SuperBowl, Coke, WTF?

[Mister Freeze]

America The Beautiful sung in something other than English? I don't think so. Call me what you will, ban me, even. That's just not OK.
What's next, the Star Spangled Banner?

[Cyberfly]

Dude, I felt the same f'n way.
My wife, a school teacher, said that this whole 'Common Core' crap is feeding the kids this argument that they're fighting against the 'melting pot' that America has been for 225 years because they want to fight the 'Global idea of ONE language, one government, etc...'
I call BS.
I'm sorry, but America is a MELTING POT. We take in people from all over the world, glean the very best of each culture and assimilate people, making them our own. We have one language, one purpose...to make America the greatest nation in the world.


At least, we used to. Now, it's all touchy feely, 187 different languages is FINE. 187 different cultures is FINE. Don't bother to learn our ways, we'll ALL bend over to accommodate YOU.

[Mister Freeze]

That's why we keep falling further behind. We enable the weak instead of strengthening them. Don't better yourself and learn the language and ways of the country hosting you, just extend the borders of your homeland here. Let's spend money on multilingual street signs instead of textbooks. Let's condone your subversive sentiments rather than stand up for ourselves at the risk of offending you.

Not this guy.

[Rapier1772]

I noticed it too, and also thought it was in poor taste.

But then I was disappointed about pretty much except the game this year. Not saying "Yea Seagulls!" Just saying it was football & better than what was on most of the other 60+ channels :laugh:

[ddouglas]

I also thought the Coke commercial was disrespectful of America and American values. I attempted to tell them so via their "contact us" link on their website. But that link provides a contextual-reply computer to respond to queries. It doesn't seem to understand negative comments.

[ddouglas]

Today's edition on Breitbart.com carried an article by Michael Leahy, entitled "Why Coca-Cola's Multicultural 'America The Beautiful' Ad Was Offensive." He hit it on the head, I think. In one paragraph he wrote, "As far as the executives at Coca Cola are concerned, however, the United States of America is no longer a nation ruled by the Constitution and American traditions in which English is the language of government. It is not a nation governed in the Anglo-American tradition of liberty. It is instead a nation governed by some all inclusive multi-cultural synthesis of the various forms of government in the world, as expressed by the multiple languages used in the Super Bowl ad to sing a uniquely American hymn that celebrates our heritage."

No more Coke for me.

[panzermk2wife]

Just saying it was football & better than what was on most of the other 60+ channels :laugh:

We didn't watch no stupid football game or the overpriced stupid commercials. I recorded the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.

At least all the puppies showed up for the game

[blueorison]

I posted this on FB.

I don't post often on FB, just because there isn't anything fun or substantial on there, anymore, just gun companies getting free ads.

On occasion I troll Lisa's posts

[ddouglas]

Blue! Facebook? Really?

[blueorison]

Blue! Facebook? Really?

haha I use it to message people. It might as well be twitter, now. The more interconnected people are, the more they try to publish themselves, and the less personal and emotionally connected they are.

It's ironic.

What has allowed the interconnectivity of millions has allowed them to become less connected with each other.

Empathy is displaced with ego, and often confused with sympathy.

[PainKillaX]

Blue! Facebook? Really?

haha I use it to message people. It might as well be twitter, now. The more interconnected people are, the more they try to publish themselves, and the less personal and emotionally connected they are.

It's ironic.

What has allowed the interconnectivity of millions has allowed them to become less connected with each other.

Empathy is displaced with ego, and often confused with sympathy.

#tl;dr

[nrv216]

Just saying it was football & better than what was on most of the other 60+ channels :laugh:

We didn't watch no stupid football game or the overpriced stupid commercials. I recorded the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.

At least all the puppies showed up for the game

Puppy bowl rocks.

nrv216

[firestorm248]

Did i miss something, i thought the Star Spangled Banner was the national anthem... :p

[grimmond]

The National Anthem sung in something other than English? I don't think so. Call me what you will, ban me, even. That's just not OK.

Where was it sung in other then English?

[jgreenberg01]

The National Anthem sung in something other than English? I don't think so. Call me what you will, ban me, even. That's just not OK.

Where was it sung in other then English?

The national anthem was sung in English. Coke ran an ad with America The Beautiful being sung in other languages.

Personally I don't see the problem. It's an ad. First amendment and all that stuff.

