Companies sometimes offer personalized options to engage their customers in creative ways.
For example, M&M’s allows consumers to select candy colors and add custom words or images, and Lays once invited snackers to create new chip flavors and design the packaging.
These promotions often have built-in systems to block inappropriate, offensive, or copyrighted content. However, issues can still arise, as seen with Coca-Cola’s current promotion, where customers can design a customized can with a name or phrase printed on the label and have it delivered.
Joseph Vazquez from the Media Resource Center Business division highlighted an interesting discovery in this Coca-Cola promotion.
While attempting to input political phrases, Vazquez found that certain names related to Democratic candidates were accepted, but options related to Donald Trump were rejected.
For instance, he was able to submit phrases like “President Harris” and “Harris Walz 2024” without any problems.
However, when he tried submitting “President Trump” or “Trump Vance 2024,” the system blocked his request with an automatic message stating that the selected name wasn’t approved due to restrictions on names that are political, trademarked, or potentially offensive.
This inconsistency is particularly noteworthy given Donald Trump’s public affection for Coca-Cola products, raising questions about why his name would be excluded.
Vazquez contacted Coca-Cola for clarification, but the company did not respond. After his inquiry, he noticed that the previously approved political phrases were also being blocked from the system.
Vazquez confirmed that he had taken screenshots of the original approvals and had even placed an order for a “President Harris” can before the change.
Although the phrase “Harris Walz 2024” was flagged later, the “President Harris” design had initially been approved. Whether or not the custom can will actually be delivered remains to be seen.
While it’s possible this could be attributed to a software glitch, the discrepancy seems unusual. Perhaps “Harris” is a common enough name that it didn’t trigger the software’s filters initially, but it’s unclear how “Walz” passed the system’s review.
In an attempt to test the parameters further, Vazquez also discovered that even splitting the phrase “RedState” onto separate lines resulted in a rejection for being too political.
Despite the heightened restrictions, he did find that one phrase managed to slip past the filters, raising more questions about the system’s consistency.
This incident points to a broader issue in how brands manage user-generated content in promotional campaigns, particularly when politics is involved.
It also raises concerns about potential bias in automated systems and how companies respond to these inconsistencies.
