Groundswell that swamped Coca-Cola company

 

What might one well-intended post on social media lead to? Obviously, Coca-Cola representatives did not anticipate massive public uproar after posting their advertisement. Due to the corporation’s negligence this transformed into an international and political issue involving the former Senior Vice President of the Coca-Cola company, the US State Department and the Ukrainian embassy.

On the 30^th of December 2016 an advertisement was posted on the Russian social media Vkontakte by the Coca-Cola affiliate wishing its customers a “Happy New Year.”

(ad is translated by the author of the post)

Dare you grow the highest fir in your city? Or decorate the whole country and show everyone how you celebrate New Year? Everything is possible with Coca-Cola.

Repost and get a fir for your city on the map! The more reposts – the higher a tree! ‘Likes’ can help to decorate firs and New Year pics that you leave in comments will be seen by all Russians! Let’s celebrate winter holidays all together – from Moscow to Vladivistok.

However, there was no Crimea on the Russian map which led to immense outrage by attentive social media users forcing the company to take down the image and replace it with another one that included Crimea as part of the Russian territory five days later.

(apology is translated by the author of the post)

Dear followers! We sincerely apologize for the situation. The map is fixed! We hope for your understanding. 

This in turn angered Ukrainian online users as they consider that the peninsula was illegitimately annexed by the Russian government. They launched a boycott by creating a hashtag #BanCocaCola which in a couple of hours topped Twitter trends in Ukraine. Not only did the users express their discontent but also encouraged each other to pour fizzy drinks in a toilet and replace them with alternatives.

The groundswell caught the attention of the Ukrainian embassy in the USA which brought the issue to Coca-Cola’s headquarters and the US State Department emphasizing that the advert was against the US official position regarding a military intervention in Crimea and its illegitimate annexation by Russia.

Remind you, this all happened only because of a post on social media. The representatives of the Ukrainian Coca-Cola affiliate stated that Russian SMM agency made a “technical mistake” by including Crimea on the map of Russia. It was also stated that all related posts would be removed from the web pages. Additionally, an official apology letter was made out to the Ukrainian ambassador on behalf of Clyde Tuggle, the former Senior Vice President and Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer of the Coca-Cola Company.

What lessons can be learned from this case?

First, if you are a global corporation, you cannot stay outside the politics any longer. While launching a marketing campaign, political issues happening worldwide should be taken into consideration and if a topic is controversial – stay neutral.

Secondly, nothing is negligible when it comes to social media activity and thus every single post should be coordinated. In this case of Coca-Cola there is a likelihood that it was not an advertising campaign elaborated by a board of specialists, but just a picture designed by one SMM manager. Probably, provided that the post had been given a thorough thought the crisis could have been avoided. For instance, a reference could be included under the map stating that Crimea is a territory of Ukraine annexed by Russia.

To sum up, a described case gives us a vivid insight on how the power can be shifted from the offline world to the online one. Social media has become a tool for connecting people and creating an uncontrollable groundswell that can take down even such a huge corporation such as Coca-Cola.