Coca-Cola aired the following commercial during the Super Bowl. Given recent discussions here, I thought I’d solicit responses from the readers of this blog as to what they make of it.
Note: you may have to plow through someone else’s commercial to get to the commercial in question (usually by waiting patiently for a few seconds, and then pressing “skip ad”).
UPDATE: You may learn much from this (h/t Russell Bonds):
Crossroads 
I liked it. I thought it showed immigrants are as American as anyone else, and that they could be as patriotic and proud to be Americans as anyone else. I imagine that scares some people.
I agree 100% with Al.
I also agree with AL 100%
In thinking about the commercial more, I think it would have been cool of them to juxtapose the Muslim-American girl with a rural Pentecostal girl from Georgia or somewhere. Some Americans are “scared”of evangelical Christians too and could use some wholesome marketing of a proud Pentecostal girl.
Or maybe Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or Al Mackey shaking hands with a Confederate re-enactor????
I’m pleased with it.
Richard Spencer said it best: “All races, all cultures, existing happily together in one country, drinking corn syrup.” The USA is a marketplace, not a nation. Like the Grammy Awards, the Coca-Cola commercial at the Super Bowl heightens the perception that “America” is something else, a foreign place, and dampens the willingness here to sacrifice for it.
Hey Brad,
Howz the Chick-Fil-Lalala and the insipid duck quackers doin?
Making lots of money. Capitalism is wonderful ain’t it?
And it can be done with promoting diversity, no hate needed!
Chick-fil-A and Duck Dynasty aren’t doing it with hate though. If they were doing it with hate they wouldn’t be making money.
They are and they do, they appeal to the most ignorant of demographics
No they don’t. Chick-fil-A was handing free food across Atlanta during their recent disastrous snowstorm. The Chick-fil-A I occasionally goes to is mostly staffed with Hispanics. These workers are the most ignorant of demographics?
And Duck Dynasty preach a message of love to everyone. Phil Robertson has never owned a Confederate flag in his life. Oh yeah, he and his family are targeting “the most ignorant of demographics”.
I think you need to look at yourself in the mirror man and think about your own prejudices. The world and these comment threads will be a better place for it.
Brava!!!! Lyle, you said it better than I. I can only add: ditto. I hate racism and bigotry, but all kinds of folk are guilty of it.
We watched it live and enjoyed it: a beautiful rendition of one land. But as it ended Judy commented that it would bring complaints: imagine, saying that Americans can speak more than one language. The English Only folk will freak out!
It was great ! Lucky for me English was the only foreign language I ever learned !
I’m sure my mother-in-law hates it; anytime she hears someone speaking Spanish, she’s convinced they’re saying nasty things about her that they don’t want her to hear.
Makes it tough, living in El Paso.
It’s perfect in every way. And accordingly, it is very clear that Brooks should adopt a multi-lingual platform for this blog. Going forward, the posts should appear, randomly, in English, Arabic, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Hindu, Russian, French, and German. That might scare some people, and even freak them out!
PS- One does wonder why, though, the two white, middle-aged heterosexual males posted in English. Very odd.
¿Por qué tienes tanto miedo de dos, hombres heterosexuales blancos de mediana edad, Carter / Austin? Muy extraño. ¿Está usted inseguro sobre su sexualidad? ¡Hasta luego!
Wunderbar!
Carter isn’t making much sense in English.
Leave it to the intellectually deficient racist to completely miss the point.
Love it for 2 reasons. 1. It personifies everything America should be. And 2. It upset Connie Chastain and ANYTHING that makes Connie and her racist minions unhappy puts a smile on my face. Well done Coca Cola!
Well, you are correct in that there was an outburst from our friend:
Yes, I’m a Southerner first. Yes, I’m a secessionist. But I grew up American, and I retain enough loyalty to my culture, American culture — not to the government, not to the leftist agenda — but to American culture, that I found this offensive almost to the point of abominable…
Alas, I can’t start boycotting this scalawag company because I’ve been boycotting it since it came out in favor of abolishing the real Georgia flag and replacing it with a PC one. But if others wish to join me, I’d urge them to acquaint themselves with all of the company’s brands:
This from the person who claims that the people she despises are the real haters … oh well.
