You might be a hopeless, hate-filled piece of shit IF...

[Barack_America]

...a patriotic song, professing love and admiration for your country...amidst images of joyful, smiling faces...sung in sweet, child-like voices in some of the many languages spoken in your country...fills you with a blinding rage.

If something that innocent and sweet can piss you off that much, you're probably a hate-filled piece of shit. If you then feel compelled to go on the interwebs and demand that everyone "speak American" (whatever the fuck that is), then you definitely are. And you are a discredit to the country the song is about.

[LeftyMom]

1. What does patriotism have to do with selling sugar water?

[dionysus]

2. dunno, but the ironic thing is, to get coke like it used to be, you have to get the kind made in

mexico; real sugar instead of HFCS.

[Barack_America]

4. The product is one thing, the message is another.

The message was "we are all Americans" and that is what is pissing the knuckle-draggers off.

The suggestion is our love for Coke is what unites us, which is a bit silly, but whatever.

[LeftyMom]

23. It's a commercial. The message is "buy Coke."

Tying the product to something you already like is not exactly a new phenomenon, it's how tits sell mass market beer and men throwing haybales around sell pickups.

[SomethingFishy]

33. Coke could have used a different message to sell their crap...

That they chose this is a sign of progress. I didn't watch the game but I saw some of the commercials and if you ask me it looks like advertisers were doing their best to slip in plenty of progressive/liberal ideas into their message. The Coke spot, the Axe "make love not war" ad, The Bob Dylan "made in America" ad, the Cheerios interracial ad...

It could have been way worse, Coke could have used "tits" to sell their product but they didn't.

[Kablooie]

25. The ad got a hell of a lot of notice and the whole country is talking about it.

And everyone knows it's from Coke.

There will be a lot of Coke sold in the coming weeks because of this.
Even the haters will think "Coke" and buy them just because it's on their mind.

It is actually an amazingly brilliant marketing campaign.
Don Draper would be proud.

[OmahaBlueDog]

44. That "Sugar Water" is America to a huge portion of the world

The rest of the world enjoys the aspartame water.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. As Annette Bening said in the film "The American President"

...."These are the kind of people who claim to love America but clearly can't stand Americans."

[MrMickeysMom]

43. Thus describing the limbaugh...

The gutless "american" propped up behind his folds of sweat and microphone…

Before admitting that he thought the advertisement featuring "America the Beautiful" sung in multiple languages was created by the GOP, Limbaugh criticized the commercial.

"If you think the best way, if you are convinced that the best way to sell Coca-Cola to Americans is to sing America the Beautiful in multiple languages, then why don't you produce the product with labels printed in 10 different languages?" he asked. "Is that the way to sell Coca-Cola?"

I liked one of the comments at TPM… "Hey Rush, you are aware that Coca-Cola being the brand would remain the same in ads for different languages, right? Sort of like McDonald's in other countries is still McDonald's. God, this guy is an idiot."

[OmahaBlueDog]

45. Ummm...they've printed the labels in multiple languages many times

One of my favorite stupid things to do around Passover (note, I'm not Jewish) is to go buy the Kosher-for-Passover coke with the Hebrew lettering (it goes back to when I was a kid).

[A HERETIC I AM]

46. Arabic coke bottle;

China;



Dozens more, I'm sure.

Yes, Rush Limbaugh is an idiot.

[Whisp]

5. Don't be fooled by a sweet commercial, it's manipulation.

http://www.laborrights.org/creating-a-sweatfree-world/ethical-consumerism/news/11434

The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers
Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Company is perhaps the most widely recognized corporate symbol on the planet. The company also leads in the abuse of workers' rights, assassinations, water privatization, and worker discrimination. Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia were killed after protesting the company's labor practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola workers who have joined or considered joining the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL have been kidnapped, tortured, and detained by paramilitaries who are hired to intimidate workers to prevent them from unionizing.