I'm sorry but we want to defend our 1st amendment rights just as we would defend our 2nd amendment rights. When you don't like the message you lash out at it? Let's not be hypocrites here.

Just my $0.02. YMMV.

[Rapier1772]

You are correct, they have the right to put out a commercial like that.
Just like I have a right to not like it or even be offended by it (I'm not offended just don't like it). And I have the right to voice that dislike.
I also have the right to tell them I don't like it & to take my business elsewhere. That last part won't hurt them though, I've always been a pepsi product guy anyway :laugh:

[grimmond]

I really don't watch alot of tv and haven't seen the ad. But having said that I personally would not find it offensive. I see it more as a in your face to the other nationalities of singing our anthem in their language versus their own anthem.

[Cyberfly]

Jeff, I see where you're going and I agree. They have the right to advertise however they like.
Did they do it just to cause drama? I don't think so.
Did they do it to pander to the left? Probably.
Did they do it to prove that Coke is the largest global soft drink company in the world? I'm sure.
Did they piss off a lot of us 'racist, homophobic, toothless, gun-totin', sister-pokin', rednecks'? According to the left, they did.
I didn't agree with the ad because I'm old school and was taught that America is a MELTING POT. Immigrants come here, and they ASSIMILATE. We take the best of what they have to offer and make it our own. They don't come here and form 187 different little communities where everybody speaks their own language and has their own laws and customs. If you want that, stay where you came from. When you come to America, it's because you want to be an American. Just like if I moved to France, I would expect to LEARN TO SPEAK FRENCH.
It's called common courtesy. Not BEND TO MY WILL.

Just my two cents. And I probably owe you a nickle change.

[jgreenberg01]

C'mon, let's get real. Coke wasn't trying to make any political statement. Just like every corporation, when they put out a commercial it is simply to MAKE MONEY - the bottom line is the bottom line - it's as simple as that. Plus this has always been their brand: think back to the old 70's "Teach the world to sing" campaign. This is just what they do.

Personally it didn't offend me at all. I couldn't care less about their's or anyone else's commercials. That's what DVRs are for, with the added disclaimer that I would NEVER fast forward through the Tastes great/less filling cat fight that ended up in the fountain commercial.

As for speaking the language - when I lived in Sweden, I learned Swedish. Personally I think it's common courtesy and yes, it pisses me off that certain places (PRK) provide Spanish speaking schools that only serve to allow, even encourage legal immigrants/illegal aliens to not attempt to assimilate.

This topic though is about a commercial. Don't like it? Don't watch it. Better yet, stop drinking their poison in favor of something without ingredients from every chemical group.

As always, all IMHO.

Now I probably owe you a nickle change

[Cyberfly]

Point.

[jgreenberg01]

Point.

Maybe I'm just a little annoyed with you Fly - you left me frakking hanging again after the last MS book. Way to torture people :p

[panzermk2]

I got mine!

[Cyberfly]

Point.

Maybe I'm just a little annoyed with you Fly - you left me frakking hanging again after the last MS book. Way to torture people :p

The fourth one (and was supposed to be the LAST one) wraps up 90%+ of everything.
It's due out in...May?? Yeah, I think it's May.

What's it worth to be a 'beta' reader? :lmao:
You could always read Whispers until then. Oh, and Caldera is due out in March.
Oh, and Forneus Corson WILL BE going to publication, so...yeah.

[kismetcapitan]

- "America the Beautiful" is not the national anthem. Any citizen of our country must know that; NO EXCEPTIONS.

- Most countries are defined by a single ethnicity, culture, and language. The United States is one of the few which, by design, is NOT. What makes an American an American isn't being (or accepting the culture of) White and Protestant, but a belief and unwavering loyalty in American ideals and our sacred constitution.

- The United States has no official language. Ever wonder why the framers of our constitution, who had the foresight to guarantee our individual liberties of speech, right of self-defense, etc, specifically left that out? America has no inherent cultural language; we use the borrowed language of the English, yet last I checked, I ain't English and I don't bow down to their queen. To make English an official language holds us down, no matter how subtly, to the language of the people of England. Being American, again, is tied to the ideals of our country, NOT a single language and the attendant Anglo-Saxon culture.

