Lebanon Daily News, Coca-Cola’s Multilingual “America” Ad Didn’t Hit Any Wrong Notes

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Even if you’re not a football fan, you likely know that Super Bowl commercials are big business — thirty seconds will set you back about $4 million. They are also seen as important barometers of American culture in complex ways. Likely the most controversial of the 2014 Super Bowl ads was an ad for a product that, around the world, is synonymous with America: Coca-Cola. The ad centered on the song “America the Beautiful,” and the issue was language or, more properly, languages. As you’ll learn in this selection, during halftime, tweets began flying about the commercial, and the following day, conservative commentators in particular were highly critical of it.

This unsigned editorial appeared on February 3, 2014, the day after Super Bowl XLVIII. The Lebanon Daily News is the local newspaper of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and it has a circulation of up to 50,000. The city itself has a population of just over 25,000, 74 percent of whom are White, 32 percent of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino, 6 percent of whom are African American, 3.2 percent of whom identify as multiracial, and 1 percent of whom identify as Asian American. As you read, consider why and how language quickly becomes such a powerful symbol for many things — in this case, a particular understanding of nationalism as patriotism defined for many by the language in which one sings.

Coca-Cola’s Multilingual “America” Ad Didn’t Hit Any Wrong Notes

FROM THE LEBANON DAILY NEWS

When spending more than $4 million for 30 seconds of America’s attention, one’s first job is to assure that whatever is put in front of it is remembered 30 seconds later; ideally, days later.

For Coca-Cola, call it mission accomplished.

One of Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl ads featured “America the Beautiful” sung in eight different languages. They were: English, Tagalog, Senegalese-French, Hebrew, Mandarin, Keres Pueblo, Arabic, and Spanish.

Well done. We’ll defend that stance in just a moment.

5 Before that, it’s worth noting that portions of the Twitter universe lost their collective mind after the commercial aired. The hashtag #f---coke started trending hot as irrational ’Murricans utterly misplaced their patriotism and, ape-like, started heaving poop at one of America’s iconic brands.

Freedom means the right to make an ass of oneself, allowing others as gently as possible, to point out the fact.

America: English! That’s what some Twitterers were saying; that’s what they wanted. A patriotic song rendered in America’s language.

There are, according to statistics cited in a Huffington Post article (see http://huff.to/1nJc0Sn), 381 languages spoken in these United States. That is a potent passel of patois in which we Americans freely engage. One of those used in the commercial, Keres Pueblo, is a Native American tongue that was used in this nation before there was a hint of a nation.

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We can’t fathom that the argument should gather much traction here in the Lebanon Valley, steeped as we are in our Pennsylvania German traditions. Yes, our forebears learned English, but PA Dutch still gets trotted out for occasional use in church services and when watching stuffed groundhogs predict winter weather, as happened just this weekend.

10 There is nothing wrong with multilingualism. If anything, we don’t spend nearly enough time learning at least a second language. That is both an American-centric and educational failure.

The first thing the commercial proved is that the song sounds pretty good regardless of the language in which it is sung. The second thing it proved is that there are individuals who believe in the words even if the language in which it was originally written is not the one that came first for them.

Yes, we believe those living in the United States should learn English. It is not the official language but it has been, since the nation’s inception, the accepted common tongue, and it will continue to be. Our inclusive society requires some desire on the part of others to be included. Learning English is a part of that inclusivity.

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But it does not mean that we are forced to unlearn those things that defined us before we came to be Americans. We can be just as patriotic, and we can act just as freely, if we sing those words in English or in any of the languages listed above and any of the others that were not.

In the final analysis, for Coca-Cola, this was money well spent. Here we are, still talking about that ad.

RESPOND •

  1. As this editorial acknowledges, it is making two arguments simultaneously, one about what makes a commercial successful and one about what makes a country successful — or doesn’t. Summarize each as a definitional argument. (See Chapter 9 for more on definitional arguments.) What role, if any, does or might language play in this second argument? Why or how?

  2. Watch a video related to this commercial, “Coca-Cola — It’s Beautiful — Behind the Scenes.” How does this second video provide additional background or context for the first? Do you imagine that critics of the original ad also viewed this second video? What do you think their response would have been? Why? Did it change your response to the first video? If so, in what ways?

  3. One of the most interesting aspects of this editorial is its use of language, particularly informal language that one might associate with humor and even mockery and that might not be appropriate in many contexts. Make a list of these uses, and be prepared to explain what function they serve in creating the tone of the editorial and in supporting its argument. (Chapter 13 discusses style in arguments.)

  4. The controversy about the Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial focuses on the uses of languages other than English, particularly in a song associated specifically with the United States. While it is not uncommon for a certain strand of conservatives to object to the use of languages other than English in public life, their complaint in such cases is usually that they cannot understand what is being said. In this case, since all the critics know the lyrics to this song by heart, the issue cannot be that they do not understand the meaning of what is being sung even though they likely cannot understand the words themselves. What, then, do you imagine the basis for the complaints was? Were the complaints about language, or was language a symbol for other things? What other things? Why does language have this power?

  5. The Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial is memorable for many reasons. Write an analysis of this advertisement as a multimedia argument. (See Chapter 16 for information on multimedia arguments and analyses of them.)

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