If you’re going to get an offensive message from under your bottle cap, this is about as offensive as they come (above)!
A family in Toronto bought themselves a refreshing beverage the other day, only to find that underneath the cap of the Vitaminwater they purchased was the message:
‘YOU RETARD’
What’s even more bizarre is that this happens to be something that affects Blake Loates very personally, because she has a younger sister, Fiona, who has has cerebral palsy and autism — so this kind of hateful and misinformed language is something they’ve almost certainly had to deal with in real life.
Their father didn’t just shrug it off, though, and we’re glad he didn’t! Instead, he wrote a lengthy letter of complaint to Vitaminwater’s parent company Coca-Cola.
Here’s what some of it said:
“What would you do if you opened up your bottle of Vitamin Water and on the bottom of the lid it read, “YOU RETARD”? Think about it. I bet you’d be pissed off if you had a Fiona in your life├óΓé¼┬ª Can you imagine if SHE had opened this bottle?”
They DID hear back from Coke — so what was it? An employee with a bad taste in humor?
Nope, they’re claiming it was a simple mistake due to a competition pairing one random English word with a second random French word. In French, “retard” translates to “late/delayed.” And if you’re thinking they should have someone reviewing everything that goes out… well, they do.
Apparently the English meaning of the phrase was simply missed.
Here’s what Coke said:
“We have spoken to the family to offer our sincerest apologies and to explain the production process to them. This is certainly not an excuse in any way for what has occurred. We wanted them to know that this was in no way intentional and was a mistake on our part during the review process. We also wanted to share that the promotion has since been cancelled and we are no longer producing bottles with those caps.”
“It was never our intention to offend anyone with this promotion. This was a mistake during the review process and we are taking steps to investigate and rectify the situation. We hope that our consumers can accept our profound apologies.”
They’re even going to be posting an apology online — specifically on the Vitaminwater Canada Facebook page and twitters @vitaminwater_ca and @cocacolaco_ca.
How’s about free Coke for life?? That might make up for it, seeing as how personal the situation was for the family!!
We’re sorry this happened, Loates fam!
[Image via Facebook.]
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