It’s Ironic that the champion of heritage comes out decidedly against heritage today.
She’s only interested in the right … white … kind of heritage.
“Yes, I’m a Southerner first. Yes, I’m a secessionist.”
That’s a pretty difficult start to recover from no matter what follows.
I know a lot of Southerners by choice who speak Spanish.
I thought that played to an American exceptionalist attitude. All this other hoopla is the bigot backlash against diversity.
I thought it was great. I just cannot wait for all the racist bigots that hate what America stands for to leave this great country. I wonder how they like being a minority of stupid ignorant backwards people while the majority is leaving racism and bigotry behind?
Reading the comments to her comment over there makes it apparent. I volunteer to personally escort this crazy b**** outta here. She’s not “American” in any way.
Well, “Austin” (Powers?) responds:
It’s a foul, filthy, and grotesque advertisement. Utterly dishonest and drenched in leftist propaganda. A boycott will have no impact, but sign me up anyway. Pepsi from now on.
This is surprisingly tolerant of Austin, for Pepsi’s come out strongly in favor of gay rights.
So “Austin” actually embraces certain types of diversity.
See, it’s okay for some people to mock those folks who complained about Chick-fil-A or an actor on Duck Dynasty as being narrow-minded, but when other groups offer a vision of America that differs from their vision, they behave the same way. I believe people have a right to respond as they choose. They do not. Surprise.
Pepsi is a d*** Yankee company. What kind of scalawag does he think he is?
I think your trying to create controversy where none exists. The coke commerical was just one of
a package of Super Bowl commericals that were as average as I can remember.
I can assure you that there’s an ongoing controversy about the commercial, so your initial assertion is incorrect. However, at first I was not aware of just how controversial the commercial was in some circles.
I stand with my statement. Seems that the all the hubbub is coming from the left, just trying to stir up the right.
Not exactly, at least from what popped up on Sunday.
But it seems that if it all was a leftist plot to make conservatives look foolish, it worked. That wouldn’t make conservatives look too bright. So I might go with another explanation unless you want to stir up conservative backlash … and thus be hired to help do more Coke commercials. 🙂
That commercial caused controversy?!
Kan vi barre stoppe dette tullet?
Man er ikke norsk med mindre man kan navngi fem typar snø.
Kan vi bare stoppe dette tullet? Arbeidet med dine språkkunnskaper.
On n’a pas chanté L’Améique la Belle en français!
Notre allié le plus ancien.
Det nonsens vil avsluttes når du stopper kontering tull.
Out of many, one.
And Coca Cola is as southern heritage as it gets (founded by a former slave owning Confederate officer). Coke is so southern, or some parts of the deep south, that people like myself use it to mean anything from Sprite to Delaware Punch.
Yep.
“Do you want me to get you a coke while I’m in the store?”
“Sure!”
“What kinda coke?”
“Pepsi.”
I don’t use it this way as much anymore, because I recognize it will confuse some people, but it’s definitely a word a used a lot as a kid.
If it’s the “Real Thing” ™ isn’t it Co’cola?
HAHA! This is what the free market and free speech looks like … they mad?
Coke, Pepsi… It’s all poison. That Coke has profited to the point of easily affording the multimillion cost of such a commercial on the Super Bowl simply indicates that the US, hence the world, has literally swallowed their propaganda. Factor in the environmental devastation of the sugar cane industry, farm subsidies to fat cat corn farmers/corporations, and we have an ecological and health care catastrophe of global proportions. The entire world suffers by it.
So, Coke can over pay some Mad Man ad corporations to concoct such touchy-feely propaganda to sell the Big Lie that soft drinks are mystically contributing to the physical and spiritual betterment of humanity. Ironically, if I were a xenophobic racial/sexual/religious bigot, I would rejoice to see everybody else swilling this anathema. It saddens and outrages me to see such, and to think that corporations like Coke have and will continue to profit from such misery.
