After Unilever, the soda group has announced a 30-day break from all social media advertising. “There is no place for racism” on these networks, justified the CEO of the group.
Coca-Cola, one of the most famous brands in the world that spends huge sums on advertising, announced on Friday June 26 that it would suspend all promotion on all social networks for at least 30 days. “There is no place for racism in the world and there is no place for racism on social networks”said James Quincey, the CEO of the global giant, in a very brief statement.
He demanded platforms – that other brands have decided to boycott and take away their advertising revenue to force them to do more to remove hateful content – to demonstrate more “transparency and accountability”. Coca-Cola will use its break to “take stock of (your) advertising strategies and see if revisions are necessary”, a expliqué Quincey.
The soft drink giant told CNBC that this “pause” did not mean that he joined the movement launched last week by associations for the defense of black Americans and civil society. Called #StopHateForProfit (“No to hate for profits”), this campaign to boycott Facebook ads in July is notably supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ColorOfChange, ADL (Anti-Defamation League , a Jewish organization), FreePress and Sleeping Giants.
It aims to obtain better regulation of groups inciting hatred, racism or violence on the network. Friday was Unilever, one of the world leaders in the food and cosmetics industry, which announced that it would stop advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the United States until the end of the year, at least, due to a “polarized” electoral period. Under pressure, Facebook let go of the ballast on the principles displayed by its founder Mark Zuckerberg, who himself announced a hardening of the position of the social network in the face of hate messages.
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