SalarShushan: Seriously, nobody should be drinking Coca Cola OR Pepsi anymore...not until they get rid of the High Fructose Corn Syrup and [url=http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-caramel-color-20140123,0,4630.story ]get rid of 4-Mel [/url]

As for the song, its choosing favorite languages, and skipping others that are a larger part of the American history and society. Aside from Spanish, which makes perfect sense, they seem to be playing political favorites, and several of their chosen interest groups are - rightly or wrongly - not perceived to be all that patriotic by those reacting to it.

Singing in different languages I have no problem with, I just wished they had made sure to use Spanish, French, German, and Hawaiian - since these predate the adoption of English as a lingua franca in many parts of the USA. If they had slipped a little history in there (maybe with dated maps,) I'd have been very happy with them. That would save me a little work. You see, a lot of these folks truly are ignorant about this..literally ignorant.

Over and over again, I find that the decidedly ignorant-sounding people who yowl about English only have absolutely no clue that English was NOT the first non-native common language - most places - in colonial times. Spanish has always been the main colonial language of the Southwest. This is nothing new! Tweeters featured in this piece were either never taught that or never took in what that means. Spanish is at least as 'American' as English. I have lost track of the number of times and places I have ended up launching into a gentle History lesson as a cure to reactions like these. It usually works too. People just don't know.

There's another issue too.

Please try to understand. These people are angry for a reason (as dumb as they sound and as poorly as they put it.) Not all of these are 'unreasoning haters' - [though I imagine a certain percentage are exactly that. Every village has its idiots.] Americans have been dealing with a government that has been regularly been seen as selling out to (foreign) corporate interests, to (foreign) world govt interests, and even selling the rights of citizenry - like voting - to anyone (including foreign nationals) who will vote for a particular party.

Again, a lot of those views are skewed by inaccurate reports and cultural mores, but there is a real hot-point buried there under all the stupidity.

This commercial punched that sore spot good and hard because it was suddenly too obvious that Coca-Cola didn't view itself as primarily American. People grew up believing they were a part of traditional American culture, that Coca-Cola's dominance was some leftover proof of American ways being influential and positive.

Now, I'd agree that the company isn't American any more and likely hasn't viewed itself that way for decades.

I understand the Global Conglomerate thinking they should celebrate their own diversity along with America's diversity, but I suspect another round of "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" would have gone over a lot better than handing over what is considered a secondary American Anthem to be sung by people that seem to represent interest groups that many other regular Americans feel have been given super-status by its own government for its own reasons.

Another reason for the knee-jerk lash-back? There is a very real fear here that America will be handed over to foreign powers, and its citizens made subordinate to laws and peoples who hate them. This is also what is behind the political pressure to reject just about every treaty and foreign policy anyone comes up with. People feel that every time a new plan gets signed, a little more personal liberty and national sovereignty go with it. It sounds paranoid, but they aren't 'always' wrong about that. They just aren't always right ;) - and sometimes its hard to reason people past their fears when this is the case. They feel like they've been lied to over and over, and they have - just maybe not by the representative trying to persuade a given community that global cooperation can do better things than non-cooperation.

Affection, patience and reason usually work, if we can find enough nobility within ourselves to avoid the low-hanging fruits of anger and polarized behavior. Only some of them could not be reasoned with. The rest will respond better to gentle, plainspoken truth than to 'shaming' - they just think that's the work of those duped by 'America's enemies.'

This needs to be stressed. 'Shaming' and hostility are NOT going to improve matters.

Ridicule has been majorly over-used as a political tool, and is now just seen as bias. Most won't listen to it.

I'm with the poster that we'd be better off focusing on the positive, but since I've already listened to and found myself 'splainin things to overly conservative friends who needed a history lesson and a chill pill... Well, I thought in all fairness I should try and explain how an apparently inoffensive commercial managed to kick a hornet's nest over the goal line.

If you run across someone who feels like these angry Tweeters do, please try to keep your temper and use truth to change minds. It works far better than negativity. They are far more likely to listen if you don't feel you are judging them harshly right back (as tempting as that can be.) I'm not saying that's an easy thing to do. I'm not saying I don't lose my temper sometimes too. I'm just saying that if we can keep explanations and discourse civil between opposing points of view, we are far more likely to get non-violent change that will last.

Peace

Momo1991: I absolutely adore all the misspellings - like these people actually know the English language they are professing to "protect" ;-p

Oh and might I remind everyone that the US did have an indigenous population before everyone and his brother from all over the world showed up here... sheesh, talk about complete and utter idiocy!

P1na: I don't know. I assume they'll say the politically correct thing to not offend the ones offended by the comments, while trying not to tick off further the ones annoyed by the add. That makes me want to see that response, simple as that.

jamotide: Who do these commenters mean by terrorists? Did Coke get some of obummers drone operators to sing in that commercial?

