Coke Ad Controversy

 


   Controversy, real or imagined, is now the "ligua franca" of the United of America. Enough said about that.

   Coca Cola is an international behemoth, rampaging through the planet doing more harm than good. But that's not what this post is about.

  As a drink, Coke is neither healthy, nor refreshing, though it can give an exhausted person a temporary sugar/ caffeine boost. And that is not the topic, either.

   Coke sucks. Let's leave that there.

   But there is one thing that a corporation this size has always been able to do that can't be done without their resources. And that's the ability to buy highly creative people to put on entertaining and effective advertizing, and to place it where everyone sees it.

   And now we come to the controversy du jour.

   Racists, Teabaggers, and right-wing nut-jobs all over the web are up in arms over Coke's multi-lingual rendition of America the Beautiful. It's a pretty song, though I have problems with its overt twisting of the God and Country concept. And I still maintain that a country is made more vulnerable by those that espouse patriotism loudly. And there we start to approach  the crux of the issue. The heart of the controversy.

  I was watching CNN, and they had a guy on that promoted the idea that every American has to learn English to get ahead and have a chance of achieving "The American Dream", and therefore the ad was evil since it promoted multi-culturalism and that foreign languages are bad, or something. As I was watching, it struck me. If you came from another country, or even if you just were raised in this country and knew another language, you would have to also know English to be able to translate the lyrics of that song into whatever other language you wished to sing it. To sing it as effectively as it was done in the commercial, you would probably be functionally fluent in BOTH languages.

  We've become a xenophobic society in America, and one that does not value intelligence. Well, not entirely, but we certainly have a penchant for rewarding and providing a microphone to ignorance as if it had an equal footing with accomplishment and rationality.

   The talking head moderator of the discussion never got to the crucial question. I was waiting for her to ask the guy, "Do you speak any other languages? Are you really just saying that you feel threatened by your own lack of language skills?"

  The huge market that is the Super Bowl  does one thing well. It focuses a huge and brilliant light on the zeitgeist of the nation. The smallest things blow up, and become  valuable discussions about who we are. The Richard Sherman controversy, for instance, brought up questions of race and language (what is the real meaning of the word, "thug"). Every ad gets raked over for intentional or unintentional meanings, and becomes a debate, or several. The nature and meaning of sport comes up in every facet of race, health, economics, politics, religion, education, patriotism, infrastructure, and whatever issue gets your goat at any given time. (I confess, guilty as charged. Not saying it's a bad thing...) And bigots, and "patriots", and the congenitally violent, and the plain stupid of all stripes come out in droves and get a megaphone and fame.

  Back to the point, I'm not saying that ALL the people that are offended by this commercial are uni-lingual. And I have to admit my own limitations on language. I only speak English, and my readers are free to argue over my fluency on even THAT...But I'm not proud of the fact. I see it as a short-coming. But too many of the people in this fight, I think, are only getting pissy because they lack the ability to speak other languages, and lack the capacity to understand what a talent, what a gift, that ability is.They fail to see the value it offers to all of us. Out of fear, out of ignorance, out of jealousy, and out of false "patriotism".

  So, nice ad. Coke did good. They still suck.

The making of an ad vs. the making of false controversy.

Steven Colbert addresses the issue as only Steven Colbert can. Hilarity ensues.

Allen West gave the lie away. "The words went from English to languages I don't recognize." He became confused, afraid, and embarrassed at his lack of comprehension. The fault was within himself.