sponsor – The Progressive Midwesterner

AUTHOR’S NOTE #1: The following blog post is an update to an earlier blog post, which I’ve linked to below.

AUTHOR’S NOTE #2: The blog post has been corrected to include information provided by Westville, Illinois Village Board member Darren VanDunyn, who also is the head of the local Lions Club chapter here in Westville.

Here in my hometown of Westville, Illinois, it’s rare for major controversies to occur in local politics. However, a recent political controversy involves St. Mary’s Church, the local Catholic parish here in Westville, sending out “public notice” postcards spewing anti-LGBT bigotry and railing against homosexuality.

The parish’s decision to send out these postcards to area residents has now cost the parish a major partnership. The Westville (IL) Lions Club chapter, which is led by Westville Village Board member Darren VanDunyn, is no longer partnering with, or promoting events held by, St. Mary’s Church here in Westville because of the anti-LGBT postcards sent out by the parish not reflecting the local Lions Club chapter’s values:

The Lions Club wants to make sure a controversial mailer doesn’t affect a big event this weekend. Now, they’re distancing themselves from St. Mary’s Church.

The church sent out an anti-gay mailer last month. On the other side was information about the upcoming Labor Day celebration and parade. The event is partially sponsored by the church.

Members of the Lions Club decided to drop that partnership. They say the message does not reflect their club in any way.

While I’m not Catholic, it is an indisputable fact that, in his tenure at the helm of St. Mary’s Church, Father Sauppé (I’m not sure what his first name is), the current head of the local parish, has repeatedly embarrassed Westville and has alienated a ton of people. Now, the local Lions Club here in Westville is distancing themselves from St. Mary’s due to Father Sauppé’s actions.

Coca-Cola bills itself as “The Official Soft Drink of NASCAR” and has provided sponsorship to several drivers who race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the top level of NASCAR-sanctioned automobile racing, although they’re not the primary sponsor of any Sprint Cup team.

As part of its partnership with NASCAR and several of its top drivers, Coca-Cola maintains a Twitter account designed to market Coke to NASCAR fans, using the handle @CocaColaRacing. However, whoever operates the Coca-Cola Racing Twitter page sucks at marketing.

Coca-Cola Racing tweeted two photos of NASCAR driver Joey Logano, one of several drivers sponsored by Coca-Cola, celebrating his win in the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee in August of this year. The right-side photo shows Logano with no Coke bottle whatsoever (although a Coca-Cola patch on his racing suit is visible), and the left-side photo shows Logano with a Coke bottle that is nearly empty. Additionally, if you were to click on both photos to view the full photos, you’ll find that the two photos are the same exact picture, with Logano holding a near-empty Coke bottle in his left hand (right side from the viewer’s perspective), the only difference being that the photo is cropped slightly differently in the left side photo in the tweet than the right side photo.

It’s not anywhere near as bad as their infamous marketing fail from nearly three decades ago, but, for Coca-Cola to market itself by depicting someone holding a near-empty container of their flagship product is a big fail on their part.