A couple of decades ago, I read that the three most valuable monetary exports of the US were Marlboro, Budweiser, and Coca Cola. I don’t recall the relative order of the three, but is that not a condemnation of us? Praising or condemning the Coca Cola corporation about this Super Bowl commercial is to miss the big picture. It is buying into the whole “bread and circuses” mentality of contemporary pop culture — fiddling while Rome burns. Don’t drink their Kool Aid.
Coke, Pepsi …. in other words, diabetes water. It’s the single most important reason that America is one of the fattest countries in the world.
exactly what he said
America has no particular “face” that represents our country. We consist of many faces and cultures under one flag. Commercials were well done.
I always though John Wayne served as the face of the U.S.
You know, the guy that featured American masculinity, rugged individualism, spoke fluent Spanish and married three women of Hispanic descent.
Correct.
“America” is not a nation in the traditional sense of the word. It is a marketplace, one nation under the dollar, where the point of existence is to make as much money as possible. Its sick popular culture reflects that.
So Brad does this mean you have abandoned Capitalism and are now a Socialist?
A friend of mine, Isabel Otero, offered up her own words on this situation. I was hoping to generate a response from her with my latest post. Isabel is a Peurto Rican American; we’ve talked before about the balancing act of being an American (a Southern one at that) without losing her native culture.
Rob, I liked your post, as well as the link to your friend, Isabel, Her paper is excellent, and I like the phrase that America is a stew rather than a melting pot. In Richmond there are various ethnic groups that have festivals each year that are attended and enjoyed by folks of every other group and I include the WASPS. I like the idea that each ethnic group can retain its own identity, all the while being patriotic Americans..
No one wants to forget his or her roots.
I was shocked by the ugly quote from another blog. I had not read that before.
I was shocked as well, though admittedly, I guess I should not have been.
I’ve always thought of it as a chamber pot.
So Brad, you hate America and you hate Capitalism, if you shake the racism you can join the Communist Party!
I dislike economism.
Even if America was 100 percent White, I would still dislike economism.
Oh geeze…another “ISM”…you’re getting more and more hippy by the day.
Next you’ll be playing “If I had a hammer” on a guitar in Lafayette park and begging for change outside the Chamber of Commerce.
LOVE that Sean Hannity actually supported the commercial on his TV show last night. Bet there was a lot of spit takes from his regular audience. Maybe there is hope for him yet.
我只是不明白，为什么这里所有的白人继续用英语写的。在哪里Arabaians，拉丁美洲人，中国人，韩国人写在他们的母语？这是为什么博客网站，所以非多元化？
顯然，你無法讀取挪威或西班牙語。任何人都可以使用谷歌翻譯。
funny how this guy just keeps on making himself look bad…..its 2014 screw u ppl who don’t believe in diversity,,,freedom of speech and the right to bear arms..This PROUD MEXICAN AMERICAN SAYS KISS MY BROWN ASS!!!! WELL PLAYED COCOCOLA!!!!
ה עדיין לא נראה כאילו האתר הזה הוא מאוד מגוון, במיוחד לנוכח העמדות רב התרבותיות בהחלט באו לידי ביטוי. מדוע יש מגוון כל כך מעט כאן?
What, no vowels?
אנשים של כל סוגים יכולים לפרסם כאן. אפילו אתה אנשים של חכמה נמוכה.
America, named after an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci. Florida was claimed by Spain at one time, Then a large segment was acquired from France. Before all that there was a large and thriving indigenous population made up of many nations. It was also a product of British, French amd Spanish imperialism at one time. It’s a diverse place, don’t think any one culture holds a monopoly on this place. Explore, learn and enjoy.
Not to mention New Netherlands and their city New Amsterdam (New York City), which by the time of the revolution featured some like 18 different languages.
Don’t forget Nya Sverige!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden
Ha! Thanks for the colony of obscurity!
