It was "America the Beautiful" being sung in English, then other languages. It's gotten pissed and angry at Coke over this ad.people are even talking about boycotting them as well.

because certain close-minded jerks believe that being able to speak or sing in another language equals= illegal immigrant, welfare abuser, criminal, gang member, deadbeat, burden to society, lowlife, gay, danger to children, pedophile, sinner, satanist. Let's go ahead and throw coffee drinkers and exmos in there too!

I thought the ad was patriotic. Perhaps some are idiotic.

My TBM sister got upset. I actually liked it.

In most places in the world, patriotism and nationalism are seen as the same thing, and just another form of racism. While patriotism can still be taken too far, in America, it's more a unifying factor for our multicultural society, than a divisive one. Well, except for those who don't realize we are a multicultural society.

Wait. Have you been watching the crowds at soccer matches?

I thought it was just bored twitterbot trolls feigning outrage, not actual people. I like to just ignore the twitterverse.

No, it's very real. I had to defriend someone today because they posted rants (plural) about how outrageous and anti-American the ad was.

She's a gun-toting, gay hating, climate change denying Tea Partier. I suspect she knows plenty of other people who agree with her.

Of all the things in the whole wide world (poverty, genocide, corporate welfare) that are ACTUALLY outrageous, I can't even befin to consider that ad as anything but gorgeous.

lily Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No, it's very real. I had to defriend someone
> today because they posted rants (plural) about how
> outrageous and anti-American the ad was.
>
> She's a gun-toting, gay hating, climate change
> denying Tea Partier. I suspect she knows plenty
> of other people who agree with her.
>
> Of all the things in the whole wide world
> (poverty, genocide, corporate welfare) that are
> ACTUALLY outrageous, I can't even befin to
> consider that ad as anything but gorgeous.

You might be surprised that Tea Partiers are actually vigorously pushing for marriage equality right now on the hill. They are quite libertarian.

Really? Singing parts of a song in other languages is SO scary that people will stop buying coke products? Maybe Coke doesn't want their xenophobic-tainted money anyway.

Funny thing is that when I saw this "controversial" ad, I thought it was sort of a modernization of the ad they did in 1971 - I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, featuring people of all sorts of different ethnic backgrounds who enjoy American soda products. Here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib-Qiyklq-Q

This commercial was almost universally loved when it came out and was very popular. I guess since it was sung all in English is what made the difference?

Considering most of my coworkers are immigrants, and that they are obviously better educated than 90%+ of the people complaining about the ad, maybe we need more immigrants in our country.

We can't sing the national anthem in any language but English. Never mind that "America the Beautiful" is not the national anthem.

Forget that the meaning remains the same in other languages, it is the fact that it is English that is the important part! I mean, English definitely comes from America! Not some bastardized form of German with some french and other things thrown in for good measure and ... oh wait.

Not to mention Latin and Greek.

Oh yeah, forgot that.

Bigots were up in arms about the biracial family in the Cheerios ad. It's not suprise they get riled up about anything that's isn't American in their minds. They're always looking for something to be pissed off about.

Even if this is made up, it's one of my fave stories being circulated:
http://notalwaysright.com/the-first-and-true-language-of-america/31947

about selling sodas to vulnerable populations. I was mostly just annoyed that "God shed his grace on thee" was in English. Because, you know, gotta get God in there.

Well, you know, cause god speaks english.

fossilman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, you know, cause god speaks english.

Specifically, god speaketh Elizabethan English. :)

America represents something universal in the human spirit. I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, 'You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won't become a German or a Turk.' But then he added, 'Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.'
Ronald Reagan, Campaign rally for Vice President Bush, San Diego, November 7, 1988
40th president of US (1911 - 2004)

it is trying to divide us politically

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=28593933&nid=757&title=glenn-beck-coke-ad-intended-to-divide-us-politically&fm=home_page&s_cid=queue-22

Consider the source.

meh, im no racist, but im really tired of immigrants...illegal or not USA is full.

Full? Have you driven around much? LOL!

Near the end of the Coke ad is a brief glimpse of two men skating with a child. It MIGHT represent a same-sex couple and their daughter, and it has the homophobes up in arms.

O/T Is the biracial Cheerios family the same actors as the Cheerios ad in which the daughter pours Cheerios all over the heart of her napping Dad because they'll make his heart healthy?

Yes. And when that first one aired Cheerios (is that General Mills? Not sure) ended up having to state publicly that they were disabling comments to their official videos online. Too many people went BSC and racist-rage over it and wrote appalling things at the site. Particularly/specifically directed at the little girl.

I cracked up laughing when the sequel using the same actors played during the Super Bowl. No one else in the room knew why (except hubs). Well played, Cheerios. Well and truly played.

People hate your biracial family? So then. Make mom pregnant. And add a puppy. Double down, cereal people! Double down.

Awesome, that is.

As Stephen Colbert pointed out on his show on Monday (02/03), the unmarried woman who wrote the lyrics for "America the Beautiful," Katharine Lee Bates, lived with another woman in what is known as a "Boston marriage."

If the homophobes discover there was even the possibility of sexual intimacy between the two women, "America the Beautiful" will be discarded.

Conservative christians don't like to be reminded that this country has a long history of attacking, enslaving, invading, and otherwise terrorizing people from other countries.

They silently wish everyone would just "assimilate already" and when US Citizens choose to maintain their cultural heritage and not forget their native language it makes rich white people very uncomfortable.

No different than mormons who hate it when you bring up church history.

"Not all american history is useful" I guess...

It's not just rich white people. Newly arrived and second-third gen immigrants and people of color often go nuts on this issue, too. Here in Pittsburgh, just ask a mill hunk or first/ever in the family college student whose dad or grandpa came from Czech Republic ( or Greece or Italy or China or Poland or Scotland) and never learned English even after living here 50 years, and they'll tell you that anyone who isn't them, should go back home where they came from. Many of these are poor people themselves, have had public aid, have kids or grandkids in trouble with the law/are doing drugs, doing poorly in school, etc. But "that's different".

Irony.

They not only don't know it, they probably can't spell it.

Prejudice, bigotry and ignorance know no color. Or Religion. Wage scale, or gender. Women do it just as much as men.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2014 09:56AM by bookratt.

The same idiots that are up in arms about the ad are the ones who conveniently forget that America is a country that was founded by - wait for it - immigrants! Shocking. Those pilgrims on the Mayflower were immigrants. In fact, the only ones native to America are the Indian populations. Everyone else was an immigrant.

And did these people automatically come to America speaking English? If they were from England or Ireland yes, but the millions of people from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, etc. didn't speak English automatically when they came in through Ellis Island. Sheesh, I'm so tired of bigoted, small minded people who are really just running scared because they've finally figured out that the world doesn't revolve around them.

I hear the problem was basically down to "real americans only speak English"

[I bet that really P'd off the Native Americans]

There are those that believe that since America has an official language it also has an official ethnicity. Never has. Never will. Also there are a lot of other "official" things we don't have anymore. And that's why we're America.

I don't get the surprise. Coke has always pushed diversity.

I thought the ad was touching. I felt they were trying to portray a country (America) of diverse cultures, but unified by showing a distinctly American culture vignette throughout. Good job Coke.