Coca Cola and Rocks..!!

As I am working on my final paper on Coca Cola and related ethical issues in India, I am getting to read various controversies that Coca Cola has been responsible for in India. Recently I came across a news article which said that Coca Cola has been alleged of painting the 45 million years old rocks in a northern state of the country in order to advertise for its company at a really low cost..!! The environmentalists of the country argued that such harm to the ecological balance was irreparable because the company’s next step was to try to get rid of the paint using gallons of thinner (a chemical) which eventually would seep into the soil thus adding harmful chemical to the water table. On the other hand the company was not ready to shoulder the blame or the allegation and shrugged it off to the local distributors and advertisers. Now the questions that come to my mind while studying for the case analysis are that is Coca Cola the first and the only company that did such an environmental hazardous advertising in India? And if not then why didn’t the authorities ever bother about such a practice earlier? Further is it ethical on the part of a “big renowned multinational company" to avoid the costs that it could have incurred by a sensible promotion? However, the court did a good job in getting to penalize the company in less than a month by convicting the guilty and ordering restoration work. But it really seems unethical for Coca Cola to exploit the national heritage of a host country by escaping costs. In simple terms, even a four year old realizes that scribbling on the walls would deface them…I wonder why Coca Cola could not understand this when it operates an international level.