Coca-Cola Pulls Out Offensive Ad Broadcasted In Mexico, Beverage Company Issues Rare Apology

Coca-Cola issued an apology to the indigenous people of Mexico after they were offended in an online ad, as a bunch of white people visited their native community. The brand name was forced to pull out the clips as some groups found it offensive.

According to Daily Mail, the company posted a video on YouTube, which featured white people visiting the local place of Mixe at Totontepec Villa de Morelos in Oaxaca. The foreigners were all young and hip as they held a bottle of coke and a Christmas tree to make them united with other cultures.

The controversial clip angered civil right unions as they found it "offensive, racist and colonist." In the ad's introduction, it had a written statistic that read: "81.6 percent of Mexico's indigenous people feel rejected for speaking another language," and also told anyone who watched the clip to "open their hearts."

Moreover, a group of domestic attorneys and health personnel claimed that the beverage company was trying to influence the Mixe citizens with foreign ways, by drinking the sweet drink. They, too, said that they wanted the indigenous people to adopt their culture, where "obesity and diabetes" are rising.

However, Coca-Cola issued an apology as noted by Latino USA. It read: "The main campaign messages of unity and optimism to leave behind prejudices were well understood and accepted in the focus groups we did. Once we launched this video, we kept monitoring and measuring the public´s response. During this monitoring, we realized that the message intended was not understood, so we decided to download it."

They later clarified that the word "download" was originally meant to be "removed." Meanwhile, The Guardian added Coca-Cola was trying to send a message of "unity and joy."

An activist said that in spite of the good intention they were trying to portray, the clip showed "stereotyping" of the native locals as "culturally and racially" subsidiaries. This advocate, too, wanted the company to undergo the right punishment of the "government's anti-discrimination commission."

Additionally, this was not the first time that Mexico slammed an advertisement that typecast the people of the country of Central America. To recall, the national airline, Aeromexico, issued their apologies in 2013, when they only accepted fair-white-skinned people for their commercial.

Also, just earlier this year, the fast-food giant, McDonald's, ditched the traditional Mexican breakfast, Tamales son del Pasado, to improve their profits. They then advertised their very own McBurrito, that replaced the country's known dish.

Watch the controvesial video as uploaded by Algo en YouTube.