Coca-Cola Got It Right with Their Super Bowl Commercial

On February 2, 2014, the United States watched a rodent pop out of his burrow and forecast that six more weeks of winter were coming; and then watched a football team from the northwest corner of the country rout a team from the mountains. During this game, Coca-Cola, an America multinational beverage corporation with a world-wide brand, aired a commercial with the tune America the Beautiful being sung in 7 different languages.

Immediately some folks called for the boycott of Coca-Cola and its products for being un-American. Why? Because some Americans feel that the only language that should be used in the United States is English. That kind of thinking, however is short-sighted because per the 2010 U. S. Census:

1) The United States has no official language and in fact, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act considers it discriminatory to not provide access to government services or information to individuals with limited English proficiency.

2) 20% of the U.S. population (1 in 5) speaks a language other than English at home. In fact, more than 300 languages are spoken in the U.S. and its territories including variants of Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Pacific Island languages, Hebrew, continental African languages and Arabic.

3) If you are not a Native American, then your family is the product of immigration and spoke another language when they arrived in this country. Period.

America the Beautiful is NOT our national anthem. It is an American patriotic song just like God Bless America and Yankee Doodle Dandy. We, as a people, should not fear ANY of our patriotic songs being accurately translated into another language particularly if that language is spoken within the borders of the U.S.

The Statue of Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free….” It doesn’t say, “Give me your wealthy, European, English-speaking, heterosexuals males only.” America was built by welcoming and including diversity into the fabric of our society. In fact, the poem itself, America the Beautiful, was written by Katharine Lee Bates, a professor at Wellesley College and wife of Katharine Coman, the Dean of Wellesley. That’s right, the words to this song which some are up in arms about because it was sung in a language other than English was written by someone those same people would today marginalize as being “un-American” because of her sexuality.

Coca-Cola got it right because as our coinage says E Pluribus Unum – Out of many, one.” Below is the behind the scenes footage of the Coca-Cola commercial entitled, America is beautiful. It tells the story of today’s America much better that I (despite being a beverage ad). It’s a statement of who we are as a nation and who we can be as a people. As I said, Coca-Cola got it right. The outrage is uncalled for.