14 DAY TRIAL // Coca-Cola company reps have apologized to a family in Canada for printing an insulting phrase on the inside part of a Vitaminwater bottle cap.
Blake Loates, of Edmonton, found “YOU RETARD” written inside the cap. Her 11-year-old sister is living with autism and cerebral palsy. She lives with her twin and her dad in Tacoma, Washington.
Blake found the message as she was dining at a restaurant with her husband.
“We were both pretty shocked,” she recalls.
The girl's father has reportedly taken to writing letter to Coca-Cola to demand an explanation for the message on the bottle.
“The R-word is just something we don’t say in my family,” said Loates. “My dad is quite upset and is on a rampage,” she tells Metro News.
The company explained that they were running an English-French cross promotion, putting together random words in English and French. The word “retard” means “delayed,” or “late” in French.
“I am astonished that a major corporation could allow someone to tarnish their brand. [...] Not everyone in Canada speaks French – like my daughter, Blake,” concerned dad Doug Loates says.
Company director of brand communications for the Canada section, Shannon Denny, explains that the bottles have been checked. However, they only performed the check in French.
“When you look at the same word in English, it takes an offensive connotation,” she admits.
She has apologized to the family and promised to take any other bottles boasting the same message off the shelves.
“We did not mean to offend at all. [...] We are certainly very apologetic for this oversight,” Denny says.
David Thomson, vice-president of still beverages for Coca-Cola, added that whatever bottles they had left in storage were destroyed.
“We have learned from this and it was a mistake. [...] At no point in time did we intend on offending anyone by any stretch and we have cancelled and moved on and have dealt with this as soon as possible,” he comments.