Coca-Cola bans the word ‘gay’ in new ad campaign – ‘Oops. Let’s pretend you didn’t just type that’

Jan 26 2014
Written by Aaron Day

Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has launched a new media marketing campaign which bans users from printing the word “gay” on the side of a can of Coke.

The Olympic Sponsors, criticised in the past for failing to stand up against homophobia, launched their new South African-based Share a Coke campaign recently, enabling online users to print their own names onto the side of virtual Coke cans.

However, among the banned list of words in the campaign – including f*ck, sex, homo, and dyke – users are also prohibited from entering the word “gay.”

Should the user attempt to enter any of these words, they will be greeted with a message which states: “Oops. Let’s pretend you didn’t just type that.”

The word “straight” is a valid entry however.

In December last year, Coca-Cola published photos online of a group of gay rights activists who recently interrupted its Christmas advertising campaign with a surprise demonstration against the company’s decision to sponsor the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.

In August, Coca-Cola – alongside McDonald’s – had stated that they do not condone the anti-gay laws, but added that they did not think the games should be relocated away from Sochi.

AllOut created a form allowing users to easily send a message to Coca-Cola management urging them to speak out publicly against Russia’s anti-gay legislation.

President Vladimir Putin signed legislation in June banning the promotion of “non-traditional relationships” toward minors.