Napkins with printed slogans encouraging airline passengers to connect with fellow travelers must have seemed like a great idea to marketers. But some actual passengers were not so quick to embrace the idea of slipping personal information to a stranger.
Paper napkins with Coca-Cola branding made an appearance on some Delta flights. They include the message “because you are on a plane full of interesting people and hey…you never know.”
Napkins received from @Delta on Wednesday flight seem unintentionally creepy, especially after reading the smaller print. Swing and a miss, @DietCoke. pic.twitter.com/eKaMruqqUR
— Mike J (@MJJoe) February 1, 2019
The other side has a space to write your name and phone number. Smaller print reads: “be a little old school. write down your number and give it your plane crush. you never know…”
#delta #coke remove these napkins they are creepy #TimesUp #boycottcoke pic.twitter.com/Kj5v4wsWjZ
— CEMGO1 (@CEMGO1) February 1, 2019
CBS news reports that Delta and Coca-Cola are apologizing for napkins.
Coca-Cola “sincerely” apologized to anyone it may have offended. “We worked with our partners at Delta to begin removing the napkins last month and are replacing them with other designs,” CBS News reported.
Delta said: “We rotate Coke products regularly on our aircraft as part of our brand partnership, but missed the mark with this one. We are sorry for that and began removing the napkins from our aircraft in January,” CBS News reported.
But not all reactions were negative. Some napkin recipients shared praise for the idea.
This Atlanta passenger loved the clever idea.
Clever! Love the new napkins @Delta @DietCoke @CocaCola @ATLairport pic.twitter.com/wgOhWKw9J1
— Ben Starling III (@benstarling3) February 1, 2019
And this one was happy to take the message in stride.
@Delta I support you and those cute ass napkins! Lol people always finding a way to be mad. Sincerely- a happily partnered male looking at the lighter things in life.
— Brent Hunter (@bphunter07) February 6, 2019