SalarShushan: Seriously, nobody should be drinking Coca Cola OR Pepsi anymore...not until they get rid of the High Fructose Corn Syrup and [url=http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-caramel-color-20140123,0,4630.story ]get rid of 4-Mel [/url]

As for the song, its choosing favorite languages, and skipping others that are a larger part of the American history and society. Aside from Spanish, which makes perfect sense, they seem to be playing political favorites, and several of their chosen interest groups are - rightly or wrongly - not perceived to be all that patriotic by those reacting to it.

Singing in different languages I have no problem with, I just wished they had made sure to use Spanish, French, German, and Hawaiian - since these predate the adoption of English as a lingua franca in many parts of the USA. If they had slipped a little history in there (maybe with dated maps,) I'd have been very happy with them. That would save me a little work. You see, a lot of these folks truly are ignorant about this..literally ignorant.

Over and over again, I find that the decidedly ignorant-sounding people who yowl about English only have absolutely no clue that English was NOT the first non-native common language - most places - in colonial times. Spanish has always been the main colonial language of the Southwest. This is nothing new! Tweeters featured in this piece were either never taught that or never took in what that means. Spanish is at least as 'American' as English. I have lost track of the number of times and places I have ended up launching into a gentle History lesson as a cure to reactions like these. It usually works too. People just don't know.

There's another issue too.

Please try to understand. These people are angry for a reason (as dumb as they sound and as poorly as they put it.) Not all of these are 'unreasoning haters' - [though I imagine a certain percentage are exactly that. Every village has its idiots.] Americans have been dealing with a government that has been regularly been seen as selling out to (foreign) corporate interests, to (foreign) world govt interests, and even selling the rights of citizenry - like voting - to anyone (including foreign nationals) who will vote for a particular party.

Again, a lot of those views are skewed by inaccurate reports and cultural mores, but there is a real hot-point buried there under all the stupidity.

This commercial punched that sore spot good and hard because it was suddenly too obvious that Coca-Cola didn't view itself as primarily American. People grew up believing they were a part of traditional American culture, that Coca-Cola's dominance was some leftover proof of American ways being influential and positive.

Now, I'd agree that the company isn't American any more and likely hasn't viewed itself that way for decades.

I understand the Global Conglomerate thinking they should celebrate their own diversity along with America's diversity, but I suspect another round of "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" would have gone over a lot better than handing over what is considered a secondary American Anthem to be sung by people that seem to represent interest groups that many other regular Americans feel have been given super-status by its own government for its own reasons.

Another reason for the knee-jerk lash-back? There is a very real fear here that America will be handed over to foreign powers, and its citizens made subordinate to laws and peoples who hate them. This is also what is behind the political pressure to reject just about every treaty and foreign policy anyone comes up with. People feel that every time a new plan gets signed, a little more personal liberty and national sovereignty go with it. It sounds paranoid, but they aren't 'always' wrong about that. They just aren't always right ;) - and sometimes its hard to reason people past their fears when this is the case. They feel like they've been lied to over and over, and they have - just maybe not by the representative trying to persuade a given community that global cooperation can do better things than non-cooperation.

Affection, patience and reason usually work, if we can find enough nobility within ourselves to avoid the low-hanging fruits of anger and polarized behavior. Only some of them could not be reasoned with. The rest will respond better to gentle, plainspoken truth than to 'shaming' - they just think that's the work of those duped by 'America's enemies.'

This needs to be stressed. 'Shaming' and hostility are NOT going to improve matters.

Ridicule has been majorly over-used as a political tool, and is now just seen as bias. Most won't listen to it.

I'm with the poster that we'd be better off focusing on the positive, but since I've already listened to and found myself 'splainin things to overly conservative friends who needed a history lesson and a chill pill... Well, I thought in all fairness I should try and explain how an apparently inoffensive commercial managed to kick a hornet's nest over the goal line.

If you run across someone who feels like these angry Tweeters do, please try to keep your temper and use truth to change minds. It works far better than negativity. They are far more likely to listen if you don't feel you are judging them harshly right back (as tempting as that can be.) I'm not saying that's an easy thing to do. I'm not saying I don't lose my temper sometimes too. I'm just saying that if we can keep explanations and discourse civil between opposing points of view, we are far more likely to get non-violent change that will last.

Peace

Wishbone: I feel compelled at this moment to link to Eddie Izzard's views on the differences between American English and British English :-D

SalarShushan: Seriously, nobody should be drinking Coca Cola OR Pepsi anymore...not until they get rid of the High Fructose Corn Syrup and [url=http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-caramel-color-20140123,0,4630.story ]get rid of 4-Mel [/url]