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Brian Jennings

Professor Danley

ENGL 2367 Final Draft

27 February 2017

A Country of Diversity: An Analysis of America the Beautiful

In 2014, Coca-Cola released the commercial called America the Beautiful during the

Super Bowl. The commercial aired again during the 2014 summer Olympics and most

importantly, it aired again during the 2017 Super Bowl. The commercial consists of various

scenes with different people, cultures, sexualities and locations around America. The song

America the Beautiful is sung in the background. The song is sung in multiple languages

throughout. This commercial created much controversy because some people felt insulted by

how the song was sung in languages other than English. But America is not just one culture. It is

a melting pot of various cultures, languages and origins, this is what Coca-Cola wanted to

express. Although the visual method Coca-Cola used to attract more customers was considered

controversial, it was also intended to motivate those customers into supporting the diversity in

this country. Coca-Cola uses the visual representation and other various strategies to show that

the diversity in America is what makes it beautiful. By doing this, they created the most eye

opening commercials of the time it was aired.

One of the ways the commercial is significant in its persuasiveness is the way it created

an argument within the commercial. Although there was no dialogue in the commercial, the

argument can still be found. One way it is shown is by the description of the situation, which

gives a clear representation of what Coca-Cola is arguing. The entire commercial represents a

situation that has been prevalent in America for hundreds of years, that is diversity. Coca-Cola
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bases their argument on diversity and is seen at the end when the caption says Together is

Beautiful. The description of their argument was never represented using words, but rather

visually presented in the commercial. Each scene displays different types of people in America

and different locations, but did not show negativity for any of the religions or races. It showed

everyone as happy, and enjoying themselves no matter who or where they are. This is what

Coca-Cola wanted to argue, that in America, we all are different and have different views but that

should not keep us from happily living together in this country. An argumentative strategy like

description can typically be backed up by different persuasive appeals found in the text.

In the commercial, all four persuasive appeals were used the entire time, and were one of

the most effective ways to get the attention of the audience. One of the ways the commercial is

persuasive is the use of reasoning. Nothing is directly said or displayed in the commercial to

show this but instead it is found by thinking about what was shown in the commercial and

compare it to real life situations. One example would be the reasoning behind the topic that

together is beautiful. Coca-Cola wants their audience to understand that America is a diverse

country. Every single person is different. Every individual has different origins, different

opinions, different beliefs and so on. Whether some people like it or not, America will remain

diverse. Coca-Cola uses this commercial to show that if America is happy together then America

would be beautiful. This is the reasoning and purpose of this specific commercial.

There was no dialogue used in the commercial, but it still created an emotional appeal in

the audience which made it easier to represent the logic and reasoning behind the commercial.

One factor that created an emotional feeling in the audience is the song that is sung. The song is

about the beauty of America and love for our country, so when the song plays it creates a feeling

of patriotism in the audience. Then when the song is sung in other languages, it builds on that
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patriotism because one of the theoretical ideals of America is that we are welcoming to everyone.

When the song is sung in multiple languages, it shows that Coca-Cola is true to that ideal, and

that they want the audience to feel the same way as well, rather than depicting other cultures

races and origins as un-welcome. In this situation, they were able to successfully persuade much

of the audience.

The emotional appeal in this commercial is also strongly represented by the visual

presentation of the commercial. As mentioned earlier, the commercial displays a variety of

people. The first scene shows an American man, the stereotypical cowboy type of American.

Then changes to several different nationalities and races. At one point, it showed a gay couple,

then went back to Americans. This visual is important for multiple reasons. For one, it correlates

with the song selection and the languages it is sung in. Each language changes with the scenes

throughout. It is also important because it relates to many of the issues that have been discussed

in the past few years, for example, gay marriage and a more recent situation involving

immigrants. The visual is just as important as the song is, and they work together to create an

argument this powerful. This shows that Coca-Cola is involving themselves in current issues and

wants to share this with the audience.

A writer for Time gave his personal account on the commercial. He wrote an article about

the visual representation of the commercial and the emotion that it created for him as a member

of the audience. His article was in support of the commercial. One of the important things he

discusses is his account of the mix of cultures in America and how that makes it beautiful. One

paragraph of his article explains exactly what Coca-Cola is getting at. The writer says, We come

to America, in other words, and we become American--but we don't erase everything else that we

were before, we don't forget our cultures and languages as if they never existed, and we don't
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hide them as if they're shameful or less than patriotic. We bring them out and share them, and

they make this country better and stronger. America isn't weakened because people don't submit

to a monoculture; it's strong because it can absorb the peoples and aspirations and talents of the

rest of the world without erasing their cultures. (Poniewozik, para. 7). His account for this

commercial represents the emotions and reasoning of the supporting audience, and shows how

persuasive the commercial is to its audience.

In addition to their persuasiveness in emotion and reasoning, Credibility is what also

gives Coca-Cola the ability to successfully persuade the audience to understand and believe in

their ideals. The credibility of the company supports their persuasion methods. The commercial

can immediately be considered credible since it is released by the Coca-Cola Company. Coca-

Cola is one of the most well-known industries in the world so there is a large amount of people

that will view their advertisements, and given their reputation, people will believe or support

many of the things they advertise. Since their audience is so large, they know they can release a

potentially controversial commercial such as this one and show what they believe the company

represents.

What also made this controversial commercial successful to the audience was the

timeliness of the airing. The commercial was most recently aired during the 2017 Super Bowl.

What makes this so timely is the fact that this is right around the time that Donald Trump was

beginning to sign several different executive orders, one of them being the immigration ban. This

is important because that was one of Trumps most controversial executive orders by far. Coca-

Cola is against the immigration ban and found this to be the perfect time to re-air this

commercial. This shows that they are against it and that they want their audience to stand against
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it as well. If the commercial was shown any other time, it would still be persuasive, but it would

not be as important as it was during the 2017 Super Bowl.

Of the controversy that was created, many people believed that Coca-Cola is in the wrong

for airing this commercial, and many believe that what is seen and heard in the commercial is

what truly makes America beautiful. In an article by dailymail.co, a few tweets were shown from

the people who opposed the commercial. These tweets included, No more cokes for me, What

happened to English being the language of America! and Take your globalism elsewhere.

(Szathmary, para. 14). The author of this article is showing the negativity from some of the

viewers. She also stated how many of the negative audience threatened to boycott Coca-Cola.

It is evident that America the Beautiful, can be considered one of the most prevalent

and powerful commercials in the time being. Cola-Cola created and aired a commercial that

shows support to many of the problems in America right now and shows no regrets to those that

oppose. The images and music displayed in the commercial made the commercial as persuasive

as it is by expressing the problems in America head-on and showing that they are aware, and

want a change. Without this representation, they would not have been able to bring up the same

amount of awareness as they did. Coca-Cola showed us that diversity is beautiful.

Works Cited

Szathmary, Zoe. "Coca-Cola Re-airs 'America the Beautiful' Advert Featuring Sea of Diverse

Faces during Super Bowl 51 Just over a Week after Trump Signed Immigration

Ban." Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 06 Feb. 2017. Web 06 Mar. 2017.

Poniewozik, James. "Coca-Cola's "It's Beautiful" Super Bowl Ad Brings Out Some Ugly

Americans." Time. Time, 02 Feb. 2014. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

ListitudePolitics. "CONTROVERSIAL: "America The Beautiful" Coca Cola 2014 Super Bowl

Commercial | Political Topics." YouTube. YouTube, 03 Feb. 2014. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.