On November 2, the soda company released a commercial in Saudi Arabia meant to celebrate the country’s recent decision to allow women to drive.
The ad features a father, who wears a keffiyeh, teaching his young daughter, who wears a hijab, how to drive. She gets off to a rocky start but eventually gets the hang of it — seemingly with the help of a Coke balancing on the dashboard.
Titled “Change Has a Taste”, the ad was created as part of their “commitment to enable the economic empowerment of women”, according to Coca-Cola.
But social media was split over the one-minute commercial, which currently has over 44,000 views on YouTube.
Many have applauded Coca-Cola’s effort to celebrate women’s rights in a notoriously oppressive country. But others are accusing the company of capitalising on the moment, with some comparing the effort to Kendall Jenner’s tone-deaf Pepsi commercial.
In April, both Jenner and Pepsi were slammed for an ad showed Jenner using a can of Pepsi to end a standoff between police and a group of protesters.
“Love this Ad! A Saudi teaching his daughter to drive. Well done CocaCola,” a Bahrain-based user shared on Twitter.
Another user, who’s based in Qatar, wrote, “CocaCola: Saudi women driving edition. Brands jump at the chance to a profit off #Saudi’s historic announcement.”
And one Saudi Arabian woman shared, “The ad on the most symbolic moment for #Saudi #women is a #fail; as bad as #kendel [sic] #Pepsi protest.”
Coca-Cola — which plans to open a $US100 million bottling plant in Saudi Arabia in 2019 — hasn’t addressed the backlash.
Saudi Arabia was previously the only country in the world that didn’t allow women to have driver’s licenses. King Salman issued the historic royal decree September 26, with the change expected to go into effect in June.
