Coca-Cola apologizes for a holiday ad where white people bring soda to Mexico's indigenous people

Coca-Cola has apologized for an ad featuring people in the Mixe community — an indigenous group inhabiting the eastern part of Oaxaca — that some have deemed offensive and tone-deaf.

The ad shows a bunch of young, white, millennial-types showing up to the town of Totontepec in Oaxaca, Mexico, bearing the gift of soda.

—Lisa Munro (@llmunro) December 5, 2015

It was pulled on December 1 from the official Coca-Cola YouTube channel, Mashable's Megan Specia reports, after "the country's Alliance for Food Health lodged an official complaint with the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred)."

Coca-Cola says the online commercial was supposed to “convey a message of unity and joy," but others felt it was racist and insensitive as well as irresponsible marketing to a country with "skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes."

Here's the ad in full below, which user canera uploaded to YouTube.

The beginning of the ad reads: “This Christmas a group of young people decided to give something very special to the indigenous community of Totontepec in Oaxaca. You, too, open your heart."

Mashable reports,

To counter the harmful messages many felt the original ad was disseminating, The Alliance for Food Health teamed up with young people in the Mixe community to create its own version of the ad. The short video featuring commentary from Mixe people in their native language and includes clips from the original ad.

Here's that ad: