It deserved it.

Yes, I'm so biased against American Football that I'll go on record with that. c:

Just a tad misleading, since it's only the NFL proper that's not taxed, but each of the 32 franchises are taxed and that's where the big money is AFAIK.

Correct.

However MLB and the other ones have already relinquished that over the years. I believe that the NFL is pretty much the last one still doing it.

The amount of US citizens who don't understand we're a melting pot is truly amazing. Only Native Americans have any right to complain about any of this crap.

That said, since 98% of Americans speak English or Spanish I thought the ad was a little... forced?

Sweet, I'll grab the beer and pretzels.

The complaints are about how patriotic songs are suppose to get sung in the languages they were intended. To have "America the Beautiful" sung in various languages makes as much sense as having the Russian national anthem or any other patriotic Russian song sung in French or having the South Korean national anthem sung in Arabic.

People seem like they get worked up over it but what they are really complaining about is how some people forget that a common language unites a people and helps make a country a country and not just a plot of land with a bunch of people in it.

The only feelings of being "ashamed" should be over how people keep shouting out "BIGOT!!!1111" or "RACIST!!!11one1" whenever someone suggests that English should be the national language of the United States or whenever people suggest that someone who wants to immigrate to the United States should follow immigration laws and standards. Of course the complaints were not about immigration in a general sense or illegal immigration. It was about how Coca-Cola's advertising team actually thought that was a good idea for a commercial.

Also, I despise commercials that have NOTHING to do with the product even if the product was featured in the background or certain scenes. Besides, why would a company with a well known brand like Coke even want to waste money advertising something people are going to buy anyway? Product awareness has been achieved 1 million times over by 2001.

On the side note, my family's ancestors learned English when they immigrated legally to the colonies that would become the United States. As did any other of my ancestors that immigrated legally after the United States was established. Just saying.

Closer to 92%; the other minority languages that are the first language of more than a million are the Chinese languages (mainly Cantonese, Taishanese, Mandarin), French, Filipino languages (mainly Tagalog), Vietnamese, German, and Korean. (US Census: 2012 Statistical Abstract, http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/population/ancestry_language_spoken_at_home.html)

If they wanted to show off a melting pot, they should have had the song sung in English with Americans of various ancestries interacting with each other preferably while drinking Coke since that's what the commercial was suppose to advertise.

Also, if you were born and raised in a country, you are technically a native to that country. Native Americans do not have exclusive right to complain about forced multiculturalism. In fact, there had been plenty Native Americans in the past who did unspeakable horrors to other Native Americans like genocide and theft of territory. Sure white settlers and the Buffalo Soldiers did quite a bit of horrible things to them but so did other Natives as well as the Mexican settlers. Look up the California Native Americans if you want to see how poorly Native Americans were treated by Mexicans.

In the end, the people of the United States regardless of Native ancestral background or white ancestral background or whatever other ancestral background need to embrace a common language in order to be a melting pot. Otherwise, it's going to get harder to work with others in this country

Firstly, its a little different in that "America the Beautiful" is not the USA's national anthem... I think a better analogy would be singing "Waltzing Matilda" in French. Personally, that doesn't bother me.

Personally, I quite like this version (which was released in 1948):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCZm1baXVo

I don't agree with people who call others bigots for suggesting English should be the national language of the USA. Of course, I have never heard anyone suggest that someone who says English should be the national language of the USA is a bigot.

Making one language your national language doesn't mean that the people don't also speak other languages. The outcry from this commercial from some people, seems to be that it's offensive that this song is sung in other languages. It's one thing to say, people in this country should be able to speak English. It's another thing to say, I am offended by people speaking or singing another language.

Well Congress refuses to make an official language, so obviously there is a motivation to keep language a community-driven aspect.

I was obviously speaking on a greater scale though... I can understand when French people get upset about their culture being diluted by high levels of immigration. Not sure what my political stance would be as a French citizen but I get why some people are upset about it. US citizens though? The whole point of our country is different cultures bleeding into one diverse multi-cultural society.

You must not watch the news very often or at the very least visit your local Walmart. The People of Walmart will give you many more reasons to be ashamed of your fellow Americans. View Pictures at your own risk.

I went for fried chicken ;)

It took me months to get those images out of my head last time I went there.

Oddly enough, in China the people of Walmart are just like normal Chinese people. They lack any obvious mental or physical defect.