- I personally found the commercial to be patriotic to the point of possibly being offensive to OTHER cultures. As in, America is so beautiful and great in ANY language; that any person on this planet, no matter what culture or language, can clearly see, understand, and appreciate how glorious and beautiful America is. And for immigrants who have come to this country, they've already been singing the American Dream in every possible language before coming here.

[Cyberfly]

I choose to respectfully disagree.

[kismetcapitan]

I choose to respectfully disagree.

Understandably so; I only speak English and I am American to the bone.

I just can't see personally how English is "my" language; it's the language of our former oppressor, and while I'm fine with borrowing it and even more fine with it becoming the de facto world language, 200+ years of use doesn't turn "English" into "American". Maybe there's an angle I'm not seeing, but the English language is no more culturally American than it is is for the Irish, and they actually have an Irish language (Gaelic), even if few Irish even bother to learn it these days.

[Cyberfly]

Naw, I don't buy the whole 'oppressor' bit.
We were an English colony...well, among many such colonies. My ancestors actually came over here BEFORE the English. The original Swedish settlers that settled around DE. But that's neither here nor there.
Nearly EVERY language in existence has been used by an 'oppressor' at one time in history or another.
I think my gripe with the whole language thing is this. If anybody from the States moved to...say, Mexico. You'd be expected to learn Spanish. If you demanded that everybody ELSE learn your language, provide government interpreters, provide teachers that spoke YOUR language to teach your kids, etc, you'd get visited in the middle of the night and IF you survived the beating, you'd find your happy A$$ tossed back across the river in no time.
If one moved to France, you'd be expected to learn French. Germany? Yup. You'd be expected to learn German.
While America is excuse me, WAS, a melting pot, now things have been twisted. No longer are people expected to blend in. To become American. You're expected to HYPHENATE yourself. Oh, your family came El Salvador? You're a Latin-American. You're from Mexican descent? Mexican-American. You're black? Then you're African-American...no, I don't care if your family moved here from Jamaica, all blacks MUST have come from Africa, so...fit to the PC norm or GTFO.
I've had it up to here with PC crap. Oh...sorry..you can't see where my hand is. Take a wild guess.
>sigh<
Don't misunderstand. I'm not bashing anybody here who's opinion is different than mine. I'm too old, tired, set in my ways and grumpy to change and I don't expect to change anybody else. I've become a lot more...'accepting' in my older age.
But those who claim that immigrants weren't required to learn the language in the past? I'm sorry. They're just wrong. In the PAST, they had to not only prove they had a job, they had to prove a basic proficiency in the language and pass a civics test that most natives with a high school diploma couldn't pass. THOSE immigrants I respect. They WANTED to be American.
I actually spoke with an immigration attorney. I was venting about 'why couldn't they make things easier'. He explained to me that America has probably the easiest process of ALL countries. But, if you don't speak the language...the forms can be confusing. That made sense. Yes, it takes time. But mostly because of the country where they are coming from and their late replies for certain paperwork. Plus the wheels of government turn slow.
REGARDLESS, the whole Coke commercial, to me (so yeah, it's just my opinion), was in bad taste. It was a slap in the face to the old-fashioned idea of what America is supposed to be. We're no longer a melting pot. We're a haven for 187 different little countries with more freedoms. For the moment. But again, there's nothing wrong with old-fashioned. Just because something is old-fashioned doesn't mean it doesn't work anymore. Not everything needs to be 'new and improved'. Like my son and anything mechanical, he'll fix it to death. That's what liberalism, Political correctness and Progressivism is doing to this country....they're 'fixing' it to death. It wasn't broken.
Sometimes folks need to just leave sh!t alone.

[ddouglas]

I've been married to an English woman for 38 years. I captured her in the UK from her home in Claygate, Surrey. (That's about 30 miles SW of London.) She's as English as they get. And believe me, if you speak "American", you ain't speaking English. We are fortunate, however, that there is enough similarity between English and American that we can understand each other. Well, most of the time. And our written words are also mostly interchangeable.

About 40 years ago, sitting around a lunch table with my then New Girl's family (10 of us around the table), I was talking and I got the sense that everyone was staring at me. I stopped talking. My New Girl's sister said, "Oh, please don't stop talking. We so enjoy your accent."

And in the UK, don't call for a "napkin" when what you mean is a "serviette". In English, one is an appliance put on one's lap to catch spilt food; the other is an item related to feminine hygiene.