Coca-Cola apologizes to Edmonton family for ‘YOU RETARD’ message under bottle cap

Coca-Cola has found itself in a bit of pickle after an Edmonton woman found the words "YOU RETARD" under the cap of one of the company's Vitamin Water bottles on Tuesday.

Coca-Cola claims the mistake was due to a bilingual game that was intended to randomly pair English and French words together, with "you" stemming from English and "retard" being the French term for late.

“The R-word is just something we don’t say in my family,” Blake Loates, who found the bottle cap, tells Metro News. “My dad is quite upset and is on a rampage.”

And indeed he is. Loates' father, Doug, spend the better part of Tuesday night penning a letter to Coca-Cola demanding an explanation and an apology. Doug's 11-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy and autism. Both him and his daughter assumed it was the work of a disgruntled employee.

Coca-Cola has offered their sincere apologies and claim that the contest has been suspended and the remaining caps in their facilities have been destroyed.

“We did not mean to offend at all,” says Shannon Denny, director of brand communications for Coca-Cola Refreshment Canada. “We are certainly very apologetic for this oversight.”

While each word is reviewed by the company, it is only reviewed within its respective English and French contexts, claims Denny. Yet the company's explanation does not sit well with Blake.

"Coke told us they reviewed the words before the contest, so we're still a bit confused about why, after sitting down and looking at the word list, they would decide to keep it. Its English meaning is offensive and they should have realized that," Blake tells Huffington Post.

What are your thoughts on this incident? Do you think Coca-Cola responded appropriately or should they have done more?