Coke S-B TV Commercial Causes Stir

Coca-Cola is facing anger from some viewers over its one-minute Super Bowl ad that showed Americans of different ethnicities singing "America the Beautiful" in six languages in addition to English.

After it aired, many people took to social media and Coca-Cola's Facebook page to denounce the ad for
having the song sung in any language other than English, although there were also many who praised it and pushed back against the condemnation.

Among the critics was former Republican Rep. Allen West of Florida, who wrote a blog post calling it "a truly disturbing commercial" and worrying that, quote, "we are on the road to perdition."

The ad even inspired a #BoycottCoke hashtag on Twitter that was trending for a while.

In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday, Coke didn't directly address the controversy, but said the song was sung by young bilingual American women in Spanish, Tagalog -- which is spoken in the Philippines, Hebrew, Hindi, Senegalese-French and Keres, a Puebloan dialect spoken in New Mexico, as well as English.

The statement said, "For centuries, America has opened its arms to people of many countries who have helped to build this great nation," and Katie Bayne, president of North America Brands for Coca-Cola North America, said the company hopes it, quote, "gets people talking and thinking about what it means to be proud to be American."

And Glenn Beck asked,  ‘Why did you need that to divide us politically?’ Because that’s all this ad is,” Glenn said. “It’s in your face, and if you don’t like it, if you’re offended by it, you’re a racist. If you do like it, you’re for immigration. You’re for progress. That’s all this is: To divide people. Remember when Coke used to do the thing on the top and they would all hold hands? Now it’s, have a Coke and we’ll divide you.”