Who knew a Coke commercial could cause such an uproar?
According to Yahoo News, many viewers took to Twitter to voice their outrage about Coca-Cola's Super Bowl commercial entitled 'It's Beautiful," featuring "America the Beautiful" sung in seven languages of all different backgrounds.
Moments after the commercial aired, a firestorm of criticism emerged from social media users stating that the commercial displayed "complete ignorance." The commercial that featured images of several different groups of people from around the world, including an openly gay family, left users swearing to never purchase the popular beverage again.
One user described the multilingual commercial as "terrorist languages." Yet Katie Bayne of Coca-Cola North America said that the ad reflected the brand's most important values.
"For 127 years, Coca-Cola has been proud to be a part of bringing friends and families together while memories are made," Bayne said. "With 'It's Beautiful,' we are simply showing that America is beautiful, and Coke is for everyone."
Bayne said that the ad "will not end when it fades to black." Released in conjunction are behind-the-scenes content, interviews with cast members and Youtube videos of individuals who sang "America the Beautiful" in their native language.
Coca Cola is also promoting the #AmericaisBeautiful hashtag on Twitter and Facebook so that viewers can share stories and pictures of on a Tumblr gallery called "America's Selfie." Yahoo News reported that selected images from the Tumblr page will appear on the New York City Time Square Coca-Cola digital billboard.
The popular beverage brand also plans to debut a 90-second version of the commercial during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Coke having a commercial with an American song in other languages... not cool. Coke. GTFO with that.
— KYBlackoutTFM (@KYBlackout) February 3, 2014
Apparently this is a thing? A super racist thing RT @DRichardson94: Some terrorist were singing our song in that coke commercial #superbowl” — Kat Merrick (@MerrickKat) February 3, 2014
Well.. I won't be drinking #coke anymore. We speak English in the #USA. Get over it.
— Stephanie Weaver (@stphniwvr) February 3, 2014
