Language Fail: Coca Cola’s vending machine reads “Hello, Death”

Ridiculous happenings like these trigger laughter like no other. Mãori or te reo is a language spoken by the indigenous population of New Zealand. This historical tongue is now being revived to restore the country’s heritage. In fact, Google is one of the giants which came forward and launched a Mãori version of the search engine. While several other businesses are making use of the language for promotions, Coca Cola came up with a not-so-good idea that ended up being hilarious.

In one of its vending machines, the carbonated drink brand had highlighted the words “Kia Ora, Mate”, combining NZ’s native language and English. This is where irony crept in as the phrase Kia Ora Mate means “Hello Death” in Mãori. Twitter sure couldn’t contain their laughter as they bombed the page with comments. Moreover, in an era where the number of obesity cases in New Zealand is increasing than ever before, a promotion like this comes as an unintentional warning sign from the company.