Cringe-worthy food-marketing fails are a dime a dozen these days, but maybe never in the history of such bad decisions has there been one that required this amount of forethought:
Yes, that is several hundred 12-packs of Coke products stacked into an elaborate Ground Zero diorama. Twitter user @online_shawn tells BuzzFeed he was in Florida on vacation and swung by a Panama City store to grab things for the beach. He and his girlfriend quickly saw the conspicuous display — possibly the worst in 15 years of breathtakingly tasteless 9/11 tributes — at the end of an aisle. He says they paused to gawk in disbelief, but realized nobody else “seemed to be noticing.” He thought (hoped?) that’s because assembly was completed mere moments ago, so he helped spread the word by tweeting a pic of this great deal that shoppers should, as the sign instructs, “never forget.”
Naturally, people had some thoughts on Twitter:
A spokesperson says the Twin Towers composed of Walmart’s $3.33-a-pack Coke Zero have now been taken down, alongside every other aspect of that display. For what it’s worth, the rep also notes that Coke is generally the idea generator when it comes to end-of-aisle displays, and all Walmart does is approve or deny them. Which of course still means somebody at the company saw Coke’s shameless mock-up and went, “Yep, perfect.”
