The Coca-Cola Company's attempts to reach out to indigenous consumers in New Zealand have fallen short of expectation.
An image shared on Twitter shows a Coca-Cola vending machine, sporting a slogan "Kia Ora, Mate." Nothing special, one would say, except for the phrase translates "Hello, Death" in Māori, one of New Zealand's three official languages.
While the apparent intention was to juxtapose the Māori greeting "Kia Ora" (Hello) with "mate," a word commonly used with English speakers in New Zealand, some people suggest that in this case, there is more than a grain of truth in this joke.
According to government statistics, obesity is a pressing issue for the island nation, in fact. A 2016/2017 official health survey found that as many as 1.2 million adults (32% of population) are obese, a 3 percent gain from the similar study dated 2011/12. This number includes roughly half of Māori adults (indigenous population reached 711,000 in 2015, according to government estimates).