March 30, 2016

Michele Setteducato
CJ Frogozo

COCA-COLA RESPONDS TO PRESSURE FROM ADVOCATES TO CEASE SUPPORT OF THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

New York, NY—According to the New York Times, Coca-Cola, a long-time sponsor of the Republican National Convention has declined to match the $660,000 it provided to the 2012 Republican convention, donating only $75,000 back in December to this year’s gathering. The company, which has poured billions of dollars into branding itself as a diverse and inclusive company, found itself embroiled in a very public campaign led by ColorOfChange in partnership with a diverse coalition of netroots, Latino, Jewish, Muslim and women’s rights organizations.

Statement from Rashad Robinson, executive director, ColorOfChange:

We have said from the beginning that this isn’t about left or right, but about right and wrong. Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric, has inflamed a national atmosphere already hostile to Latino, Muslim, and Black communities as well as women and people with disabilities. He has inspired violent attacks on peaceful protesters and journalists and all the while has continued to be given a free pass by much of mainstream media and corporate sponsors. This is not “business as usual” and corporations should not continue to treat it as such.

We are glad that Coca-Cola is choosing to do the right thing, by rethinking what will surely be a international platform for more hate and intolerance. We demand that Coca-Cola and other current sponsors stop the promotion of their products and airing of commercials during the convention, that they agree that they will not make in-kind donations and that they withdraw any initial pledges.

Like Coca-Cola, other companies have a history-making choice in front of them right now. Our questions to them are: are you willing to attach your branding to someone so belligerent that they have threatened riots at the convention? Someone whose campaign manager has no qualms about physically attacking journalists and who has offered to pay the legal fees of anyone who attacks peaceful protesters? The choice should be obvious and it’s disappointing this even has to be debated. We will continue to publicly pressure any company who takes our money by day and still pledges to sponsor hateful, violent rhetoric and policies at night.

Additional Information:
In February, ColorOfChange and a group of advocates sent letters to Coca-Cola Company, Google, Adobe Systems Inc., Xerox Corporation, AT&T Inc., and Cisco Systems Inc. calling on them to cancel their sponsorships of the Republican National Convention if current Republican front-runner Donald Trump is slated to be the nominee. Since then ColorOfChange has collected 124,000 signatures on their campaign.

The campaign has collected 360,000+ total signatures from CREDO, UltraViolet, Care2, SumOfUs and MoveOn.


Text of the petition...

Stop sponsoring Donald Trump

How can companies like Google, who heavily market to and profit from Black people, fund a platform for a presidential nominee that is being bolstered into office by former Grand Wizard David Duke, the KKK, and other white supremacists?

These companies are stuck pretending that their sponsorship won't provide a platform for Trump’s dehumanizing hate speech. But when corporate dollars are used to fund a platform for a demagogue who promotes a violently anti-Black message that company is just as culpable as the person shouting.

Will you call on Google and other companies to end their sponsorships of a Trump-led convention?

Tell the CEOs, Chief Marketing Officers, and Senior Vice Presidents of Public Affairs at Coca-Cola, Google, Xerox, AT&T, Adobe Systems, Cisco, and Microsoft:

Immediately cancel your sponsorship of a Donald Trump-led Republican National Convention. This includes any monetary and in-kind contributions to the Host Committee for the Republican National Convention as well as any in-kind contributions to the Republican National Committee in exchange for promotional consideration. Any sponsorship of a Trump-led convention will be an endorsement of his hate-filled and racist rhetoric and runs counter to the values of your company.  

Trump’s hateful rhetoric and racist pandering has been widely heralded by white supremacist leaders like former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and has even resulted in the white nationalist American National Super PAC funding robo-calls in Iowa in support of his campaign. From this emboldening of white supremacists and Trump’s unchecked rhetoric he has made it clear that under his presidency Black people, Latinos, immigrants, women, and Muslims will be either second class citizens or entirely unwelcome in this country. As a company that prides itself on championing diversity, we believe it is a great sign of corporate responsibility and decency for your company to ensure its dollars and brand are not used to provide a platform for pushing this violent and racist rhetoric.

This is not about politics. It’s not about Democrats and Republicans, or the political left and right. Trump is encouraging violence towards Latinos and immigrants, Black people, women, and Muslims in an effort to pander to some voters’ most base instincts. Trump’s stereotypical and violent rhetoric brings real life consequences for people and as long as companies like yours keep financing platforms for Trump to push his race-baiting message, the number of violent attacks against minority groups and women will continue to grow. 

As a major leader in the business community, a commitment on the part of your company to refrain from sponsoring a Donald Trump-led Republican National Convention would send a strong message to the public, the RNC, and other companies that Trump’s demagoguery and intolerance is not acceptable.  

Sincerely,