Brands React Hilariously to Coffee Mate’s White Lotus Piña Colada PR Nightmare

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Be aware, the ending of The White Lotus Season 3 contains spoilers. Make sure to watch all episodes first before using your Max subscription!

In the 2025 television lineup, our stay at The White Lotus concludes, with Chelsea and Rick being the unfortunate souls who leave Thailand in a grim fashion. Despite this somber ending, the Ratliff family’s encounter with poisoned piña coladas was particularly chilling, which is quite ironic given the exciting partnership between Coffee Mate and the show for a piña colada-flavored creamer. Other brands like Cheez-Its, Welch’s, and Pringles have expressed their discomfort over this situation, and I can’t help but be amused by these reactions.

Throughout the season, Timothy Ratliff found himself grappling with the challenge of informing his wealthy family about his involvement in illicit business activities, which could potentially lead to their losing everything. In the final episode, Jason Isaacs’ character opted for a sinister solution: he secretly added poisonous fruit to their piña coladas, resulting in the deaths of all family members except Lochlan, the youngest.

He doesn’t go through with it, but it still put Coffee Mate in a strange position, given the rollout of their new White Lotus flavor just weeks earlier. The company posted on Instagram:

A post shared by Coffee mate (@coffeemate)

A photo posted by on

Despite the grim nature of the circumstances, it’s delightful to see Coffee Mate finding a sense of humor in this situation, considering that Nestle executives allegedly didn’t anticipate the role piña coladas would play in the final episode of The White Lotus Season 3.

It was even more impressive how other brands responded to the news. After Coffee Mate had highlighted their awkward situation, Welch’s Fruit Snacks imitated Timothy (using Jason Isaacs’ voice, presumably) by posting:

The coconut milk is OFF!!

Other businesses also participated, as Kendall-Jackson wines took inspiration from the captivating character of Victoria played by Parker Posey. Their remarks indicated:

  • Kendall-Jackson: Have you ever heard of wine?
  • Pringles: Piper nooooooo
  • Cheez-Its: Crying 😭
  • Dole: 😳😳😳

I’m thoroughly enjoying these reactions and it seems that Nestle, Coffee Mate’s parent company, is handling the potential public relations issue quite gracefully as well. According to Daniel Jhung, president of Nestle USA’s coffee and beverage division, they were not anticipating poisoned piña coladas to play such a significant role in the plot, but upon reflection, the creators of “The White Lotus” had been enthusiastic about it being one of the flavors presented to them. Jhung stated:

It seems the writers held the piña colada’s significant role in the last episode as a secret, which we didn’t realize until later. Reflecting on it now, it appears they were hinting at the different flavors, and when The White Lotus team suggested using piña colada, it suddenly aligns with the direction they chose – it all makes sense retrospectively.

Nestle and Coffee Mate showed more composure than Duke when dealing with their association with the Ratliffs. While Timothy, in a troubling scene where he considered suicide, donned a Duke T-shirt without the university’s approval, they responded by stating that The White Lotus had overstepped a mark by using their brand in such an unauthorized manner.

To watch all the episodes of The White Lotus’ latest season without delay, opt for our Ad-Supported plan at just $9.99 per month! We have three different tiers to choose from after subscribing to Max. Plus, consider purchasing a year’s subscription and enjoy savings up to 20%! Check out the offer now.

Indeed, it’s accurate to say that Coffee Mate was indeed associated with “The White Lotus,” even though their involvement may not have extended beyond the scope of understanding the overall context. In the end, Jason Isaacs managed to have the last laugh with his character Duke, deliberately choosing an intriguing wardrobe for the finale event, which added an extra layer of intrigue to the series.

The events have concluded, and enthusiasts can now enjoy (let’s hope they aren’t harmful) piña coladas as we speculate about potential locations for Season 4.

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2025-04-11 22:07