In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by privatizing the country's water resources. In Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola extracted 1.5 million liters of deep well water, which they bottled and sold under the names Dasani and BonAqua. The groundwater was severely depleted, affecting thousands of communities with water shortages and destroying agricultural activity. As a result, the remaining water became contaminated with high chloride and bacteria levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and stomach aches in the local population.

Coca-Cola is also one of the most discriminatory employers in the world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American employees in the U.S. sued the company for race-based disparities in pay and promotions.

===
this is from 2005 but there is a lot of similar info out there.

[Barack_America]

8. The commercial was sweet. I'm not going to buy more Coke products.

I don't care what the product is, if scenes of happy faces singing about the beauty of our land, but in different languages is enough to make you spitting mad, that's pretty pathetic.

[Whisp]

10. who me? I'm not spitting mad because of the different languages.

I think I may have misunderstood you and that you are pissed at the baggers' reactions. Well, that's what they do.

I'm mad because coke is hiding their true evil with Madison ave. trickery, thats what they do, and no amount of nice ads should cloud that.

I think both Coke and the baggers reactions suck.

[Barack_America]

16. Not you, "one". I misspoke.

Honestly, I don't recall seeing an ad for a completely ethical product. I don't know if one even exists that makes enough money to warrant a Superbowl buy. This is more about marketing strategies, one of which is to tug at the heart strings by appealing to goodness in human nature. This was clearly the goal of this marketing strategy. My argument is that if this commercial managed to stir hatred in one, then that person is probably hopelessly hate-filled. I felt the same way about last year's biracial Cheerios commercial.

[TheMathieu]

19. I'll still enjoy my Coke Zero tonight and not lose a wink of sleep. nt

[malaise]

31. We'd never buy Coca-cola but that was a great ad

It won't change out mind on the product.

[JNelson6563]

6. They love America like OJ loved Nichole.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. Indeed!

[Vashta Nerada]

7. What if a corporation was cunningly using diversity to sell you their stuff?

Coca-cola is a shitty company. Their pop is horrible for you, it's filled with HFCS, and all they want is your money.

[Barack_America]

9. You think the people freaking out on twitter are pissed about the HFCS?

The merits of the corporation and the product are not the focus of this OP.

[Vashta Nerada]

11. Uh-huh.

[TheMathieu]

13. Yep.

People trying to make their anger about Coke's products without endorsing the message in the ad are just as bad as those that hated the ad for highlighting diversity.

Plus, I love Coke. Coke Zero with, GASP, ASPARTAME. I demand it. They provide the supply. God forbid.

[Scootaloo]

20. While true, we're talking about htep eople punching htemselves in rage over the commercial mentioned

Seriously Vashta, can't you go shit in someone else's shoes for a while, and let DU discuss thigns without this debbie downer bullshit?

[GoneOffShore]

30. That was really well put.

I love the line "....go shit in someone else's shoes for a while...". I really do.

[Scootaloo]

32. Inspired by at least three cats I have owned

Goddamned cats.

[Vashta Nerada]

36. "Debbie downer bullshit"

The world isn't full of rainbows and butterflies and unicorns.

Don't like what I post? Don't respond.

Simple, right?

[Skidmore]

35. Well, people do have the ability to choose whether to purchase a product or not.

Contrary to popular belief on these boards, not every person is a lemming being led around mindlessly. And people can entertain more than one thought in their heads at a time.

[Cha]

12. Oh they want Coke to

"burn in hell"! BarackAmerica!

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. Coca-Cola Inc's ONLY objective was to play both ends against the middle...

And fuck me if it didn't work like a charm. Cue the sound of sheep. This morning the Coke haters outnumbered the Coke lovers. This evening... not so much.

Baaaa I love Coke because they thumbed the eye of my enemy. Baaaa I hate Coke because they disrespected my language

Coca-Cola is betting more sheep will love the commercial than will hate it. The sheep will respond. They always do.

