Coca-Cola is going through great lengths to apologize after a bottle cap message offended some of their loyal beverage drinkers.

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The popular soft drink brand?recently issued an apology to a family after they purchased a Vitaminwater with a bottle cap bearing what they felt was an offensive message.

Details + photos below…

According to?Metro Calgary,?Blake Loates of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada says?she was shocked when she opened her beverage and found the words “YOU RETARD,” written inside of the cap.

[Sidebar: The language was particularly painful to her and her family as one of Loates’ younger sisters, Fiona, 11, has cerebral palsy and autism.]

The cap inspired Loates’ father, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., to issue a lengthy letter of complaint to Vitaminwater’s parent company Coca-Cola, which stated in part:

“What would you do if you opened up your bottle of Vitamin Water and on the bottom of the lid it read, “YOU RETARD”?”

“Think about it. I bet you’d be pissed off if you had a Fiona in your life? Can you imagine if SHE had opened this bottle?”

Doug Loates swore off the beverage company for life but representatives for Coca-Cola have since issued an explanation, stating that the language inside of the cap was the product of a competition pairing one random English word with a second random French word. In French, “retard” means “late” or “delayed.” The word’s English connotation was missed during the review process, said a spokesperson.

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Shannon Denny, director of brand communications for Coca-Cola Refreshment Canada, told ABC News:

“We have spoken to the family to offer our sincerest apologies and to explain the production process to them.”

“This is certainly not an excuse in any way for what has occurred. We wanted them to know that this was in no way intentional and was a mistake on our part during the review process.

We also wanted to share that the promotion has since been cancelled and we are no longer producing bottles with those caps.” (source)

In other words…

Denny said that the company would also be posting their apology on the Vitaminwater Canada Facebook page and sharing through twitter on both @vitaminwater_ca and @cocacolaco_ca and there’s probably some young bottle cap stamper (who thought it all was funny) on the unemployment line as I type.

“It was never our intention to offend anyone with this promotion,” said Denny.

“This was a mistake during the review process and we are taking steps to investigate and rectify the situation. We hope that our consumers can accept our profound apologies.”

What do you think of Coke’s ‘RETARD’ mistake?

Do you accept their apology?