No, really. The soft drink company’s attempt to speak te reo Māori to our New Zealand neighbours has backfired badly – after they programmed a vending machine to greet users with “Kia ora, mate”.
Sounds friendly enough – “Kia ora” means “be well” – except for the fact that unlike our friendly term of endearment here, “mate”, pronounced mah-the, means “death” in the indigenous language.
Just 3.7 per cent of Kiwis spoke Māori in 2013. But it’s now experiencing a revival with classes being introduced to all schools, bilingual signs everywhere and even Google able to be used in Māori – and markets want to tap into its popularity.
Social media users were quick to point out there was some truth to the slip-up. “Totally spot on it does mean death for a lot of Indigenous people,” one Twitter user said.
50% of Māori adults are obese, and 18% of children according to New Zealand Statistics.
Still we’re sure with some creative marketing, Coca-Cola will be able to win its customers back over.
As they say, she’ll be right mate.
One of the Twitter comments on the slip-up.
