#AmericaIsBeautiful

I was excited to see two of my favorite teams play in the super bowl this year. But as a public relations student what I was really excited for were the ever-so-famous super bowl commercials. I was disappointed overall this year. There were very few that caught my eye. But one that did, and caught so many other people's as well, was the Coca-Cola commercial...

Over the past few years Coca-Cola has totally given their brand a 380. Instead of being just about the soda, the brand is revolutionizing to create an experience based upon lifestyle. The company even created a blog to connect more personally with consumers.

During the Super Bowl, Coca-Cola played this commercial as part of their new #AmericaIsBeautiful campaign:

This commercial started an outcry on Twitter. The major argument against this commercial was that this is America, where people speak English. If people are immigrating to the United States, they should learn the language. 

The opposing argument was that America is a melting pot for all sorts of cultures, and that America is beautiful for the reason that so many different cultures culminate and are accepted here.

The commercial brought out the best and worst in people and recognized different prejudices still alive in America. People who didn’t even watch the Super Bowl heard tale of this controversial ad. People even started sided with and against Coke, just for this commercial.

Who knew that one commercial could create so much controversy?

Or maybe, did Coke know?

The phrase “any publicity is good publicity” is often tossed around in situations like this. But does that really hold true? Did Coca-Cola know that this ad would create so much of a buzz? And if they did, is creating something so controversial good for the brand?

Knowing Coca-Cola and the powerhouse brand it is, I’m sure that the team creating this campaign thought through every possible side effect of the message they were sending. They knew some people would back them 100 percent and they knew that others wouldn’t agree with the message.

But from a strictly public relations perspective, the brand got a lot of traction. Coca-Cola was plastered across social media during the Super Bowl and the days following. Their team must have been doing something right to be talked about for that long. Even after the Super Bowl is over the #AmericaIsBeautiful campaign continues through the Olympics.

Many public relations professionals speculate about the theory that "any publicity is good publicity," but maybe this situation is an exception. Coca-Cola definitely took a risk creating a controversial ad and showing it during the Super Bowl, but if they were simply looking to get their name at the forefront of people's minds, they definitely succeeded. 

Until next time,

Nikki Darling