Soft drink company Coca Cola released a rendition of patriotic song 'America the Beautiful' in several languages by Americans of different ethnicities during the Superbowl, the country's national football championship.
The advertisement has set off a firestorm on Twitter. People posted xenophobic comments and declared English the national language of the US. #boycottcoke began to trend almost immediately.
Todd Starnes, host of right-wing news channel Fox News & Commentary, tweeted, "Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border. #americaisbeautiful" Others joined in. "@CocaCola American Patriotic songs should be sung in English only #communist #boycottcoke", said John D Calamia.
Some of the tweets were openly racist. @ElJungleCat who has since changed his handle, tweeted, "That coke commercial sucked. Mexicans,terrorists,jews, and n[****] are not "American"."
Moderate voices defending the song have begun to troll offensive tweeters.
Lindsey Meade called out all those saying "I'm not racist, but...". She tweeted, ""Racism is dead and basically irrelevant. But let's #boycottcoke because non-whites sang a song praising our country."-Republican Extremists"
The parody Twitter account of Republican Mitt Romney's racing horse said, "BREAKING: The Tea Party commands all REAL Americans to #BoycottCoke and #BoycottCheerios and #JustKeepBuyingGuns"
Celebrated left-wing champion Drunk Hulk, had the last word on the issue. "LIKE MOST REAL AMERICANS! DRUNK HULK FURIOUS AT COKE FOR CELEBRATING AMERICAS RICH AND COMPLEX NATIONAL IDENTITY!"
