Coca-Cola has responded to the backlash, reassuring customers that along with a technical issue, the company has a separate review process for all religious phrases.
“We created the Share A Coke personalization tool for Coca-Cola fans to celebrate with one another and make connections by creating
bottles and cans with special names or phrases on them. We are aware of a technical issue affecting the personalization preview tool where variations of restricted terms were visible in preview mode online; however, these restricted phrases would not have been approved for production through our review and moderation process, as they do not follow our content guidelines,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson told
Parade.
“While we review and take corrective action, we have disabled the preview feature and paused new online personalized product orders to prevent the creation of previews that use restricted terms that violate our guidelines. We have safeguards in place to prevent the approval and production of cans and bottles featuring religious, political, trademarked, inappropriate, or otherwise restricted terms and phrases. We will continue to enhance this tool based on consumer feedback.”
On the Coca-Cola website, it is reiterated that “Phrases that do not pass moderation are canceled, refunded, and not fulfilled.” At the time of this writing, personalized cans have been marked “out of stock” on the company’s website.
