Coke Multicultural Super Bowl Commercial Causes Stir

Coke’s Multicultural Super Bowl Commercial Causes a Stir

The undisputed key forum for which to premiere television commercials is the Super Bowl. The game’s massive ratings allow for exposure on a biblical scale. Auditions that lead to commercial acting jobs for Super Bowl ads are the goal of every aspiring actor or model. But the price of airtime during the Super Bowl demands that the company who produced the commercial actually have something to say. Super Bowl commercials are expected to be the funniest, cleverest, most moving, and/or most thought-provoking and controversial ads that the producers can muster. This year’s Coke commercial did a good job serving up the latter. The ad features a multilingual rendition of the song “America the Beautiful.” It begins in English, then switches languages every phrase for a total of seven different dialects. Each language is matched to immigrants of the appropriate ethnicity. It is a statement, and endorsement, of the racial and ethnic diversity of people that makes the US what it is and shapes its overall character. The ad provoked a huge social media response. Some people were moved by the message and agreed with the multicultural presentation of the song. Others are appalled by the altering of “America the Beautiful” by singing it in any vernacular other than English, the US’s official language. Coke has issued a statement defending the ad, stating the virtues of diversity. They stand by their advertising decisions. In any event, the commercial did its job by getting people talking and Coke is certainly relishing the attention it has brought them. There is no such thing as bad publicity.