Coca-Cola's 2013 Superbowl Ad — Coke Chase

[Sirène]

Any thoughts about the Coke ad that the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and others have called racist?



(If it cannot be viewed in your country, try doing a youtube search for "Coke Chase" to see if it's been posted by a user in your region.)

I don't really have an opinion on the commercial other than I love the glitter cannon :yay: and I expect more of a narrative to be revealed during the Super Bowl, however it does bother me that on the associated website ( Coca-Cola: Who Gets the Coke? ) consumers are not given the option to vote for (what Coke calls) the "Lawrence of Arabia" character. I wouldn't classify the omission as racism, but it's certainly thoughtless and raises questions about their motivation.

I will note that after discussing the ad with the Coca-Cola Co. an ADC rep gave this quote to GMA on Friday morning: " We believe the issue is resolved and are now comfortable that Coke was in no way trying to demonize the Arab culture or race." But the ADC still wants the ad changed before game day while Coke has made no plans to re-edit it.

 

[Zorba]

Nothing racist about it. Which is the case 99% of the time.

 

[Shanazel]

The commercial is clearly bikerist!

Why is it that bikers are always shown as either reckless drivers, testosterone poisoned one percenters, or sex maniacs? The Coke commercial for the Super Bowl is bikerist, portraying bikers as backward and foolish motorcycle jockies with no chance to win in the world because they are too busy crashing their vehicles and oogling females.

 

[Farasha Hanem]

I think the different people ("Lawrence," the cowboy, the Vegas show girls, and the...bikers? Bikers live in the desert? :think: ) are supposed to be representative of people who live(d) in desert areas, therefore, they're all thirsty. I don't see it as racist.

 

[Mosaic]

It's a fun ad, but why would you not be able to vote for Lawrence, that is weird! I don't see it as racist, because Lawrence was an Englishman unless coke has something against Englishmen ... I like the camel, & want to vote for the camel or maybe the glitter bomb.
~Mosaic

 

[Shanazel]

Probably someone wasn't paying attention when they listed the contestants and simply missed one.

 

[Safran]

I don't think the glitter cannon got an equal amount of screen time to all other characters!

 

[Aniseteph]

Ad - not racist, them's movie references not real people, IMO.
Vote - utter fail #1 for not including LoA and the camel. I think maybe the idea was the camel train was part of the desert set up and so not technically involved in the race, but I'm getting twinges of self loathing for overthinking this already... maybe they WANT to get a viral vote camel thing going... nooooo rotest:
Anyhoo, the whole premise assumes that getting the coke is a good thing. The camel knows better and is headed for the nearest oasis.

Also I thought it was a Priscilla Queen of the Desert type bus, in which case, fail #2, needs more drag queens. Or is that not a Super Bowl thing? :lol:

 

[Zumarrad]

I think it's interesting that Coke says the character is not an Arab, just "Lawrence of Arabia". What's THAT all about?

 

[Duvet]

I think it's interesting that Coke says the character is not an Arab, just "Lawrence of Arabia". What's THAT all about?

Then why does he look more like Jafar from Disney's 'Aladdin' rather then Lawrence of Arabia? The ad is meant to be funny. Do I really see a lady riding with a parasol amongst the cowboys? And where are the drag queens in the bus!

Personally I don't like the advert at all - firing objects at a galloping horse (at close range), throwing bikers off their vehicles just for looking at you; I guess this is no longer called gratuitous violence anymore? Arab bloke is well out of it.

He may not be in the voting, but he has his own website (created by the cola company); Vincent de Fairweather, Those fools just raced past by a craft service...

And perhaps he gets the coke after all;

 

[Ariadne]

That is all kinds of awesome.

"I'm Vincent de Fairweather. One of the most famous silent film stars of 1920s Tinseltown. My film “The Kalaharian,” directed by the talented Claude T. LeBeau, almost bankrupted the studio, and was plagued by problems like ruffians invading our shoot in a mad chase for an astonishingly large Coke."​

So yes, it's all movie references. I thought it might be something like this.


PS. Don't forget to vote and then click on the sabotage links. The ones for the Showgirls made me laugh.

 

[Duvet]

Sorry. Got the link to Vincent de Fairweather's page wrong.
Here it is; Vincent de Fairweather

 

[Sirène]

Anyhoo, the whole premise assumes that getting the coke is a good thing. The camel knows better and is headed for the nearest oasis.

Love this! :dance:

Also I thought it was a Priscilla Queen of the Desert type bus, in which case, fail #2, needs more drag queens. Or is that not a Super Bowl thing? :lol:

When I first saw the bus my mind went immediately to Priscilla too. A missed opportunity for awesomeness in my opinion.

 

[~Diana~]

Someone please point out to me what in that video was supposed to be racist????

 

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

I didn't really get the movie references at all. I actually didn't get the commercial until I read the posts here. I thought the coke bottle was supposed to be a mirage or something.

I don't understand the biker or the showgirls. I guess I understand the cowboy, but the desert that I think of the US doesn't look like that. Maybe it's an imagination fail on my part.

:/

As for racist, I think it's an imagery thing. Arabs OBVIOUSLY would be hanging around the desert with their camels -- and of course, alone, without a tent. It isn't OVERTLY racist, but -- it's ... well, I mean ... this :

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/23512562.jpg

We white people just aren't sure, since that image HAS been part of a couple of centuries of racist and derogatory use.

 

[Ariadne]

I didn't really get the movie references at all. I actually didn't get the commercial until I read the posts here. I thought the coke bottle was supposed to be a mirage or something.

I don't understand the biker or the showgirls.

I thought it was a mirage at first too until I saw the mile sign.

They're all memes. The bikers were so "Mad Max" it made me laugh when they showed up. The showgirls, well there is the Prisilla movie that was already mentioned but we have so many shows that are set in the desert that have show/chorus girls I couldn't begin to count them; that is where Las Vegas is after all. Same with the cowboys. Every single one of those stereotypes are from movies made in desert settings including the "Lawrence of Arabia".

I guess I understand the cowboy, but the desert that I think of the US doesn't look like that. Maybe it's an imagination fail on my part.

:/

I live not to far from where those movies were shot before studio's started filming overseas on location instead (Mad Max being an exception of course). We used to have a cafe that was know for being where all the actors would come and eat after shooting their desert scenes. It even had hitching posts out front for the "cowboys" to tie their horses to. And yes, we do have deserts that look just like that. You name it desert wise and we have it. Heck we have a "forest" of cacti tourists come just to see. I don't know why but then I go somewhere else just to see a forest that isn't mostly evergreens so...