Who wins in the end? Coca-Cola, NOT the sheep. Baaaa great commercial!

[TheMathieu]

17. I loved Coke before the commercial.

And I love it after.

I love aspartame-filled drinks and the occasional drink loaded with HFCS because it tastes good to me. I demand it. Coke supplies it. The world doesn't end.

Kudos to them for providing great products and a great ad.

Come back from the fringe, the water's fine.

[NuclearDem]

41. While exploiting workers and natural resources.

That you're proud to stand by that is pretty disgusting.

[liberal_at_heart]

18. Just because I like the commercial doesn't mean I'm going to become a zombie and

rush right out to the grocery store and buy a 2 liter of coke. I gave up soda about 5 months ago and my soda of choice was always Dr. Pepper. I never drank coke, but I love that commercial.

[jeff47]

15. As always, there's an XKCD on that.

[IrishAle]

27. HA!

I am so stealing that to piss off family.

[okaawhatever]

38. I read that one of the languages in the ad was a Native American language. Even better

listening to the right wingers implode over what's "American".

[King_Klonopin]

21. I drink Moxie, that singular tonic from New England, detested by millions. D-licious!!

Remember the old Coke commercial "I'd like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony..."

that was another example of subversive, liberal, hippie, Communist, new-
world-order, propaganda.

[aggiesal]

22. Remember this . . .

When Coca-Cola gather people from around the world,
from all nationalities to sing

I'd like to buy the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees
And snow white turtle doves.

Chorus:
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to buy the world a Coke
And keep it company
That's the real thing.

[Beartracks]

24. Gotta be ignorant of American heritage to think those languages are "foreign" here. n/t

[Deep13]

26. Nah, no one is truly hopeless. nt

[Soundman]

28. Can someone please enlighten me?

I only paid partial attention to the ad. Is the issue about people learning to speak English or just people freaking out overhearing the song performed in different tongues by a culturally diverse group?

[okaawhatever]

40. It's about the song "America the Beautiful" being sung in other languages, which brings up the

bigots favorite...you should only speak English in America. Oddly, one of the languages spoken was a Native American language so they will have to deal with their cognitive dissonance on that.
There were also gay people in it so there's all kinds of things for freepers to hate packed into that thirty seconds.

[Soundman]

48. Thanks,

I don't believe a common language is a bigoted proposal in itself, but I for sure know bigots that espouse these types of ideas. I just feel it is an affront to all non English speaking immigrants who are here and struggled to learn a new language (sometimes at an advanced age). And where do you draw the line? Do we change our entire system to cater to a few thousand who speak a different language? If not, you are discriminating against someone.

Not that you would care, but I just had a major and semi public gutter type word war with several wing nuts on face book. I imagine that commercial sent them into orbit, especially when my closing to them was; the nation is turning multicultural, and in turn going to the left and that they are on an ever shortening end of a greasy stick. So I can only imagine. Of course those types are so sure they know all truths and the rest of us are just too stupid to understand, so it probably just reinforced their greatness to themselves.

[frwrfpos]

34. if you support union busting companies

that like to shit on their workers and have no problems buying garbage products from and supporting CEO's and Boards of Directors that give a big middle finger to working and parade propaganda around to sell their tooth rotting garbage at highly inflated prices...you might be a hopeless ,hate filled piece of shit....just sayin.


oh, and fake propaganda to sell a product is not patriotic. Its propaganda

[indepat]

37. Well said

[1000words]

39. Americans sure love wallowing in melodrama

The entire country is one big junior high school.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Just a point of order, if you are a linguist

you do know what "American" is. You also know there are regional versions of it.

Don't tell conservatives though.

Oh and I know the differences very well. After all I did learn English and then had to learn the nuances of American. They go beyond harbour, vs harbor, or flat and apartment, or lorry and truck. Take my word n this one. Oh and it is sure to piss off the crowd you speak off.

[Rex]

47. Thus began the great corporate soda wars.