Coke diversity ad sparks backlash

Cheerios brought back its biracial family and some people waited for the same racist reaction that met the fictional mom, dad and daughter in the first commercial last spring. The response to the Cheerios commercial Sunday night, however, was all positive - the bigoted social media backlash instead appeared a few minutes later when Coca Cola aired its commercial with 'America the Beautiful' sung in different languages.

The calls for boycotts came immediately with tweets like this one from @HappieDays12: 'I will not be purchasing any #CocaCola products for the foreseeable future. Pretty sure we speak English in America.'

Similarly minded @Lady_Jay_J tweeted, 'Since when did the national anthem get sung in Spanish?! Not a good idea #CocaCola.'

The response was not all negative, however, with many people echoing the sentiment of @JeffForeman2, who tweeted: 'I liked that, we r a diverse ppl #CocaCola TY we spk many languages, are so many ethnicities, orientations, beliefs and one people'

The company got the most out its 60-second spot, which will no doubt be one of the most discussed in the days after the game. It was also the first Super Bowl ad to feature a gay family, according to GLAAD.

'For 127 years, Coca-Cola has been proud to be a part of bringing friends and families together while memories are made,' Katie Bayne, president, North America Brands, Coca-Cola North America, told 'Business Wire' Sunday night after the ad ran. 'With 'It's Beautiful,' we are simply showing that America is beautiful, and Coke is for everyone.'

The only controversy for Cheerios this time around came days before the game. The ad was released on YouTube on Jan. 28 and an MSNBC employee used the network's official Twitter account to tweet: 'Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/biracial family.'

Email: yoriok@northjersey.com