Coca-Cola: America is Beautiful (Because of Cultural Diversity)

Advertising at the Super Bowl for many companies is the largest marketing gig of the year. Millions of Americans will all have their television sets tuned into the game, and really, what better way is there to reach the vast majority of America all in one sweeping shot, then the biggest game of the football season. One of the commercials during the most recent Super Bowl, an advertisement by Coca-Cola, took many viewers by surprise; some of which were pleasantly surprised, and others who took offense. The campaign slogan was, “America is Beautiful,” and the sixty-second long commercial featured multiple video-shots of traditional American family pastimes ranging everywhere from swimming to road-trips, and hiking to the bustle of cities, all to the patriotic tune, “America the Beautiful,” which was both the soundtrack and backbone of the campaign, with the twist being that the song was sung in seven different languages, including English, Spanish, Hindi, and four others. Coca-Cola realized the diversity of America, and they sought out a campaign that would exude not only American pastimes, but recognize that they are pastimes that span all racial and language barriers. Coke’s “America is Beautiful,” campaign fed off of the fundamental fact that America is a huge melting pot of all different types of culture and languages. I want to propose that Coca-Cola’s main strategy for selling this commercial to the public was to instill in Americans that diversity, united by common experiences (Coca-Cola) is what makes America truly beautiful.

Coca-Cola has taken a slightly different approach to advertising in this particular commercial then they, or any other soft-drink company for that matter, have tried in the past. Generally speaking, soda companies refrain from marketing based on demographics, due to the feeling of isolation in consumers that often ensues. Coca-Cola, a name and product that has been associated with America for the past hundred years, decided to use demographic campaigning for the better, in a unique celebration of America. Coca-Cola has established its credibility through a century of reliability, dedication to its customers, and through practicing good advertising. Unlike other commercials where the brand logo is plastered all over the screen for the entire duration of the commercial, Coke only showed subtle glimpses here and there of coke bottles throughout the commercial. Coke being sipped in a truck by a teenage girl, the beverage of choice for a family dinner, and an old man savoring it on a porch, only at the end did they show their logo with the hashtag “#AmeircaIsBeautiful”.

By producing subtle images of the Coke bottles, the product was introduced, but the message was allowed to develop without the brand being shoved down the viewers throats. When that happened, Americans could come to the conclusion on their own at the end, that all Americans, regardless of language or ethnicity, are Americans, and the things that bring them together are shared experiences, including what Coca-Cola is going for here, their Coca-Cola product.

Similarly, Cola industries usually target the age group from around 13 to 40 for their marketing campaigning, however in this particular commercial, every single walk of life, race, age and gender are shown. The goal of this commercial, was to create unity, and show that unity to all of America. 

“America the Beautiful,” is one of the most patriotic songs ever written in American history, second only to the national anthem. The raw emotion and solemn weightiness that the tune carries with it, is more than enough to instill a sense of pride in every American. With pride however, generally comes some form of arrogance. Many Americans reacted poorly to Coca-Cola’s rendition of  “America the Beautiful” in multiple languages, with ignorant tweets including, “Nice to see that coke likes to sing an AMERICAN song in the terrorists language,”, “Your in America, so speak American,” and “It’s America, and the US language is English…”. Not only are these comments extremely bigoted and rude, they are all terribly misinformed. To set the record straight for these so called “Americans”: “American” is not a language (I believe they are referring to English), America does not have an official language, and just because people speak different languages here, does not mean they are any less of an American. America was founded by settlers and immigrants from Europe who brutally invaded the Native Americans, and since then, America has become the melting-pot of the world. And so, to the people who oppose the commercial because of the secondary languages of other Americans, who is to say who is truly American?

You might wonder, why is this something that people have gotten so worked up over? Honestly, the answer lies within the emotional realm of advertising, because this commercial is based almost entirely off of the emotional connections that the viewer makes to both the song and the scenes portrayed of Americans and America. There are no facts, nor clear logic within the commercial, but rather there is a strong emotional connection to America, as well as the ethos that comes with a trusted American brand name such as Coke.

The version of “America the Beautiful” that Coca-Cola produced, was recorded by seven bilingual young American girls. The decision to use young girls voices to record the song adds a feeling of innocence and peacefulness to the commercial, and the use of the youth really promotes the idea of cultivating a united America. Although the commercial received a large amount of controversial backlash, Coke’s intent was more than admirable, and the viewers who actually took the time to delve deeper rather than being turned off by the language barrier realized that and appreciated it.

Short interviews with the girls who sang the parts revealed this even further. “Out of many people, and out of many cultures, that’s what makes it one country, and one nation,” stated Naomi, the spanish singer. Sushmitha, who sang in Hindi, shared this thought, “The message that we’re sending through this video, its so beautiful that we are all the same, we just have different backgrounds and that’s okay, we’re all Americans, and we can come together to make change. ” Both of these statements are so beautiful and refreshing, especially coming from the youth of America. Knowing that these bilingual girls have such a strong hope for their futures, along with confidence and respect for America gives me a new hope for America.

Coca-Cola may have lost some customers because of their representation of diversity, which was actually a mere 7 out of 381 languages spoken in America, but for every person’s business that they lost, they probably gained more business from the minorities, and people supporting American diversity. According to the graphs seen below created by Research Access, there was actually a huge positive response of 51% compared to the stagnant 22% negativity.

The underlying message of the commercial that Coca-Cola was trying to display in order to encourage people to purchase their product, is that all American’s take part in the same activities, regardless of ethnicity or language, and that coke is simply another thing that all beautiful Americans enjoy. Coke achieves this goal mostly through the feelings that are associated with “America the Beautiful”, the American experiences like camping, rollerskating, eating at diners, dancing, walking through cities, riding a horse across the great wide west, or occasionally, just having a Coke in your rocking chair on your front porch when you’re elderly.

 

Regardless if you are white, African-American, Hispanic, speak Tagalog, Hindi, or Chinese, all of us are united through America. America is an extremely diverse country, and its people are even more diverse. Diversity is what Coca-Cola wanted to celebrate, and through diversity they found an in for promoting their product. Coke’s “America is Beautiful,” took the world by storm, promoting at both the SuperBowl and later at the Sochi 2014 Olympics, and while there will always be those who do not appreciate the very beauty of America’s diversity which Coca-Cola is promoting (along with their product), the majority of Americans embrace what America has become. The commercial was both convicting and empowering, making all of America rethink any of our preconceived notions about what being American might be, while at the same time leaving the audience with an overall feel-good mentality about our country. Coca-Cola’s strategy for selling this commercial to America by highlighting our diversity, while uniting us through a common factor (even if it is simply soda-pop) is what makes the tactic so affective.