Charles, let’s not forget that large swath of the American west that was once owned by the likes of Spain, Mexico and, believe it or not, Russia. 🙂
I eat at Chik – fil -A because they serve Coca-Cola to fine Atlanta products. It would be interesting if idiots who didn’t like the commercial became much healthier because the stopped drinking soda. Coca – Cola promoting unity and expanded market share and Pepsi overtly supporting homosexual rights. What are the idiots to drink … water.
BEER !! That will really help their brain(?) power !
just how American is E Pluribus Unum – what’s wrong with English people!
“What’s wrong with English people!”
The stereotype is, they have bad teeth and can’t cook.
” E Pluribus Unum” Latin? Considering America was named after Amerigo Vespucci.maybe a Latin phrase fits 🙂
But they did give us Monty Python and Harry Potter!
I also don’t believe there is ‘A’ American culture, I don’t think the definite article ‘A’ fits well in that statement. As big and diverse as this place is , it’s a composite of many cultures. Examples ,New Orleans, Charleston SC, New Your City,Philadelphia ect. All old American cities but very different.This country as the rest of the world is filled with unique cultures , people and places.
As usual, Colbert skewers the racists.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/432753/february-03-2014/coca-cola-s-diverse–america-the-beautiful–ad
Jo. Bílé chlap pozoruje, v angličtině, že druhá bílá-guy "špejle" jsou rasisté. Ten probodl je v angličtině, samozřejmě. Musí být provedena "pouze anglicky" dav zbláznit!
(And for all you unsophisticated ‘English only folks)
So the white-guy observes, in English of course, that the other white-guy “skewers” the racists. He skewered them , of course, in English. Must have made the “English only” crowd go nuts!
On vám ukáže, a vám podobní jsou blázni, jste ubohý červ.
Brooks, I loved the commercial. My husband is the son of immigrants who were very good citizens. They loved this country. i was deeply moved by it.
Υπήρχαν οκτώ γλώσσες στην εμπορική ότι όλοι έτσι απολαύσαμε, και σωρούς τόσο πολύ επαίνους για. Και όμως είμαι ακόμα ο μόνος απόσπαση σε άλλες γλώσσες εκτός της αγγλικής. Γιατί, όπως ακριβώς, συμβαίνει αυτό;?
Επειδή είστε ένας ανόητος που δεν καταλαβαίνει ανεκτικότητα των άλλων γλωσσών δεν σημαίνει ότι κάποιος πρέπει να μιλήσουν άλλες γλώσσες
Looks like everyone here hates whites. My question is why?. Are you folks trying to tell me only whites can be racists. Oh yeah, what ever happened to the buzz word you folks like to throw out isn’t it “tolerence?” Where did it go? I know pretty musch each and every one of you love to attack Southern Heritage with your insults, lies and bigotry and I do see some shots fired on this page. So is it you just hate the white race or whites with Confederate ancestors
Come on, George. You can do better than that. When is celebrating diversity and multiculturalism hating white people? Only a white supremacist would say that.
Brooks, I have enjoyed reading all the comments re the co-cola commercial. Wonderful and welcoming Americans all, but I can see a great deal of dislike towards some individuals
that are perceived as racists. Racism can be a part of any race or nationality. Maybe I should have used the word, ‘racism’ instead of dislike. Don’t ask me to name the recipients of such ire, You all know of whom I write. I happen to think that Mr. Purvis is not completely wrong.
George Purvis said , “Are you folks trying to tell me only whites can be racists.”
I’m definitely not saying this, because for a fact people who aren’t white can be racist too. And some anti-racist white folk kind of talk like people who aren’t white are some innocent children, which is actually sort of racist. Like for example, there probably are some Spanish speaking El Pasoans who have probably said something disparaging about someone who looks like Andy Hall’s mother-in-law before. And there are some other folk who trumpet multiculturalism and ironically can’t do it without denigrating people, especially certain white folk, who aren’t perceived to be as multicultural as themselves. Hate and bigotry are all around us and come for every which direction, including ourselves. No categorized group we all can come up with is perfect. I’m with you on this.
