Headaches like this usually are reserved for Sunday mornings.
Coors Light has decided to remove the Puerto Rican flag from the bottom of their 20 oz beverages. The company had planned the flags to serve as a tribute to the Puerto Rican Day Parade June 9, but community leaders fet the placement was insensitive.
Leading the charge against MillerCoors was Boricuas for a Positive Image, an activist group based out of Harlem. Last week The Observer reported how Boricuas for a Positive Image was upset about the association of the Puerto Rican flag with the alcoholic beverage, especially considering the high rate of alcoholism in Puerto Rican populations.
In a letter addressed to the Puerto Rican community as well as Boricuas, Nehl Horton, chief public affairs and communication officer for MillerCoors said, “We are no longer producing the packages that you cite in your communications, and effective [Friday] morning we will cease distribution as well.”
MillerCoors made this announcement just before a planned protest took place in front of a beer distributor in the Bronx. Yet the protest went on as scheduled, and many Puerto Ricans aren’t satisfied with the apology.
“This is just the beginning. We want a full, complete apology from Coors and we want all of those beer cans pulled off the shelf,” said Ramon Jimenez, an attorney for Boricuas For A Positive Image told DNAinfo.com.
This isn’t the first time that MillerCoors has been in trouble with the Puerto Rican community either. In 2011, they printed had the word ”Emborícuate,” on Coors’ cans, which means “become Puerto Rican” in Spanish. It caused a backlash in the community because the word can also interpreted as”Emborráchate,” or to get drunk.
Maybe MillerCoors third attempt to corner the Puerto Rican community will be successful, but we wouldn’t bet a beer on it.
