This commercial has caused quite a stir over the past couple days. The multilingual cover of “America the Beautiful” set off a serious chain reaction by first pissing off a group of people that I can only describe as the true “die-hard ‘Muricans.” After slamming their Super-Double Big Gulps into their front porch rocking chairs, those good old boys and girls racked Twitter with a slew of scathing xenophobia under the hashtag #cokesucks.

Good job coke….im now switching to Pepsi for good. Way to ruin an American song. #cokesucks

— Will Simpson (@Wsimpson8566) February 3, 2014

 

Wtf!!! That song is not to be sang in foreign languages!!! #cokesucks

— Jacob Grinstead (@JacobWGrinstead) February 3, 2014

The #cokesucks thread quickly infuriated a second group that I like to call the “internet racism police,” who also sprang to action reigning hellfire upon the hashtag. Waving their red pens like swords, this more enlightened crowd corrected all sorts of grammar and also educated the above group on the history of European conquest.

Coke has spilled blood in Colombia, propped up a dictator in Swaziland, & steals water worldwide.& you #CokeSucks clowns are mad about WHAT?

— William C. Anderson (@williamcander) February 3, 2014

Did you notice all the misspelling and bad grammar used in #Cokesucks tweets that complained about the languages used in the ad?

— Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) February 3, 2014

The back-and-forth fury between the haves and have nots of teeth inspired a smaller sect of people who denounced the argument altogether. They claimed that people who discussed the commercial on social media were just willfully bowing to their syrupy overloads and volunteering themselves as mere pawns in Coke’s advertising strategy. Odd, considering they, too, were discussing it on Facebook.

This spawned of subsect of Reddit conspiracy theorists who ultimately failed to materialize an actual conspiracy, but I’m sure they had a good time anyway. Even Glenn Beck weighed in on the conspiracy angle the next morning on his show, saying, “That’s all this ad is. This is to divide people. It’s in your face, and if you don’t like, if you’re offended by it, then you’re a racist. If you do like it, well, then, you’re for immigration, you’re for progress. That’s all this is, is to divide people.” Interesting stance considering the man does the same thing for a living.

Another video of note is this commercial from 1971.

The video basically shows them picking up the “flower power” movement and running with it. Could they be doing the same thing here? Identifying a newer, cooler common feeling and using it to engage a group of young people in hopes of solidifying brand loyalty among them in the future? Methinks yes. Besides, Coca-Cola doesn’t just sell soda in America. It’s a global corporation. Believe it or not, it makes money off other people besides Duck Dynasty loyalists.

The idea behind the commercial was simply: Sell more Coke. I highly doubt the company is vying to be the official beverage of the worldwide revolution. Coca Cola is a soda. It can’t care about people. You can split it down the middle and read between the lines and all you’ll find is Coke just wants to dump a little high fructose corn syrup into the national melting pot. Nothing else.