-Cola; one that would harmonize the official Canadian languages into what could have been an entertaining Vitaminwater promotion. However, the major flaw in execution was approving the words lists separately, pairing, and packaging with no knowledge of the combinations. Words such as “retard” in French means “late,” but to an Anglophone this word is offensive. Albeit a small process to overlook, this is a good example of how marketing teams and companies must collaborate more to provide quality campaigns implemented with a strong code of ethics.
Coca-Cola looks to establish long-term relationships with their consumers, especially when it is easy to substitute between companies. Nevertheless, it was the oversight and lack of attention to detail on the part of Coca-Cola that not only offended Loates, who has a younger sister that is developmentally delayed, but hundreds of consumers nationwide. The company has made a public apology on their Facebook page, as well as to the Loates family. Had the company followed through using stronger values and paid more attention to detail, the company would have added value to their product through a strong marketing campaign.
