Memo to Coke: Steal our water, poison us, fund death squads. Just don't make political statements!

Does this ad look political to you? Perhaps Coca Cola is endorsing Tibetan independence by showing Tibetan buddhist monks riding a rollercoaster with the words "Make It Real" eblazoned on their chests. It certainly looks that way to a chinese blogger who is furious that Coke is supporting Tibetan independence:

Germany has started to really show adverts for Tibetan independence. Coca-Cola! Okay, I will remember. From now on I will not touch this shitty product...The three monks represent Tibetan lamas. They are riding a rollercoaster, which represents freedom. 'Make it real' means 'make this [ie freedom] real...

Coke responded by removing the image and apologizing to the 1.5 billion potential coke drinkers in China:

We regret if the use of an image featuring monks from an old print advertising campaign from 2003 has caused any offence. This was certainly not our intention ... The old image was being used in the window of a shop in Bremen and has since been taken down ... This image was designed to encourage people to try something new. The image is not linked to Tibet and is in no way an expression of support for any political issue ...

The lesson Coke needs to take a away from this is that people will not tolerate political statements, tongue in cheek or otherwise. But by all means, go ahead an assasinate union leaders, hire paramilitary death squads and poison our groundwater all you want. We'll blindly drink your poison in bliss.