Coca-Cola Steps Right into a
Racism Debacle
Sally Falkow, APR
One of the duties of a PR person is to monitor the environment
and give feedback to the executives of a brand so that they
can align their vision and their activities with the trending
sentiment of their publics. However, this can prove to be a
tricky tightrope act. Witness the Coca Cola debacle of
“sensitivity” training intended to lessen racial tensions in
the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
What no doubt started as an attempt to improve their corporate
culture turned into a PR nightmare. Now they have a reputation
management issue on their hands. Currently, five of the 10
items on page one of Google News for a search for Coca Cola
are about this training session.
Creating a more inclusive and less racist work environment is
a laudable goal, but unfortunately their training session –
now leaked online – fell far short of that intention.
The very first thing a brand should consider is, “How will
this play if it get published online?” You can put money on
the fact that if it pushes anybody’s buttons, or is
controversial in any shape of form, it will get leaked. There
are no corporate secrets anymore.
And if the Coke execs did think this through and figured that
if it were publicized it would bring them kudos, they
miscalculated. Badly.
The country is very polarized right now. As much as we should
work hard to eliminate racism in all corners of the society,
it shouldn’t be about being black or white. Instead of
