It was the only commercial I had ever heard evolve into a pop song. We all loved singing it. It was so optimistic and the lyrics were actually beautiful:
I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love.
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow white turtle doves.
I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.
I’d like to hold it in my arms and keep it company.
Yeah, you can call me a wuss, but back when I was a child in the 70’s this was (and still is) an awesome song. This Coca-Cola ad of 1971 was a song of togetherness and equality — it was to herald great harmonious times for the future.
Or was it?
The new multi-lingual Coke ad last week during the great American past-time, the Super-Bowl, has brought the haters out of the woodwork. The Empty Vessels went wild on Twitter. “Coke having a commercial with an American song in other languages… not cool. Coke. GTFO with that,” one vessel tweeted. Another one: “Dear Coke commercial…. DO NOT sing my Country’s song of Freedom in a different language. ”
God forbid an AMERICAN song should be sung in another language!
Still, there were plenty of people who loved the commercial, tweeting for those haters to get back to the dark ages.
As I sit here watching the hand-wringing, I am reminded that haters will always hate. That’s just what they do. All they wanted to do was sit in the comfort of their special chairs, à la Archie Bunker, and watch the Super-Bowl. Then Coke had to come and shove all those “other people”, you know, non-white and therefore non-American, down their throats, singing in a language other than English. WTF, Coke?
And in case you missed it– Coca-Cola also had the unmitigated gall to include a (gasp!) gay family in the commercial. Oh snap!!
I know Archie Bunker is having a heart attack right about now.
How dare you, Coca-Cola? “America the Beautiful” is only for “us,” thank you! And sung preferably in heterosexual English, for that matter.
As I gleefully rub my hands together at all this outrage, I will try to assure the haters that if they will only deny the existence of all these “other people” just a bit longer, maybe they will go away. Continue believing that the country you live in is just as you see inside your own house and everything will be aaaalllll right.
Dammit, I don’t even drink soda and I have to be supporting Coca-Cola against these xenophobes!
Everyone who lives in the United States of America has had an ancestor who came over here as an immigrant. And that includes even the native Americans; they just arrived long before the rest of us did. Why it is that some of us still feel that after we’ve been offered the red carpet once we landed, we can now roll it up and throw it away?
It’s very shameful that individuals can be tweeting in 2014: “Nice to see that coke likes to sing an AMERICAN song in the terrorist’s language. Way to go coke. You can leave America.”
Really? Telling Coke to “LEAVE AMERICA”?? Man, that train is never late, is it?
Forty-odd years ago a Coke commercial portraying a positive message of hope and love was sung by a multicultural collection of teenagers on the top of a hill.
Forty-odd years later, some of us still haven’t gotten the message.
“♬ A song of peace that echoes on and never fades away… “
Categories: humor, MyTwoCents
Late~Night Ruminations 
I’m continually surprised at the level of idiocy and blind ignorant hate far too many of my fellow country men and women have within their Christian Jesus loving hearts for anything that is non-white, non-Christian, and non-heterosexual. Truly a disgusting display of just how poorly educated Americans are, and an even more disgusting display of just how fucking PROUD so many of them are about this fact.
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It is very sad indeed. I really didn’t know what to make of this. People saying they were going to stop drinking Coke for this reason–it’s idiocy gone wild!
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Agreed.
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“Man, that train is never late, is it?” That is simply the most definitive bitch slap against racism and prejudice I’ve come across in a long long long time! Brilliant!
As Archie Bunker famously used to say: “And now I’m gonna eat something American: Spaghetti.”
Prejudice I’m afraid will be around for a long time to come. Luckily writing like this crushes every conceivable validity for racism, discrimination, etc.
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Lol! Thanks for the kind comments. I like the “American spaghetti” saying. Haha! Yes, it looks like prejudice will be around for as long as our species exist. It’s just the discriminator that keeps changing.
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So true, unfortunately:S
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WOW. That is pretty kick ass that you found that commercial from the 70’s. They’ve been whistling this same sort of tune for a long time, that’s commendable.
When I saw that commercial, the firs thing I said was “oh… people aren’t going to like that.” It’s pretty freaking discouraging. I just tried to write out a long comment about a conversation my friend and I were having about Westboro church and our (negative) sentiments compared to her experiences being Muslim in a country that’s afraid of terrorists at every bend. But my mind can’t communicate tonight so I’ll just say: people are nuts. And thanks for sharing that commercial.
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Thanks for reading! I really love this song!
It’s so sad that people would react so badly to a commercial. People even saying they won’t drink Coke again (what??) It’s really like living in denial that there are other types of people who don’t look like them in existence.
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I just like the people who say “American” is our official language and that that song is our National Anthem. *facepalm*
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National Anthem! Oh man, all sensibility through the window. As a foreigner (well, transplant) we are always fascinated whenever we hear of the “American language”, but we know that only the less-intelligent speak that way. Unfortunately, empty barrels make the most noise, so people overseas only get the chatter of morons, most of the time.
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How can we allow foreigners like indigenous Americans to sing our “National Anthem” in their foreign language?
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