Coke Defies Critics with Multilingual ‘It’s Beautiful’ Ad

SAN LEANDRO, Calif., India:  ABC News reported Feb. 7 that soft drink giant Coca-Cola would release an even longer version of an ad, previously aired on the Super Bowl, which embraces cultural diversity.

Coke’s original, 60-second Super Bowl ad had enraged xenophobes with its multilingual version of “America the Beautiful,” sung in Hindi, English, Spanish and four other languages. The new, 90-second ad is titled “It’s Beautiful” and was released on the same day as the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

“It’s an honor singing as a representative of all the Indians in America,” said young Indian American vocalist Sushmitha Suresh.

A statement released Feb. 6 by a spokesperson for The Coca-Cola Company said, “‘It’s Beautiful’ provides a snapshot of the real lives of Americans representing diverse ethnicities, religions, races and families, all found in the United States. All those featured in the ad are Americans, and ‘America the Beautiful’ was sung by bilingual American young women.”

Coca-Cola also released a behind-the-scenes video in which the young singers talked about the commercial’s importance to them. “We just have different backgrounds and that’s OK,” said Suresh.

The original ad had whipped up a frenzy on Twitter that saw quotes such as “This is an outrage. ‘America the Beautiful’ in foreign languages” and “Never buying Coke again … ‘America the Beautiful’ in a language other than English is just wrong.”

By Indiawest

Watch the Hindi version of “It’s Beautiful” below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89y3lOVNVOk[/youtube]
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