Americans not happy with Coke

Augmerson

Some* Yankee doodles were mighty pee'd off at the Coca Cola company for it's Super Bowl ad. The ad is heyor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggzr0GxnPBU

What is pissing people off apparently is that this song (which is a very patriotic song, like seeing Fields of Athy to us) is being sung in languages other than English. You can hear Spanish amongst other languages - I can only guess what the other languages, maybe some Arabic too.

There was uproar that this song was sung in other languages. Real angry, ugly racist hatred. You could take a look at this Tumblr with some of the best Twitter posts to get an idea of the angry and hateful reaction some people had.

http://publicshaming.tumblr.com/post/75447787843/speak-english-racist-revolt-as-coca-cola-airs

I thought the ad was really nice. America to me has always been this melting pot of cultures. It wouldn't bother me if someone was singing our national anthem in another language (as it is, ashamedly I can't sing it now :l). Would it bother you?

* by some I mean not all and by not all I mean not everybody only some

Jesus Wept

MERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRICAAH.

Look, if they come here and speak american, okay. But if they speak foreign, they are terrorists and they should go back to their caves and camels where we can blow um up.


Edit: Whatever Coke marketers thought that was a good idea are a bit silly.

J_E

I thought it was a fairly harmless and pleasant ad.

I like how Americans pretend to have a heritage when they essentially hijacked the land they live in. Some things never change

Dyr

America has always been a melting pot of cultures but they were only there to add spiceyness to the plain white WASP meal

DrumSteve

The Fields of Athy?

anncoates

SUPER BOWL

SpaceTime

The fact that it is that huge melting pot is exactly why it became such a huge cultural force in global terms in the 20th century.
Coca-Cola really sums up how a US brand can be a global success. It was actually one of the first brands to really go fully global and really embraces the fact that it is a global brand.

If the US retreats into some kind of inward focused, xenophobic mess (very unlikely as most Americans aren't at all like that) its economy would shrink and shrivel up!

spurious

Bambi wrote: »

America has always been a melting pot of cultures but they were only there to add spiceyness to the plain white WASP meal

...and to serve those spicy meals, in a non-uppity way.

I'd quite like someone to do similar treatment of Amhrán na bhFiann. I thought it was cool.

Hande hoche!

That ad needed more Arnie.

goose2005

ᏧᏣᏔᏊ ᎨᎦᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎯᎸᏍᎩ ᏥᏍᏆ ᎠᏠᏯᏍᏛ ᎤᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎢᎬᏱᏗᏢ ᎬᏙᏗ Ꮭ ᏕᎦᏅᏙᎬ, ᎯᎠ ᎠᏂᏝᎲᏍᎬ ᎠᏍᏓᏯ

Dyr

spurious wrote: »

...and to serve those spicy meals, in a non-uppity way.

I'd quite like someone to do similar treatment of Amhrán na bhFiann. I thought it was cool.

We could sing it in southside like "Oirlands Cawll"

Hande hoche!

goose2005 wrote: »

ᏧᏣᏔᏊ ᎨᎦᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎯᎸᏍᎩ ᏥᏍᏆ ᎠᏠᏯᏍᏛ ᎤᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎢᎬᏱᏗᏢ ᎬᏙᏗ Ꮭ ᏕᎦᏅᏙᎬ, ᎯᎠ ᎠᏂᏝᎲᏍᎬ ᎠᏍᏓᏯ

Yes I did see Kurt Russell during the coverage.

MJ23

What they don't realise, is that they're all immigrants, except for the natives, who are treated like shyt.
Silly nation.

WoollyRedHat

In an ideal world, these people would be taken out and shot, while the American National anthem played over.

SpaceTime

Can't imagining singing a multi-lingual Fields of Athenry would cause any offence at all here.

I mean, when you consider we exported Paddy's Day to umpteen global capitals to the point that we have the Chinese joining the party and turning things green.

Patrick's Day here is also not really some kind of show of die-hard exclusive patriotism either. You seem to find everyone jumping in and being Irish for the day in their own unique way, even if they're just visiting.

To me, that kind of touchiness that a very small minority of Americans are being so vocal about this ad simply shows a complete lack of self-confidence in your national identity.

All this redneck, right wing, xenophobia is doing is damaging "Brand America" as a positive cultural symbol.

Jesus Wept

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

In an ideal world, these people would be taken out and shot, while the American National anthem played over.

in foreign...?

landsleaving

Ridiculous. The uproar should have been about how awful this ad was:

Dravokivich

So, what's seen as the epitome of NFL and the greatest show on earth, was completely one sided with the other team better off not showing up and they complain about an ad?

SpaceTime

I'd be more annoyed about a sugar-laden soft drink sponsoring a sporting event :P

Triangla

In fairness they should have sung it in Native American.

Not those foreign languages like English.

D-FENS

Wait until they hear "The holidays are coming, holidays are coming" in Islamic

SpaceTime

How about we just not give them the publicity that they're so desperately seeking and is probably being provided by Fox News ... so let's just have lunch instead of discussing it ad nauseum.

WoollyRedHat

Our Year wrote: »

in foreign...?

