My very first reaction to this tide of hatred towards the ad was... surprise.
I'm shocked to see how some Americans, whom I have considered to be open-minded to diversity, can actually be so racist. Maybe I have been too naive to discover this inconvenient truth since I live in a city where I hear non-English languages more often than English, which is the official language, but I should be now fully aware that not everyone in this "free" America, is ready to embrace multiculturalism as a part of their nationality.
Here is the controversial Coca Cola's America the Beautiful ad for Superbowl 2014.
What's Coca Cola's logic behind creating this ad? Whom are they trying to reach? It's obvious that they try to capture the immigrant population, which is huge in the United States. But maybe there's more than that as some people claim that Coca Cola, with full awareness that some of the reactions they get would be negative, put this ad nevertheless in order to get people to talk about the brand. I agree that one of the top reasons companies put their ad on Superbowl is to generate buzz, but I'm not sure if Coca Cola knew well in advance that the ad would cause such hateful reactions. I'm not saying Coca Cola is stupid enough not to know its audience but I can only imagine Coca Cola being full of anticipation of appreciation from their viewers for their efforts to embrace the diverse members that constitute the country. Maybe I'm wrong. After all, Coca cola is a big company whose primary objective is to make profit. Maybe the whole point of this is to create buzz. Nonetheless, I appreciate Coca Cola's conscious decision to acknowledge those people who deserve such respect for contributing to the nation.
