Super Bowl Coca-Cola' ad: why so mad, bro?

[I am not sure yet]

Hello everyone!

 

I'm not American and I sure don't like football - neither understand it. But Super Bowl commercials are famous and mostly very impressive. After I watched this year's Coca-cola ad, my first thought was: wow, that's beautiful and touching! Then, I had the terrible idea to read the comments about it. And then I gave up hope in humanity. It' awful to see how much hate and prejudice there's still out there. To sum up, there's a bunch of people saying the ad was offensive to the American pride (well, they didn't put it so nicely).  

 

My point is: did you guys find it offensive? I didn't, and I wonder why people got so mad. I'd like to hear your opinion!

 

Here's the video, for those who haven't seen it yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8iM73E6JP8

 

 

[St Andrews Lynx]

I thought it was offensively schmaltzy and tacky. Because I'm cynical and British and find that God Bless America stuff embarrassing.

 

The racial, multilingual stuff I didn't even notice, nor would I have been bothered about it. After living in Switzerland for a year I believe that Multilingual Is Good (learning a new language isn't easy, man!) and the more exposure I have to different cultures, the more enriched I feel... 

[LittleDarlings]

I thought it was cool. A good representation of America as a melting pot but I saw a ton of my Facebook friends who said God Bless America should only be sang in English and that it's disrespectful. To each their own.

[Henry Hudson]

it seems like the people offended were mostly the anti-immigrant, 'English only', 'tea party' sorts who apparently genuinely believe the propaganda they are fed, propaganda that distracts them from larger econo-political issues by scapegoating anyone not like them or their idealized 'good old days'. 

[TakeruK]

I am from Canada, where our idea of multiculturalism is a "mosaic" instead of "melting pot". From what I understand, the "melting pot" model wants immigrants to be absorbed into American culture, so that immigrants are expected to adjust themselves to melt into American culture.

 

In the "mosaic" model, immigrants to Canada are encouraged to incorporate Canadian culture but there is no expectation to completely become Canadian. For example, in metro areas of Canada, you can find entire communities that are all Chinese, or Ukrainian, or whatever. All the signs (even in domestic terminals) in my home city airports are at least trilingual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trilingual_signage_at_YVR.jpg) even though the only official language in that area of Canada is English.

 

So, I feel like one exception people took to this commercial might come from the fact that this commercial is more of a "mosaic" than a "melting pot". Instead of speaking American English, the Americans in the song are singing an ode to America in their native languages. To me, I think this was very beautiful and I felt pride for America despite not even being American! 

 

I thought the commercial was totally appropriate. I would understand objection to singing a national anthem in a different language because translation can change connotation and for an official national anthem, there should be official version(s) that should not be deviated from. But this song is not a national anthem. It's just a beautiful song celebrating America, and I thought it was very beautiful for this song to be sung by all types of Americans (including a same-sex couple). 

[VioletAyame]

Yes it is extremely sappy but I have to admit I was touched by it even though I am not American. Then I thought people will go (positively) crazy for it because well, it is sappy. Then I heard the "outrage" that exploded on Twitter and honestly I'm not surprised anymore. It kind of makes sense too as a response of the far right conservative considering the potential immigration reform and the growing anti-immigrant and xenophobic sentiments among that group. My advice? Ignore them. They won't go away unfortunately but what else can you do? I don't even want to talk about this anymore. I mean there was a debate between Bill Nye and a creationist guy (I forgot his name) who is the director of a creationism museum. A creationism museum, yes. So really, there's nothing else to be done.

[VioletAyame]

I thought the commercial was totally appropriate. I would understand objection to singing a national anthem in a different language because translation can change connotation and for an official national anthem, there should be official version(s) that should not be deviated from. But this song is not a national anthem. It's just a beautiful song celebrating America, and I thought it was very beautiful for this song to be sung by all types of Americans (including a same-sex couple).

Apparently quite a few outraged patriots thought America The Beautiful IS their national anthem.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I thought it was cool. A good representation of America as a melting pot but I saw a ton of my Facebook friends who said God Bless America should only be sang in English and that it's disrespectful. To each their own.

You live in Ohio. The only melting pot you've seen was in the housewares section at Wal-Mart.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Now I'm the bad guy? What happened to Coca-Cola?

[spectastic]

People are forgetting that this is a country built by immigrants.

 

Also, there are a lot of dumb, fucked up people on the Internet.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MEsOzzunPQ

btw this is the commercial (link is not working in the original post). And the comments on it are a lot nicer than those posted by the ignorant shitheads.

Edited February 10, 2014 by spectastic

[slaNYC]

As a public health PhD student I think it's interesting that few people are talking about the fact that this product is linked to obesity, poor health outcomes, and growing inequalities...  

 

 

   see: http://gu.com/p/3meve

[spectastic]

As a public health PhD student I think it's interesting that few people are talking about the fact that this product is linked to obesity, poor health outcomes, and growing inequalities...  

 

 

   see: http://gu.com/p/3meve

Journalists will write anything to get their paychecks and promotions. 

[glm]

Richard Sherman "exposed" the racist heart of American football fans two weeks before the super bowl, and this commercial is a confirmation of the same kind. 

 

And, in the end, a super bowl commercial is just another marketing ploy by a giant corporation. 

[starofdawn]

I'm an American; I love football, and I loved that commercial. Optimistically, I think people who made a stink about that commercial are the kinds of people who love to start drama, rather than expressing sincere xenophobia. They probably didn't think long and hard about their opinion before posting it on their social media outlet obsession, just wanted an excuse to start internet flame wars.

[Maziana]

As a public health PhD student I think it's interesting that few people are talking about the fact that this product is linked to obesity, poor health outcomes, and growing inequalities...  

 

 

   see: http://gu.com/p/3meve

 

I actually think that article makes a great point! Personally, I can appreciate well-done commercials, but dislike commercials in general because they rarely focus on the actual merits of a product. Instead, they rely on psychological manipulation and positive associations to get you to buy things. And now that I think about it, many people may go out and support Coca-Cola after this ad, and sure, obviously Coca-Cola is not particularly healthy.

 

I don't quite know if I believe it will make a noticeable negative health impact on marginalized populations... but it's a possibility.

 

That said, people who had an issue with this commercial due to it not being completely in English are mostly just bigoted. I saw someone posting on facebook about "diversity for its diversity's sake" and how they hated it in this commercial... that is the kind of person who would be happy if every commercial showed straight, white Americans without strong ethnic ties so they could pretend they are the only kind of people who exist in the USA... and showing anyone different is "too much diversity!!"