It works to show up companies that make mistakes or don’t always take you very seriously. Coca-Cola realized a reply they gave a concerned football fan about the human rights issue in Qatar wasn’t exactly the right way to go about it. This is their new formal reply, which makes a lot more sense.
Our Consumer Affairs team receives many calls and letters about a variety of topics on a daily basis. In this case, we inadvertently sent you an incorrect response to your inquiry. We take all consumer questions and inquiries seriously and apologize for this error.
As a FIFA partner since 1978, we believe the FIFA World Cup is a platform that unites people all over the world, inspiring and celebrating the world’s most popular sport while creating memorable experiences for athletes and fans. We believe that through our partnership and continued involvement with FIFA we can help foster optimism and unity, while making a positive difference in the communities we serve.
We do not condone human rights abuses, intolerance or discrimination of any kind anywhere in the world. As a business, it is our role and our responsibility to ensure that we embrace human rights practices in our own workplaces. We also expect our suppliers and partners to live up to our workplace and human rights standards as well.
Anything that detracts from the mission and ideals of the FIFA World Cup is a concern to us, but we are confident that FIFA is taking these allegations very seriously and is investigating them thoroughly through the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee. We will continue our work with FIFA to ensure that human rights considerations are taken into account in all aspects of the FIFA World Cup.
This was written before they made a more reasonable, clearer stand on the subject
What did codester2124 (a Reddit username) want? To let Coca-Cola know that he hopes to see them withdraw their partnership with FIFA and the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The response he got from one of the biggest companies in the world is somewhere between irrelevant, ignorant or maybe simply insulting.
One of FIFA’s elite sponsors, those who pay around $700 million over the four years before and during a World Cup to be an official drinks sponsor to the biggest sports tournament in the world is also another company that pledges to promote human rights.
Well, Qatar is a company that doesn’t exactly live up to those standards and rules. There’s been a mess since the day FIFA pretty much stole the vote away, changing the rules to make it a two-World Cup vote out of nowhere, landing it in Qatar (and Russia four years earlier).
Bribes are one half of the story. Modern slavery being responsible for building the stadiums is another.
Before the World Cup in Brazil began, it seems a Pandora’s box has been opened. Talks about millions of e-mails and documents being revealed about the bribes helping Qatar win the vote. Coca-Cola, among other majors sponsors, called for FIFA to investigate and bring truth and justice to light.
Because of those comments, it’s incredibly surprising to see the kind of reaction the company gave codester2124, as if they’re talking on a whole different plain of existence, or simply someone pressed some template for automatic responses that have nothing to do with what was written to them.
The Letter to Coca-Cola
The Letter From Coca-Cola
