Super Bowl Ad Controversy Turns Spotlight on Coca Cola's
Pro-Amnesty Agenda
by Michael Patrick Leahy 4 Feb
2014, 11:42 AM PDT
The controversy surrounding Coca Cola's Super Bowl ad has focused
public attention on the company's pro-amnesty agenda. With the majority of its
revenue coming from its international business, the company has long been known
for its globalist rather than American world view.
Last year, Muhtar Kent, CEO and
Chairman of Coca Cola penned an
op-ed for USA Today, in which he argued that immigration reform is good for business. "My hope," he
wrote, "is that our leaders focus on creating a modern system... and a
clear way forward for undocumented workers--a potential route to U.S.
citizenship that bears all the rights, responsibilities and obligations of that
coveted status." Kent, who was born in New York City
to the Turkish general-consul to the United
States, holds dual citizenship in Turkey and the United States.
The ad instantly provoked a deeply
polarized response on social media, with conservatives ripping the ad for
promoting multiculturalism with a deeply patriotic anthem.
In an online survey taken by Sacramento, California
radio station KFBK during the 24 hours after the ad ran, more than 2/3 of
respondents said they did not like it. A surprising 46% of respondents, when
asked for their reaction to the ad, said "It upset me so much I feel like
boycotting the product," while 27% said they "didn't care for
it." Only 20% said they "liked it," and 7% said "it didn't
effect me much one way or the other."
An online survey taken by New Jersey radio station
101.5 found similar results: 60.5% of respondents "didn't like it,"
while only 27.9% said they "enjoyed it, well done." Twelve percent
were not sure what they thought of it.
On Monday, a representative for
Coca Cola released a statement calling the ad "a great example of the
magic that makes our country so special, and a powerful message that spreads
optimism, promotes inclusion and celebrates humanity--values that are core to
Coca-Cola."
Critics like former Congressman
Allan West aren't buying it. "[T]he last thing any of us should want to
see is a balkanized America,"
he wrote on his blog Monday.
In the ad, Coca Cola featured children singing "America the Beautiful" in
seven languages--English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, Tagalog, and one
other--rather than only English.
Colonel West captured the
sentiment of critics on his blog Monday:
[H]ere is my recommendation for
what the Coca Cola marketing executives should have done. Coke’s "America
the Beautiful" should have been sung in English and showed Soldiers,
Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen of diverse races, sex, and creed
deployed all over the world drinking Coca Cola. If you truly want to show a
diverse commitment to service, sacrifice, and honor that enables us to live in
"America
the Beautiful" that would have been rated the best commercial
advertisement of the Super Bowl. And we would be here talking about how we were
all touched emotionally.
Neither Wieden + Kennedy, the ad
agency that produced the commercial, nor Coca Cola responded to a request for
comment from Breitbart News.
Amnesty
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for Amnesty
International.
Note: George Soros is the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for Amnesty International, and the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
James
D. Robinson III is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and a director at the Coca-Cola Company.
Coke's Multilingual 'America the Beautiful' Ad Draws
Fire (Past Research)
Monday, February 3, 2014
Donald F.
McHenry is a director at the Coca-Cola Company, and an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Lee
H. Hamilton is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a co-chair for the Independent
Task Force on Immigration and America's Future.
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