Coca Cola's Super Bowl Ad Draws Misguided Anger From The Right

On Super Bowl Sunday, Coca Cola aired a minute-long commercial featuring a number of diverse Americans singing the patriotic anthem “America the Beautiful” alternatingly in English and several other languages. The commercial, intended as a heartwarming message of diversity, as well as a way to sell more sugary soft drinks, drew plenty of outrage from the right.

Many were angered that the Coke would dare to portray Americans singing “America the Beautiful” in any other language than English. The backlash spawned the embarrassing hashtag #f-ckcoke (in its non-edited version), which became a trending topic on Twitter.

The outrage wasn’t just limited to ordinary Twitter users, either. Prominent conservative figures also took the opportunity to bash the attempt by The Coca Cola Co (NYSE:KO) at honoring American diversity and inclusiveness. Allen West, a Tea Party-aligned former member of Congress from North Florida and current Fox News personality, wrote two posts attacking the commercial. West, who retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel to avoid a court martial for charges of torture during the Iraq War, claimed the ad could lead to the “Balkanization” of America.

“I am quite sure there may be some who appreciated the commercial, but Coca Cola missed the mark in my opinion,” West wrote. “If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing ‘American [sic] the Beautiful’ in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come -- doggone we are on the road to perdition.”

Fellow Fox News contributor Todd Starnes also attacked the ad onTwitter. Starnes, who hosts Fox News & Commentary, claimed that Coca Cola is “the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border,” among other less-than-insightful comments.

As a self-proclaimed “award winning journalist,” Starnes should be well aware that the AP Stylebook dropped the term “illegal immigrant” in 2013 and would definitely not approve of the derogatory term “illegals.”

At Breitbart, Michael Patrick Leahy bemoaned the “fact” that America is now “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.”

Leahy conveniently forgot to mention that the United States’ heritage is built almost entirely on immigration and the intermingling of different cultures. The nation rose out of former English and Spanish colonies on Native American land and was quick to accept immigrants from across the world. Coca Cola may understand this, but many on the right clearly don't.