America the Beautiful, one of the nation's most iconic and recognized songs cut a little too deep for a lot of people who first saw this commercial when it aired during the Super Bowl. If you watch this commercial this song is sung in 7 different languages including: English, Spanish, Keres, Tagalog, Hindi, Senegalese, French, and Hebrew (Horovitz, 2014). Along with the singing many other things of controversy were shown such as spotlighting a same sex couple along with their daughter. Although Coke did not have any intentions to stir things up, they did just that. Social media blew up, Twitter in particular, a few mentioned were:
(Mcrady, 2014)
Not everything was all bad though, here are some tweets that were a little more supportive of this advertisement:
(Mcrady, 2014)
This small one minute advertisement is proof just how much a language can resonate with people, in this case for the most part is wasn't for the better. This ad stirred up a lot of stereotyping and discrimination within our nation of America. The video depicted each cultural group doing the stereotypical activity that the average person would associate them with.
A term that would explain the way this video was made would be code switching. Code switching is a technical term in communication that refers to the phenomenon of changing languages, dialects, or even accents (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). Code switching is used for different reasons and I cannot pin point the reason for the usage here, but nothing other than exemplifying the United States as a melting pot and that we all come together as one.
References
Horovitz, B. (n.d.). Coke's hot-button ad to air during olympics. Retrieved from usatoday.com
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6thed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill
Mcrady, R. (n.d.). Commercial sparks controversy, praise. Retrieved from www.usmagazine.com
I really enjoy your post because I had no idea about this commercial. I did watch the super bowl but it didn't dawn on me what was going on. I like that you chose this topic because I think it really shows how communication can be received.
This was my favorite commercial during the super bowl. I couldn't believe all the negative comments it brought on. It's disgusting how so many people didn't like it. I like this post a lot.
This is a well developed blog with a very timely example. Moving forward, make sure you are explicitly addressing the questions in the blog prompt. You do this in terms of finding and explaining a recent example, but don't forget the implication questions: explain how your example is connected to co-cultural theory and the power of labels. Cite specific examples/quotes from the articles you selected to back you up. Finally explore the implications of this relationship by answering the following question: Why is it important to be aware of social positions in terms of language and intercultural intercultural communication?
Rylee, I really enjoyed reading what you had to say in your post about this commercial. I personally really enjoyed it but could not believe all the negative feedback. It really showed how much prejudice some Americans are really holding onto. This was a great example of a dominant group thinking they are superior over another.
Rylee,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your post because I had no idea about this commercial. I did watch the super bowl but it didn't dawn on me what was going on. I like that you chose this topic because I think it really shows how communication can be received.
This was my favorite commercial during the super bowl. I couldn't believe all the negative comments it brought on. It's disgusting how so many people didn't like it. I like this post a lot.
ReplyDeleteThis is a well developed blog with a very timely example. Moving forward, make sure you are explicitly addressing the questions in the blog prompt. You do this in terms of finding and explaining a recent example, but don't forget the implication questions: explain how your example is connected to co-cultural theory and the power of labels. Cite specific examples/quotes from the articles you selected to back you up. Finally explore the implications of this relationship by answering the following question: Why is it important to be aware of social positions in terms of language and intercultural intercultural communication?
ReplyDeleteRylee,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading what you had to say in your post about this commercial. I personally really enjoyed it but could not believe all the negative feedback. It really showed how much prejudice some Americans are really holding onto. This was a great example of a dominant group thinking they are superior over another.