Coca-Cola Joins the Growing List of Major Companies Facing Boycotts — What's Going On?

In recent years, boycott movements have been gaining momentum worldwide. From Amazon to Starbucks, it's clear that plenty of people are ready to hold major companies accountable and push for change in their practices.

Now, Coca-Cola is the latest brand to face growing calls for a boycott. So, what's behind this? Why are people suddenly turning against Coca-Cola? Here's what you need to know.

Early in his second term as president, Donald Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on nearly all goods imported from Mexico. This move was met with backlash from the Latino community, who quickly organized a boycott of several major U.S. companies — including Coca-Cola — as a form of protest.

Through social media, Mexican Americans and other Latinos in the U.S. started organizing their own countermeasures against Trump's tariffs. One of the key initiatives to emerge from this effort is the "Freeze Latino Movement."

For those curious, the "Freeze Latino Movement" encourages Latinos to avoid consuming products from U.S. brands and to refrain from visiting commercial chains.

The goal is not only to impact large corporations but also to underscore the vital role the Latino community plays in the U.S. economy.

Leaders of the movement have called on the Latino community to stop shopping at stores like Walmart and Costco and to boycott restaurants such as Starbucks and McDonald's.

Coca-Cola has now found itself as a target of the boycott, particularly because President Trump loves Diet Coke, the brand's popular diet drink.

However, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, Trump announced that the U.S. and Mexico reached an agreement to delay a 25 percent tariff on all Mexican imports for one month. With that in mind, the Coca-Cola boycott will likely continue.

For those unaware, this isn't the first time Coca-Cola has been targeted by boycotts. Back in 2021, images from an internal diversity training seminar surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) and revealed some of the company's controversial practices.

The content, especially certain phrases that were used during the training, led many to question Coca-Cola's intentions and prompted some to call for a boycott of their products.

The images, which appeared to be taken from a PowerPoint presentation, included odd statements like, "In the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel inherently superior because they are white," and an instruction to employees to "try to be less white."

The pics also included specific guidelines for employees on how to "be less white," which were things like "be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less ignorant, be more humble, listen, believe, break with apathy," and "break with white solidarity."

In response to the backlash, Coca-Cola issued a statement addressing the controversy. The company clarified that the training was part of a publicly available LinkedIn Learning course, and emphasized that it wasn’t solely part of their curriculum. They also said they would "continue to refine this curriculum."

"The video circulating on social media is from a publicly available LinkedIn Learning series and is not a focus of our company's curriculum," their statement explained.

They added, "Our Better Together global learning curriculum is part of a learning plan to help build an inclusive workplace. It is comprised of a number of short vignettes, each a few minutes long. The training includes access to LinkedIn Learning on a variety of topics, including on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We will continue to refine this curriculum."