I found this news quite hilarious as i could imagine the look on my face if i were the ‘lucky’ one to get the message on the cap.

Coco-Cola’s combination of French and English words under its bottle caps as part of a fun game for customers ended disastrously this week when an Edmonton woman unscrewed her Vitaminwater and saw the message “YOU RETARD” under the cap.

The consumers were supposed to collect caps with one English word and one French word to combine funny sentences. The word ” retard” in French means “late” so the sentence were suppose to mean ” you late” .

If I were the one getting this cap, I would be pretty shocked as I wouldn’t believe my eyes for a second, but I would give it a laugh and forget about it. Unfortunately, the Edmonton woman who got this cap, Loates, has a 11-year-old sister who suffered from Cerebral Palsy and is cognitively delayed. The word “retard” meant a lot more to their family than others. Her family felt offensive and wrote a letter to Coco-Cola asking for explanation and apology. Coco-Cola was very responsive and serious about this issue as they immediately apologized to Loates’s Family and cancelled the entire campaign.

Was the campaign a total failure?

I personally did not think it was a total failure because, first of all, Loate’s case was rather an individual case. Although I totally understood why they felt offensive and I felt extremely pathetic for them to go through such incident, the percentage of people getting this cap and their family members being handicap at the same time is relatively low.I believe people’s reaction to this incident is highly correlated to their personal background and family condition.  I surveyed a couple of my friends to see how they look at this. They were all indifferent of the message and found it quite funny. They all gave a laugh and raised question towards Coco-Cola, the biggest beverage company worldwide, and doubted how they could have done such careless action. I didn’t think the campaign was a total failure because before the survey, none of them realized this campaign and its public attention was minimal.

Even though this incident embarrassed Coco-Cola’s marketing team, but it brought this campaign into public eyes and raised brand awareness at the same time. The marketing effect might not have been so significant if the incident was not brought up. Also, Coco-Cola’s public relation team did a very good job in responding Loates’s concern, showing their apologies and proving corporate social responsibility. Right after receiving the letter from Loates,  Coco-Cola’s PR team post apology letter and remedies on their twitter and Facebook account. Their action was acknowledged by both Loates and other consumers.

Some people might felt this campaign offensive and inappropriate, but it would definitely be the one for them to remember in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/offensive-phrases-on-bottle-caps-prompt-coca-cola-to-cancel-canadian-promotion/article14427173/