The Coca-Cola commercial played during the 2014 Super Bowl sparked controversy because people accused the company as being racist. The commercial features the patriotic song “America the Beautiful” sung in eight languages. It also shows people of different ethnicities.

Conservative critic Glen Beck made negative remarks as he stated, “Every leader of the European union that tried multiculturalism is now warning America and the rest of the world that tried multiculturalism doesn’t work, you have to assimilate.”  He argued that Coca-Cola wants to sell a ‘divided America’.  This being said, Coca-Cola is a brand of cultural inclusiveness so we can conclude that Beck misunderstood the message they were trying to portray through their commercial.

Coca-Cola is known worldwide so typical marketing tools used by smaller companies won’t be as effective for them. This includes hiring top actors to market their product. Coca-Cola’s new marketing strategy is to show their customers they believe in equality and accept all types of races.

The individuals that think Coca-Cola’s commercial is racist are either biased towards their own religion or are extremely politically inclined. Therefore, the controversy from this commercial is good marketing for the company. After watching the commercial individuals will realize that Coca-Cola is only trying to send one message across to its viewers; that they embrace multiculturalism.

Link to Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl Commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrvcnbSoz-c

Source:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/coca-cola-super-bowl-ad-angers-conservatives-article-1.1600849