Coca-Cola has been forced to remove adverts from a Sprite advertising campaign in Ireland, after complaints of sexism from consumers. The 'Brutally Refreshing' campaign caused offense by its use of phrases such as “She's seen more ceilings than Michelangelo”, and “You're not popular, you're easy”. The campaign also encouraged users on social media to send in their own “refreshing truths”, but Sprite's own examples used on the online ads have been heavily criticised for being offensive. After the adverts drew in complaints, with one Twitter user calling for a revision of “internal policies”, Coca-Cola apologised and removed the online ad, which ran on the Irish men's lifestyle website Joe.ie. A statement released by the drinks company said that it was sorry for any offense caused and that it was intended to “provide an edgy but humorous take on a range of situations”. The adverts have since been replaced.Â