Yes, most certainly. Preferably in Spanish, for a jovial sendoff.

dodderangler

DrumSteve wrote: »

The Fields of Athy?

Low lie the fields of ATHY. Where once we did nothing cuz it's ATHY.

Ah good times

D-FENS

DrumSteve wrote: »

The Fields of Athy?

It can be lonely 'round there too ya know...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I too feel those 40 odd people accurately represent an entire continent sized nation

I am suitably outraged

Hande hoche!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

I too feel those 40 odd people accurately represent an entire continent sized nation

I am suitably outraged

Yep Twitter is useful for manufacturing a story on how racist/sexist/xenophobic people are.

MarkR

English isn't actually the official of the US. They don't have one. It's been brought up a couple of times, but it was deemed too divisive.

Guess they were right. :-)

darkpagandeath

Pfff was there not outrage over some talent contest too that a brown person won and Immediately people were Arab this Arab that all over FB and so on .. Turns out the woman was Indian.

KungPao

D-FENS wrote: »

Wait until they hear "The holidays are coming, holidays are coming" in Islamic

Arabic?!

You sound a bit like those redneck loons :P

"God damn A-rabbs, comin' here talking this damn Islamic shiit"!

Eutow

Dravokivich wrote: »

So, what's seen as the epitome of NFL and the greatest show on earth, was completely one sided with the other team better off not showing up and they complain about an ad?

The actual game is always a lower priority compared to the half-time show and the adverts.

Jester252

So that's something

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

My favorite comment is;

"it's America and the USA language is English... not all this foreign shít"

Arthur Beesley

KungPao wrote: »

Arabic?!

You sound a bit like those redneck loons :P

"God damn A-rabbs, comin' here talking this damn Islamic shiit"!

I guess 'Redneck loons' is also racist...

cherryghost

Jesus some of the comments coming up on their FB page is horrendous.

dodderangler

Arthur Beesley wrote: »

I guess 'Redneck loons' is also racist...

Calling someone racist is also being racist

D-FENS

KungPao wrote: »

Arabic?!

You sound a bit like those redneck loons :P

"God damn A-rabbs, comin' here talking this damn Islamic shiit"!

I was thinking more in terms of the religion (you know, because them darn Islamics don’t celebrate Christmas…) and the style of music / chanting usually associated with terrorism in US media, which you could accurately still refer to as Islamic, rather than the language used.

darkpagandeath

Arthur Beesley wrote: »

I guess 'Redneck loons' is also racist...

You would think that but that's not correct plenty of Educated people in America with xenophobic ideas + religious zeal. I would wager the latter are far more dangerous than a few idiots.

Carlos Orange

MarkR wrote: »

English isn't actually the official of the US. They don't have one. It's been brought up a couple of times, but it was deemed too divisive.

Guess they were right. :-)

English is the official language of about half the states in the US.

darkpagandeath

psinno wrote: »

English is the official language of about half the states in the US.

And is it not the Language of the Law ?

hoodwinked

Kimora Tasteless Sliver wrote: »

My favorite comment is;

"it's America and the USA language is English... not all this foreign shít"

that's mine too!

i love the fact what is lost on these people (besides the grammatical/spelling rules of the english language) is the fact English is a language from England,


which is *drumroll* foreign!

Augmerson

It's sad because those kind of people giving out about the Ad ruin it for genuine and reasonable Americans. I know many of them and I'm glad to. And it just reinforces many people's perceptions that Americans are ignorant and xenophobic and hostile.

Arthur Beesley

Other languages suck. English rocks.

Hazys

Yes, there is uproar about this ad alright in the US, so many news sources are complaining about this but you were only able to find some lad's blog posting about this where he quotes a handful of twitter posts.

SpaceTime

An English friend of mine had the experience of being asked by someone in the US "What language do you speak in your country? Your English is really good!"

(This was after a long conversation about how she was from ENGLAND)

They also kept telling her they didn't serve that in America when she asked for "water". So she kept having to order coke or beer as they just couldn't understand her.

Irish people actually have fewer problems in the US (unless you've a totally weird accent) as we pronounce H and R closer to US English. It's just that we also tend to use loads of words they don't understand.

Tokyo

psinno wrote: »

English is the official language of about half the states in the US.

Yep, but it's not the official language of the USA. USA doesn't have an official language if I'm not mistaken....

westcoast66

MJ23 wrote: »

What they don't realise, is that they're all immigrants, except for the natives, who are treated like shyt.
Silly nation.

The natives are immigrants too. They arrived about 12,000 years ago.

WilyCoyote

DrumSteve wrote: »

The Fields of Athy?

One cn only asum its txtspeak.

By the way, Athy is a metropolis - few fields ......... full of paving, patios, pubs and piss artists.

Stojkovic

The official language of the USA was very nearly German. German being the biggest ethnic group.

Tokyo

Stojkovic wrote: »

The official language of the USA was very nearly German. German being the biggest ethnic group.

True. The margin was tiny, only a few votes, if I remember correctly.

WilyCoyote

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Pfff was there not outrage over some talent contest too that a brown person won and Immediately people were Arab this Arab that all over FB and so on .. Turns out the woman was Indian.

East Indian, West Indian or your actual Indian Takeaway?