(Newswire.net — December 7, 2015) — Again an outrage in social media, but this time Coca-Cola was the centre of attenition. Coca-Cola Mexico distributed an advertisment, which was rated as higly offensive. Even though it was pulled from the media, it seems that the damage had already been done.
The ‘offensive’ advertisement shows a group of young people (who happen to be both pretty and white), who come on holiday in a remote and isolated town of Totonpec in Mexico. Being on holiday and having a good time, they decide to do something good. Their choice of good deed for that holiday was to bring Coca-Cola to the town inhabitants (Mixe people) and also bulid them a Christmas tree from wood in the centre of the town square. Although they meant well, it appears that the good deed was quite differently interpreted.
According to the indigenous rights’ groups, the advertisement called ‘Open your heart’promoted nothing but colonialism instead of promoting unity. Elvira Pablo, an indigenous lawyer said at the press conference in Mexico City on Wednesday:” This kind of publicity is an act of discrimination and racism. It is a comment on our type of life and attempt to put a culture of consumerism in its place”.
The advertisement was present on You Tube for seven days and after it was harshly ciriticized by social media, Coca-Cola was forced to remove the advert on Tuesday. It seems that seven days was more than enough time to provoke any kind of reaction on anyone’s behalf. A Coca-Cola spokesperson stated:” Our intention was never to be insensitive to or underestimate any indigenous group. We have now removed the video and apologize to anyone who may have been offended”.
It can be seen in the video that 81.6 percent of indigenous people who live in Mexico feel rejected because they speak their own language and not Spanish, although it does not say what the source for the statistics was, or whether they know Spanish or not, or they just prefer to speak their native tongue. In spite of the name of advertisement (‘Open your heart’), Elvira Pablo and the other activists said in the report that the advertisement “reproduced and reinforced stereotypes of indigenous people as culturally and racially subordinate”.
It turned out that they have insisted that the government should sanction Coca-Cola company for the advertisement. Since Mexico is one of the top countries in the world when it comes to obesity, The Alliance for Food Health, after filing an official complaint with the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, made its own counteract video in which Mixe people speak of Coke’s impact on their people regarding health.
In this video, they talk about diabetes type 2, which was almost non-existent in their community 50 years ago and now the situation is dramatically changed; this disease is very present and many people suffer from it. This video was made in attempt of Mixe people to try to remain together and healthy, drinking just water and tea, not soda.