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'Help me' plea found under multiple bottles of SoBe drinks causes concern

What would you do if you lifted up a bottle cap to find the message "help me" underneath it?
/ Source: TODAY

Consumers of SoBe tea, fruit juice and enhanced water around the country have been getting a sour taste from their drinking experience lately due to pleas for help found stamped under the bottle cap.

Now, admittedly, SoBe (which is owned by PepsiCo), has a tradition of putting quirky comments under their caps:

But it's hard to know how to interpret this particular "funny" comment. For one thing, it calls to mind a worker in a factory so desperate for assistance that they are reduced to sending a literal message in a bottle to the wide world.

Think that hasn't happened before? It has, again and again.

As the International Labour Organization notes, over 21 million people around the world are in forced labor situations, including children. It is not a funny subject for any of them.

SoBe has not commented outside of social media, but is instead responding with a stock comment on Facebook pages where these caps are being displayed: "Hi there, we're sorry that our cap slogan caused you concern, that was certainly not our intention. These sayings are intended to give our consumers a little smile or pause for thought, not offense, while they enjoy their favorite SoBe beverage. We are planning on removing this cap slogan from our current rotation, however, it will take a while for existing stock to run through the market."

So while this might not be a call for actual help from an actual worker, arguably it did what SoBe hoped: Gave pause for thought. However, it might have been less successful at making people smile.

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