Superbowl Coke commercial causes backlash - America is Beautiful in English Only?
I was a little hesitant to start this thread because it might turn into a US bashing thread, which is something I wouldn't want to happen
Quote:
Coca-Cola sparked an ugly storm of reaction online after it aired an advertisement during the Super Bowl that aimed to celebrate the beauty of the United States and the diversity of its citizens.
In the commercial, America the Beautiful is sung in different languages by people in various parts of the country.
However, what erupted online was a stream of hate for the ad by people who said America the Beautiful should only ever be sung in the English language, prompting a hashtag Coke likely wasn't expecting #boycottcoke
Being Canadian, would we have a similar reaction if there was a commercial of the Canadian Anthem being sung in different languages besides English and French? I would like to think not, but who knows how people feel when they are behind a computer screen.
Last year, it was Cheerios had some backlash after their commercial featured a multiracial couple.
Anyways, hoping to spark some intelligent discussion on CP
I have never heard Oh Canada sang in any language other than French and English but would be interested to see if it sounds as good in other languages.
My Grandparents were once at an event where they tried to sing the Canadian anthem in french but instead sang Frère Jacques for some reason. That they found a bit offensive.
The amount of controversy is getting overblown by the media causing this to become a bigger controversy than it really is. A few "Fox News" demographic types ran to twitter and facebook to talk about this ad. And when I say a few, I mean a small percentage of the Fox News demographic.
No one is dumb here though, everyone knew that the same people who were upset over the Cheerio ad that you mentioned would be upset over this ad too. Coke made this ad to be controversial to this crowd. I'm not saying they are paying the media to report on the "controversy" but it is exactly what they are hoping for and will play no part in trying to stop it.
I guess this Australian TV clip explains it better than I'm going to:
Edit: also America the Beautiful is just a song. The Star Spangled Banner is the U.S.'s national anthem.
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I don't understand xenophobia, nor the speak English philosophy. Perhaps because I grew up in a country that used the cultural mosaic philosophy and am used to hearing the national anthem in a language other than the one I grew up speaking.
The US subscribes to the melting pot philosophy, and everything is English. So I guess a change of the "ingredients" in the pot change the country and the loss of English is a loss of understanding/comprehension of the surroundings that they've grown up with.
I grew up with another language I didn't understand in the cultural identity (I now understand it). I can see where adding one you didn't know could be scary.
This post is rambling as I'm sorting out my thoughts as I type.
I think that if the US wants to shift to a mosaic philosophy then they need more commercials like the one Coca-Cola did. If they want to stick to the melting pot then the ad is counter that.
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I have never heard Oh Canada sang in any language other than French and English but would be interested to see if it sounds as good in other languages.
O Canada has been sung in Cree a few times before Flames games. The general reaction was "neat".
Public Shaming has a great many more examples of White America's overt racism on display in response to the Coke ad:
My Grandparents were once at an event where they tried to sing the Canadian anthem in french but instead sang Frère Jacques for some reason. That they found a bit offensive.
O Canada sounds best when sung in lounge lizard:
Last edited by Resolute 14; 02-04-2014 at 07:43 AM.
It's a bit of a false equivalence since America the Beautiful isn't the American National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner is.
I'd like to think that Canadians wouldn't fuss much about it, as long as it was done pretty well. I saw the commercial, and thought it very well done.
Having looked at some of the 'thoughts' and whatnot in the twitterverse after the backlash started, all I really had to say is that the people championing so hard for English seem to have an incredibly poor grasp OF the language.
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People neeed to relax, a few people get their panties in a knot and the press runs with it. 99% of the people wouldn't even think that it should be only sung in english, wouldn't even cross their mind. It's the same with everything racial, just like the other thread about sports names. Growing up i never once thought the indians or redskins name was racist. I lived on a reserve and grew up with indians who named their sports teams the indians and redskins, they didn't seem to care either. BUT, the 1% of the world that did gets all the press and makes it seem like all indians care, which they don't.
Everyone go wrap themselves in bubble wrap so you don't offend or hurt anyone today by accidently breathing wrong.
The amount of controversy is getting overblown by the media causing this to become a bigger controversy than it really is. A few "Fox News" demographic types ran to twitter and facebook to talk about this ad. And when I say a few, I mean a small percentage of the Fox News demographic.
No one is dumb here though, everyone knew that the same people who were upset over the Cheerio ad that you mentioned would be upset over this ad too. Coke made this ad to be controversial to this crowd. I'm not saying they are paying the media to report on the "controversy" but it is exactly what they are hoping for and will play no part in trying to stop it.
I guess this Australian TV clip explains it better than I'm going to:
Edit: also America the Beautiful is just a song. The Star Spangled Banner is the U.S.'s national anthem.
What?! You're saying that Coca-Cola made a multicultural ad to be aired during the Super Bowl on Fox to get more attention? That they knew that Fox News would run with the outrage and that they are in a prime location to literally walk next door to CNN for interviews (as both Coke and CNN are Atlanta based)?
All the while Coke is being talked about more, and will act as a catalyst to their multicultural Olympic ads about to start airing further ensuring Coke gets even more free advertising in the form of 24 hour news?
You sir, are a conspiracy theorist! Next you're going to tell us that aliens landed at Roswell and that Elvis is living in Fort Lauderdale.
__________________ "Calgary Flames is the best team in all the land" - My Brainwashed Son
Last edited by Maritime Q-Scout; 02-04-2014 at 07:50 AM.
Reason: Hilarious autocorrect needed correcting
People have way too much time on their hands to get upset and railed up over minor stupid inconsequential things. Now in the words of Richard Pryor "Have a Coke and a smile and shut the f%%k up"
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Superbowl Coke commercial causes backlash - America is Beautiful in English Only?
