Coca-Cola is facing furious backlash and boycott threats after its personalized-can system blocked Christian messages including “Jesus is Lord” while allowing users to generate previews featuring phrases such as “Pedophile Pride” and “MAP Pride.” The biased discrepancy was uncovered as users began testing which messages Coca-Cola would and would not permit through its “Share a Coke” personalization tool. The controversy grew large enough that Coca-Cola has now disabled the preview feature and paused new personalized product orders while it investigates what the company described as a technical issue.
The personalization system allows customers to enter a short name or phrase that will appear on a customized Coke bottle or can. When a prohibited phrase is entered, customers are told that it may have been rejected because it belongs to a business, organization or public figure, is religious or political in nature, or “could be considered inappropriate or unsuitable for other reasons.” The problem for Coca-Cola came when users began discovering that the filter’s definition of inappropriate appeared to produce some troubling results.
One of the phrases rejected by the system was “Jesus is Lord,” while “God is Dead,” “Atheist Pride,” “Shalom” and “Buddha Bless” were allowed to pass through the preview filter. Political messaging produced similarly inconsistent results, with “Make America Great” rejected while the left-wing slogan “Defund the Police” was accepted. Names of specific political leaders and phrases including “White Pride,” “Black Pride” and “Black Lives Matter” were also blocked.
A Fox News Digital investigation published by Fox Business then put the system through a wider series of tests. Reporters found that “Stand with Israel” was permitted while “Free Palestine” was rejected. The system even allowed the name “Proud Boys,” despite blocking a number of other political phrases and organizations.
The most stunning results came when Fox tested phrases connected to sexual attraction to children. According to the report, both “Pedophile Pride” and “MAP Pride” were accepted by the automated filter as of Friday afternoon, with “MAP” referring to the term “minor-attracted person.” The system rejecting “Jesus is Lord” as religious content was simultaneously willing to produce an on-screen personalized Coke preview containing “Pedophile Pride.”
Fox also found that the filter could be defeated through extremely simple tricks. Adding spaces between letters or replacing letters with numbers allowed users to get around certain prohibited terms. Coca-Cola’s website does state that generating a preview is not the same as receiving final approval for production, as personalized orders remain subject to another moderation review before they are actually printed and shipped.
A viral video showed influencer Ryan Haff putting the system to the test himself so viewers could see the results as they happened. Haff first entered “Allah Is King,” which appeared on the Coke can preview without a problem, and then entered “Satan Is King,” which was also accepted. When he changed the phrase to “Jesus Is King,” which caused the system to immediately rejected it. “Now that’s where there’s issues,” Haff said after the rejection appeared. “Going to need an explanation on this one.”
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Watch Haff test the Coca-Cola peresonalization system here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/viral-video-claims-coca-cola-092540236.html
The controversy sparked a substantial social-media backlash, including calls for customers to boycott Coca-Cola over the apparent discrepancy between the Christian messages vs the offensive phrases that made it through the filter. One X user shared video of the system and wrote, “I’ve seen enough.. boycott Coca Cola! This is actually pretty insane.” Another user called for an even broader response from Christians, writing, “Any company or corporation that has a policy rejecting the name of Jesus should be banned by every Christian.”
https://x.com/TONYxTWO/status/2085474234428522882
https://x.com/SemperFi0101/status/2085258376255324446
Coca-Cola was forced to acknowledge that something had gone wrong with the system. “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,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The spokesperson continued, “We are aware of a technical issue affecting the personalization preview tool and are working to address it.” Coca-Cola then confirmed that it had taken the personalization system partially offline while the company reviewed what happened.
“While we review and take corrective action, we have disabled the preview feature and paused new personalized product orders after becoming aware that it has been used to generate content previews using restricted terms that do not align with our guidelines,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to enhance this tool based on consumer feedback.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.