While watching the Super Bowl this past Sunday, I came across a commercial that I knew instantly was going to receive a lot of criticism — the Coca-Cola commercial. 

This one-minute commercial featured different scenes of Americans doing everyday things like dancing, swimming and eating, with the classic American song, “America the Beautiful,” being sung in the background. The only catch is that it was sung in many different languages, not just English.

As an advertising major and an Indian immigrant to this country, the commercial intrigued me. I personally had never seen any ad commercial utilize the tactics of appealing to people of all colors in such an American way — and as a non-white person with an Indian background, this appealed to me.

The fact that “America the Beautiful” was being sung in many different languages perfectly portrayed the multi-cultural melting pot that this country represents. 

But quite frankly, after the outbreak of the Miss America incident — where a South Asian won the title of Miss America and many people revolted, mostly through the Internet — I wasn’t surprised at the harsh criticisms and insults that were tweeted and messaged about Coca-Cola being “un-American” — those messages felt like déjà vu. In fact, many people were referring to the song as our national anthem when in actuality our national anthem is “The Star-Spangled Banner” and not “America the Beautiful.” So it is ultimately ironic that people were referring to others as “un-American” without knowing this country’s actual national anthem. 

I don’t know when we, as a country, will learn to fully accept, embrace and adapt to our diversity.

The roots of nearly all of the people who live in the United States come from an array of other countries around the world, who each have their own languages and customs. This country was founded on the basis of freedom and the ability to express different cultural values. We have gone through many battles for the inclusion of other races and, as a result, have been able to extend our boundaries of acceptance. 

The Coca-Cola commercial simply exemplified the diverse and multi-cultural ways of America.

Those people who tweeted about the commercial using various racial slurs do not seem to really understand the importance of diversity.

This country has been built by people of all different backgrounds and all of these people pay the taxes and provide in some way for this country — which is what makes them an equal part of this country, and equally American. 

As for the English language, I agree that the song being sung in different languages was different, because we usually only hear it in English. But the last time I checked, the United States is not a strictly English-speaking country — there isn’t even a national official language in the U.S. — so the fact that Coca-Cola presented this song in different languages only further promoted the idea of diversity.

People who speak different languages and who move to this country may still feel the same patriotism within that song, but have simply used their own languages to sing it. After all, the same words are still being sung.

And as an advertisement major, I know the importance of inclusion. Coca-Cola was reaching out to all of their consumers through this one song. By playing this patriotic song using several different languages, Coca-Cola was allowing an “American” tradition to be truly American by reaching out to people of all races and allowing them to experience the country’s patriotism.

As for the tweeters, I understand that social media is a place to vent and express your opinion, but please think a few minutes before posting.

I know that I, for one, am still going to be loyal to Coca-Cola — the company that includes.

Simran is a freshman in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].