Lawmaker and former journalist Mustafa Nayyem called on Ukrainians to boycott Coca-Cola products on Jan. 5 after the American drinks brand apologised for not including Crimea as part of Russia on its website.
Coca-Cola published a holiday season-themed map of Russia on Dec. 30 in Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social network. Russian users immediately started complaining that the map didn’t include Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia invaded and annexed in March 2014.
Following complaints from Russian social media users, on Jan. 5 the company re-published the map, adding Crimea to it, and issued an apology.
The original post on Coca-Cola Vkontakte page that showed Russia without Crimea.
“We sincerely apologise for what has happened. The map has been fixed! We ask for your understanding,” Coca-Cola wrote on its Vkontakte page.
The post has since been removed from the page. But not before it angered Ukrainian users.
In his Facebook post, Nayyem noted that in Coca-Cola’s homeland of the United States, Crimea isn’t considered part of Russia and initial U.S. sanctions against Russia had been imposed specifically because of the occupation of the peninsula.
Nayyem asked anyone who supports the proposed boycott to share the post with the hashtag #BanCocaCola. Several hours later, #BanCocaCola was the top Twitter trend in Ukraine.
“It’s at the very least strange to humiliate the country that lost thousands of lives and at the same time operate in its market,” Nayem wrote.
In response to the proposed boycott, several Facebook users suggested switching solely to Pepsi, a rival American drinks brand. However, it was soon pointed out that Russian division of Pepsico also included Crimea in the map of Russia on their website. This prompted many users to adopt the dual hashtag of #BanCocaCola and #BanPepsi. The brochure with the map was removed from the Pepsico website.
Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta then issued a statement apologising:
“The Coca-Cola Russia team had a stylised map of Russia created as part of its Christmas campaign. The agency that created the map later made changes without our knowledge or approval,” the company said. “We, as a company, do not take political positions unrelated to our business, and we apologise for the post, which we have removed.”
Pepsico has yet to comment on the matter.
This isn’t the first time companies have come under criticism for classing Crimea as part of Russia – a matter where is it difficult to please both sides.
Read also: “In Ukraine, Google translates Russia as ‘Mordor’ and top diplomat’s name as ‘sad little horse’”
Shortly after the annexation, The Moscow Times reported that Google Maps show the peninsula as part of Russia – but only for Russian users. The paper reported that the change came as a result of pressure imposed on Google Russia by the Russian government.
Now, international Google Maps shows a dashed line between Crimea and the rest of Ukraine, marking that the territory is disputed, while for Ukrainian users the map shows the peninsula as part of Ukraine.
Oxford University Press, one of the world’s leading academic publishers, also got in trouble in October 2015 by producing textbooks which referred to the peninsula as Russian territory. The geography textbook described Crimea as a Russian “exclave” which it had “taken from Ukraine in 2014.” Oxford then promised to add further detail to include the United Nations position on the topic.
Kyiv Post staff writer Isobel Koshiw can be reached at [email protected].
