[LINK] "Coke's 'outrageous' ad shows white hipsters bringing drinks to indigenous Mexicans"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star hosted Justin Moyer's article in The Washington Post noting a remarkable tone-deaf Coke commercial.

With sparkling eyes and bad dance moves, the whites came. They drove an El Camino. They wielded saws unconvincingly. They shouted “Woo!”

And, while drinking Coca-Cola and sharing bottles of the black bubbly stuff with unfortunate natives, they built just what a small Mexican community where many speak an indigenous language needed: A giant Christmas tree made out of red lights that look like bottle tops.

This was an ad recently unleashed by the world’s largest beverage company upon Mexico — until it was pulled after protests by health and indigenous rights’ advocates.

[. . .]

The ad, it seemed, attempted to address prejudice against those who speak indigenous languages in Mexico. The brown community Coca-Cola’s pale angels visited includes many speakers of Mixe, a language spoken in the Mexican state of Oaxaca’s eastern mountains.

“This Christmas a group of young people decided to give something very special to the indigenous community of Totontepec [Villa] de Morelos in Oaxaca,” as The Associated Press translated. “You, too, open your heart.” Claiming that 81.6 per cent of Mexicans speak an indigenous tongue, the ad concludes with the words “We will stay united” emblazoned on the tree in Mixe. Hashtag: “#AbreTuCorazon,” or “open your heart.”

More, including the ad itself, at the Toronto Star.