Marketing a beautiful America

We can all agree that the best part of the Super Bowl is the commercials, especially since this year’s game was a complete flop. The Broncos were not half as entertaining as the corporate sponsors. I personally enjoy the humorous commercials, yet the one that stood out the most did not hold any humor whatsoever, only a message of diversity and unity.

This year’s newest commercial from Coca-Cola featured “America the Beautiful” sung in the various languages spoken in America by its diverse population. The commercial showed friends and families together, of course all the while drinking Coca-Cola, and they were all celebrating life and being American and free and whatnot.

Now, this seems like any ordinary, typical commercial put out by Coca-Cola. Most of the commercials I have seen from that company more often show diverse people together, having fun with their Coca-Cola bottles in hand. To me, this new Super Bowl advertisement did not stir any high emotions.

So, why did it stand out?

The backlash from haters (and, yes, I will call the instigators “haters”), whipped up a maelstrom of angry tweets and Facebook comments about how “English is spoken in America, not these other languages,” and there was even scorn about the portrayal of a same-sex couple who embraced with their daughter.

To all this I have only one thing to say: wow.

Every single time a controversy like this comes up, it astounds me that there are still people out there who spout their ignorant and bigoted views about something as harmless as a soft drink ad.

I thought the commercial had a good message, arguably one of the more progressive ones we have seen publicized through the media. It showed America as America is: diverse and changing. We are not all English speakers. We are not all white and we are not all heterosexual.

America is no longer the founding fathers or the Revolution. It is no longer the first 13 colonies or manifest destiny. America is a melting pot of cultures that will keep changing whether the haters like it or not.

When we get down to the heart of the commercial, the main message is not just about cultures or unity or division or whatever the antagonists want to believe it is. It is simply this: please buy this product.

Advertisements are put out to sell. Coca-Cola’s goal is to remind people to keep drinking Coke and buying it so they can make money. Reading too deeply into this kind of advertising will only keep creating conflict and we do not need that kind of poison.

So, if you do not like the cultural message, do not take it personally. Just drink Coca-Cola. That’s what they want you to do.

As for me, I will pass. I like to have my freedom with a refreshing Pepsi.