One consumer ruined Share a Coke campaign – Coca-Cola explains all

Coca-Cola has once again investigated the Xitsonga profanity can in their popular “Share a Coke with” campaign.

The soft drink giant is still reeling from a consumer who took to social media to voice her disgust of a can that read “Share a Coke with Xitombo”, a profane word used in Xitsonga to describe female genitalia.

ALSO READ: Coca-Cola campaign drops the ball with controversial name can

The controversial can in question. Image: Twitter/@ManyikeInno

Coke has said that an extra layer was added a few years ago to include the phonetic pronunciation of people’s names, in the hopes that South Africans could “connect and unite on a deeper level by learning each other’s names and how to pronounce them,” they explained in a statement.

The consumer-led name campaign has three elements:

The main element was to find the 700 most popular names in South Africa, and to print them on cans and bottles, which were sold in stores. The names were identified with the help of the department of home affairs and Stats SA. The statement explains that the names, which covered the 11 official languages, were sent to two professional linguists for phonetic treatment, reviewed by internal approval teams, and then printed, distributed, and sold to consumers.

The profane Xitsonga word found on a can was not one of the names identified by home affairs, and the can was not marketed or sold by Coca-Cola, they emphasised.

The second element of the campaign involved “digital activation”, where consumers could create their own personalised can through the website and share a digital version of their name on a can.

The third element involved Coca-Cola directly engaging with consumers and allowing them to personalise a can.

Coke said that it was at one of these activations where someone “intentionally requested a word to be printed on a Coke can that is offensive to women in Xitsonga”. This person then shared this can on social media, they said.

Hi @CocaCola_ZA , do you even know the meaning of this or you just approve stuff for the sake of doing it without being cognisant of the fact that this is really uncalled for?This is disrespectful and we demand an explanation as #Vatsonga or else you will suffer the consequences. pic.twitter.com/ZQMdomlQzY

— Innocent Manyike ™ (@ManyikeInno) January 31, 2019

“Our investigations have shown this one consumer took advantage of and exploited the campaign’s good intentions for their own disreputable reasons.”

Coke added that the risks involved in opening a campaign to the public were considered, but this isolated incident has led to the discontinuation of the consumer-led and digital elements of the campaign from February 6.

Those consumers who always imagined having their unique name printed on a can will now have to make peace with the fact that this dream probably won’t become a reality.

(Compiled by Nica Schreuder)

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