I also only have Confederate ancestors, that I know about. And I don’t hate them. They were who they were and they had their reasons to fight for the Confederacy or against the United States. I’m proud they served their similarly minded family and neighbors. I won’t deny though they were on the pro-slavery side of the war, regardless of their personal reasons for soldiering.
“Racism is a doctrine or teaching, without scientific support, that does three things. First, it claims to find racial differences in things like character and intelligence. Second, racism asserts the superiority of one race over another or others. Finally, it seeks to maintain that dominance through a complex system of beliefs, behaviors, use of language and policies. Racism ranges from the individual to the institutional level and reflects and enforces a pervasive view, in whitedominated U.S. culture that people of color are inferior to whites.”
http://www.tolerance.org/article/racism-and-white-privilege
Hindi ba ay nagbibigay sa amin din ang British electromagnetism at ang Magna Carta? Oh, at Hamlet. Lamang sa halos scratch sa ibabaw. Bilang kabaligtaran sa sinasabi, ang kultura ng mga Filipino, na nagbigay sa amin, na rin, talaga wala.
Ang aking kapatid na lalaki-sa-batas ay Filipino at ibinigay niya ang aming pamilya ilan sa aking mga nieces at nephews, rasista mo mga hamak na tao.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Filipino_inventions_and_discoveries
Click to access Troubling%20Air%20Force%20Statistics_March2013.pdf
Выше некоторые очень интересные данные, касающиеся военно-воздушных сил. И это после двадцати пяти лет агрессивных программ позитивных действий. Я полагаю, ВВС, что вы потратили большую часть своей жизни в было белым, как Thunderbirds.
So there is a certain sort of American that got pissed off that Coke had a song that was written in English sung in many different languages last night during the Superbowl. I get it. When God wrote the King James Bible in English, he did it for a reason= Because ENGLISH RULES BITCHES!
I hate songs in languages other than the ones they were written in. For example,, on Christmas Day I’m hearing the organist setting up “Oh Come All Yee Faithful when all of a sudden the choir starts belting out “Adeste Fidelis.” When the heck did they translate that golden oldie into Mexican? You don’t want to sing it right, go the hell back to Bethlehem.
My own response to the Neo-Confederate blogger
The use of languages other than English by immigrants is an important aspect of America’s cultural history. There were many immigrant regiments in the Union army and some in the Confederate, that employed languages other than English on a daily basis. Weren’t these immigrant Americans as much a part of our heritage as the native-born English speaker.
I fights mit Sigel was definitely an American saying! And this commercial displayed many of the same beauty of which our country is so lucky to have. Yes, we have an homogenized society but there are fantastically diverse ways to show “Americanism”. There are festivals in the North End of Boston, the SXSW event in Austin, Mardi Gras, The Essex Vermont Quilt Festival, BorderFest in Rio Grande, the World’s Largest Disco Festival in Buffalo, National Cornbread festival of Tennessee, Mendocino Music Festival,Galax Virginia Music festival, Pioneers Day, Three Rivers Festival, Wyomings Gold Rush Days.
I could go on and on.
All show what a wide definition of what being American is.
And folks who get upset about thsi commercial should be just as upset when Irish American’s party on ST Patrick’s Day and sing songs in Gaelic. or is taht okay because that’s Anglo?
I loved the commercial. The sentiment expressed made me proud with its graceful expression of America’s traditional and original promise. I was quite surprised at the twitter-storm of hatred and bigotry regarding it; much as I was at the outrage over the Cheerios commercial (though not as much, considering some of the reactions to the first Cheerios commercial featuring this family, aired in 2013).
I count myself incredibly privileged to have grown up with, lived around, and counted as friends and family members people from a wide range of ethnicities and nationalities. My essential humanity would be much the poorer for not having had those experiences. It saddens me that people who call themselves Americans can be so hateful about something so beautiful. But, as my great-great grandmother used to say, “Some folks is just *born* mean.”
Well you folks certainly have changed my mind. I see thing in a different light now.
That being said I woukld like to say that now I do support the Muslim community building a mosque on the 9/11 site. I think we all should get behind them if this issue is still alive.
George Purvis