Furious gay rights groups in New York have defiantly poured bottles of Coca Cola down the drain in protest against the company's sponsorship of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Russia.
The gutters of New York City ran red with a stream of empty bottles and cans littering the streets, in an effort to encourage the corporation to rescind its sponsorship of the Russian Games following the country's implementation of anti-gay legislation.
Gay rights groups have poured bottles of Coca Cola down the drain in a protest at Times Square in New York
Demonstrators, made up of LGBT groups, claimed that the soft drinks giant "supports hate" by staying silent towards Russia's controversial new law on gay propaganda.
The protest in Times Square was sponsored by Queer Nation – the same group who launched a boycott of Russian vodka starting back in July.
In a statement, the group said Coca-Cola is associating its brands with "state-sanctioned gay-bashing."
The group's co-founder Alan Klein, said: “Coca-Cola is sacrificing the safety and security of Russian LGBT people for profit – a position that opposes fundamental Olympic principles, runs counter to the International Olympic Committee charter, and that will tarnish its global image for decades to come.”
“Sponsoring the Games gives legitimacy to the host nation and that is exactly what Coca-Cola did when it sponsored the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany.
"We hope that Coca-Cola does not ignore its own history and does the right thing by refusing to support another regime that targets groups for hatred.”