Coca-Cola’s Censored Advertisement: Gay Marriage Doesn’t Seem To Be Part of Its ‘Values’
Published in Le Nouvel Observateur
(France) on 3 January 2014
by Giuseppe Di Bella (link to
original)
In a Coca-Cola ad shown in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norway, the wedding of a homosexual couple is seen in particular. There’s a problem: this passage is no longer featured in the Irish version of the video, where it has been replaced by a heterosexual marriage. If Coca-Cola didn’t want to dent its status as a “gay-friendly” brand, then it has failed, Guiseppe Di Bella reckons.
Over the past few days, viewers have been able to watch a Coca-Cola commercial which, with a children’s choir in the background, praises the “values” conveyed by the famous soda brand in its new worldwide campaign “#ReasonsToBelieve.” There’s no escaping it, wherever you may be. But the visual isn’t the same everywhere …
There is a newly wed homosexual couple in the British, Dutch and Norwegian versions of the advert. In Ireland, the version is noticeably different from the one shown in the U.K.; the scene has been replaced by that of a wedding between a black woman and a white man.
Provoking the indignation and anger of associations which back marriage for all, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based company announced that the ad did not include this scene because marriage between homosexuals is not legal in Ireland: “We want each commercial to be adapted to the market, to the country in which it is shown,” he states.
Except that there is a “but,” and it’s a big one: In effect, the wedding scene comes from Australia, a country where same-sex unions aren’t legal either. And so Coca-Cola’s shaky and particularly risky defense collapses like a house of cards.
Coca-Cola’s Big Blunders
It also leads us to wonder why in France — a country where same-sex marriages have nonetheless been legal since May 2013 — this scene is not featured in the soda brand’s advertisement, broadcast on TVs nationwide. Was it so as not to offend the susceptibilities of the opponents to equal marriage for all? Coca-Cola’s logic is particularly disconcerting and shows obvious clumsiness as far as their communication is concerned.
A few weeks away from the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — where state homophobia is becoming increasingly worrying — Coca-Cola, one of the biggest sponsors of this sporting event, shows a somewhat pathetic nervousness. Or, quite simply, obvious dishonesty. Did the company want to keep Vladimir Putin — the master of the Kremlin, known for his notorious homophobia — happy? Under the circumstances, we have the right to ask ourselves this question.
It has to be said that the “values” conveyed by Coca-Cola are not those of equal rights for same-sex couples. It’s not worth boring us ad nauseum with an idiotic ad attempting to convince us that there is more good than evil in this sorry world. Nobody is fooled by it anymore.
Faced with such hypocrisy, we prefer the views of Guido Barillo, M.D., of the famous brand of Italian pasta, who declared some months ago that he would never make an advertisement with homosexual couples.
Coca-Cola doesn’t seem to want to damage its status as a gay-friendly brand. It has failed. Big time …
Over the past few days, viewers have been able to watch a Coca-Cola commercial which, with a children’s choir in the background, praises the “values” conveyed by the famous soda brand in its new worldwide campaign “#ReasonsToBelieve.” There’s no escaping it, wherever you may be. But the visual isn’t the same everywhere …
There is a newly wed homosexual couple in the British, Dutch and Norwegian versions of the advert. In Ireland, the version is noticeably different from the one shown in the U.K.; the scene has been replaced by that of a wedding between a black woman and a white man.
Provoking the indignation and anger of associations which back marriage for all, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based company announced that the ad did not include this scene because marriage between homosexuals is not legal in Ireland: “We want each commercial to be adapted to the market, to the country in which it is shown,” he states.
Except that there is a “but,” and it’s a big one: In effect, the wedding scene comes from Australia, a country where same-sex unions aren’t legal either. And so Coca-Cola’s shaky and particularly risky defense collapses like a house of cards.
Coca-Cola’s Big Blunders
It also leads us to wonder why in France — a country where same-sex marriages have nonetheless been legal since May 2013 — this scene is not featured in the soda brand’s advertisement, broadcast on TVs nationwide. Was it so as not to offend the susceptibilities of the opponents to equal marriage for all? Coca-Cola’s logic is particularly disconcerting and shows obvious clumsiness as far as their communication is concerned.
A few weeks away from the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — where state homophobia is becoming increasingly worrying — Coca-Cola, one of the biggest sponsors of this sporting event, shows a somewhat pathetic nervousness. Or, quite simply, obvious dishonesty. Did the company want to keep Vladimir Putin — the master of the Kremlin, known for his notorious homophobia — happy? Under the circumstances, we have the right to ask ourselves this question.
It has to be said that the “values” conveyed by Coca-Cola are not those of equal rights for same-sex couples. It’s not worth boring us ad nauseum with an idiotic ad attempting to convince us that there is more good than evil in this sorry world. Nobody is fooled by it anymore.
Faced with such hypocrisy, we prefer the views of Guido Barillo, M.D., of the famous brand of Italian pasta, who declared some months ago that he would never make an advertisement with homosexual couples.
Coca-Cola doesn’t seem to want to damage its status as a gay-friendly brand. It has failed. Big time …
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