Viral image
Viral image
stated on June 10, 2021 in a Facebook post:

Coca-Cola made cans that say “Try to be less white.”

False

No, Coca-Cola didn’t make ‘Try to be less white’ cans

If your time is short

  • Coca-Cola didn’t make cans that say "Try to be less white," according to the company. 
 
See the sources for this fact-check

After Coca-Cola pointed its employees to a diversity training course on LinkedIn that encouraged people to “try to be less white,” misinformation about the company started to spread on social media. 

We already debunked one claim that Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said “a few right winged nuts won’t affect our bottom line.” 

Now people are sharing an image of a Coca-Cola can that says “Try to be less white.”

The company told PolitiFact that Coca-Cola has not created or distributed such a can. 

Posts sharing images of the can were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

“The mock Coca-Cola can appearing in some social media feeds was not created, distributed or authorized by the Coca-Cola company,” the company said in a statement sent to PolitiFact. 

We couldn’t find the original image of this can — with or without “try to be less white” appearing on it — but in February Snopes looked into a different picture of a can that also said “try to be less white.” 

That original photo is available on Shutterstock.com, and “try to be less white” doesn’t appear on the can. 

We rate this claim False.

 
Our Sources

Facebook post, June 10, 2021

Facebook post, June 7, 2021

PolitiFact, No, Coca-Cola’s CEO didn’t say this about conservatives, Feb. 24, 2021

Snopes, Did Coca-Cola add ‘Try to be less white’ to cans? Feb. 24, 2021

Shutterstock Coca-Cola can picture, May 8, 2014

Statement from the Coca-Cola Company, June 10, 2021