A lackluster and utterly disappointing Super Bowl 48 provided the stage for a 60 second ad to become a national conversation. The Seattle Seahawk’s blowout victory over the Dallas Broncos opened the door for talk to focus on the spectacle that’s become Super Bowl commercials, and more specificially an advertisement by the Coca-Cola company. Similar to the way Cheerios challenged the status quo of mixed race couples, Coca-Cola’s “America the Beautiful” advertisement has challenged the idea of patriotic American songs only being sung in English. Despite the ad’s efforts to show America as a cultural melting pot, detractors of the ad have cited the lack of English as a reason for the decline of America because of language differences. However there are a large number of people who also took the opposite side and praised the commercial for spotlighting the United States’ unique position as a country built upon an immigrant population.
Another unique feature of the ad was the first same-sex relationship family in a Super Bowl ad. And as the fight for LGBT rights continues to rage among various social groups, it’s a large step forward towards total social recognition of these issues. And as expected, this was another source of conversation, however not to the extent the main message of the ad provided. Ironically, Coca-Cola has managed to both divide and unify the country socially through this ad. It may very well be Coke attempting to draw attention to immigration and immigration reform before states hold elections for Congressional positions later in the year and throwing some support towards certain candidates. But one thing for sure will be Americans will continue to buy Coca-Cola, even if those against the ad say they won’t buy a Coke product ever again.