So, apprently a Super Bowl 48 commercial is pissing people off...

[Stu35]

Silly Americans. I'm British - We don't accept that there are other languages than English.

- Foreigners in our country who don't speak the language are ignorant and shouldn't be here unless they can learn our bloody language.

- People who live in other countries who don't speak English to us when we go there are bloody ignorant and should realise that it is the mighty pound sterling we bring which prevents them from being homeless and overrun by the Huns and such. So they should bloody well learn our language and accommodate us like good little hosts.








*For those who don't get it by the way (In my experience, lots of people on this forum are simply incapable of picking up obvious satire/humour/sarcasm/tongue-in-cheekness, even when it is made as obvious as one possibly can in a text based environment), this post was entirely tongue-in-cheek.

 

[Sarge034]

Freedom of speech applies to all forms of speech, regardless of the language it's spoken in. To deny that is to reject the Constitution and the very intellectual fabric this country was founded on. That, my friends, is truly un-American.

But then don't people also have the right to say singing the anthem in anything other than English is "un-American" as their freedom of speech? It goes both ways.

OT- I'm not sure how to feel about it. As far as I know there is no rule or guidelines against the anthem being sung in a different language. So while singing the anthem in another language is not wrong/illegal (to my knowledge) it was probably untactful to do so when the majority of the viewing audience speaks English as their primary/only language.

 

[Random Argument Man]

*For those who don't get it by the way (In my experience, lots of people on this forum are simply incapable of picking up obvious satire/humour/sarcasm/tongue-in-cheekness, even when it is made as obvious as one possibly can in a text based environment), this post was entirely tongue-in-cheek.

The thing is many people can't convey satire/humour/ESPECIALLY Sarcasm in a written form. If said terms were spoken, it would be easy to know it is a comedic tone. However, writing a comedic tone is like doing surgery with words. You really need to know how you're writing.

OT: Really? That seems a bit?..bold. One could assume that it has a melting pot feeling while another could assume every culture should idolize the americans.

 

[Alarien]

Ask how many of those people who are angry realize that that wasn't actually the US's national anthem. It was America the Beautiful. Again, just a song. Not the Star Spangled Banner. I bet you'll be surprised how many people missed that mild little fact.

That said, I don't really care what language it's sung in. I'm always biased towards the original language of any song because that was the intent of the writer, but it's not exactly a big deal.

 

[gunny1993]

A giant multinational corporation using a opportunity to sell their product to people of multiple languages?

There is literally nothing more American than that.

 

[Lieju]

I'd also like to point out that a nation where a bunch of different languages is spoken isn't exactly a good thing. There's a reason why the punishment in the story of the Tower of Babel was many languages suddenly coming into existence.

In that story it was so that humans would never be unified again and be able to work together to challenge God. Based on the moral of that story, all people speaking the same language is bad.

Anyway, I don't see how being able to speak different languages, and being a country made of people with different backgrounds means they can't understand each other.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Screw 'em. They're just upset they were forced to acknowledge other people exist.

I think Cheerios (or the media) purposely blew it out of proportion to reap the PR benefit.

Oh, definitely. Theres Cheerios commercials with that mixed raced family that have nothing to do with Cheerios until they show the logo at the end. They knew exactly what they were doing.

The Cheerios ad was deliberately attempting to spark a backlash? And this is backed up by the fact that the commercial had nothing to do with the product until the logo popped up? That last bit just described at least half the commercials ever made.

The only backlash against that ad was performed by reprehensible people.

 

[Atmos Duality]

So much for the "melting pot"...

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Apparently, the United States has a history of hating a lot of immigrants, despite relying so heavily on them.
Like, 200+ years of history.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

So much for the "melting pot"...

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Apparently, the United States has a history of hating a lot of immigrants, despite relying so heavily on them.
Like, 200+ years of history.

I know, and it's stupid. It would be like George Lucas saying he hated space fantasies, or Trigger saying they hated silly, over the top anime. We're hating our own identity.

 

[Vegosiux]

The problem is that people are lazy and are perfectly fine not learning English and it's not socially acceptable to require them to.

Apart from the fact that you personally speak English, what makes other people not learning English "lazy", and you not learning other languages "okay"?

PS: Might have been just a bunch of disgruntled Broncos fans taking it out on the commercial because they got humiliated so badly.

 

[Erttheking]

*Head desk* my country is sending me so many mixed messages it isn't even funny. I grew up being told how America was "The great boiling pot" of the world and how it was a country where anyone of any skin color could live, and now that I'm grown up, I see people blowing up at things that didn't originate from this country. And a song sung in multiple languages actually sounds like it would be really beautiful and powerful. Can't listen to it right now but I will when I get the chance.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Is it pissing people off or is Faux news getting people all pissed off about it? There's a difference.

All I'm saying is that the only really American language are the ones spoken by native Americans.

There's this too. Next year Coke should have an ad with the anthem sung in different native languages.

 

[FourEyedTroll]

So will these same Americans stop singing 'Silent Night' and 'Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree' at Christmas then, if a song is only allowed to be sung in the original language?

As a non-American, I think the advert has a beautiful sentiment that we'd do well to recognise here in the UK as well.

 

[lacktheknack]

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Hardly. That's much more Canada's thing.

America's "thing" according to the rest of the world is rednecks, which is why most aren't really surprised by this story.

I do have to say, though, it's delicious that it's being said to be "Unamerican" to sing the song in anything other than ENGLish, the language of ENGLand...

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Hardly. That's much more Canada's thing.

America's "thing" according to the rest of the world is rednecks, which is why most aren't really surprised by this story.

I do have to say, though, it's delicious that it's being said to be "Unamerican" to sing the song in anything other than ENGLish, the language of ENGLand...

Labeling us all as rednecks is pretty screwed up. Please don't stereotype people.

 

[Silverfox99]

The commercial is fine. What isn't fine is how both sides have reacted with hate. I don't believe hate is a justification to return hate. When that happens it just increases hate overall. I wish people could understand that and act on it and not be so hateful. If they did many of the perceived problems in this country would go away.

 

[lacktheknack]

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Hardly. That's much more Canada's thing.

America's "thing" according to the rest of the world is rednecks, which is why most aren't really surprised by this story.

I do have to say, though, it's delicious that it's being said to be "Unamerican" to sing the song in anything other than ENGLish, the language of ENGLand...

Labeling us all as rednecks is pretty screwed up. Please don't stereotype people.

I've been to America several times and never actually met a redneck, so if anything, I'm more inclined to believe none of you guys are rednecks.

However, literally every bad story about America that ever gets discussed here involves rednecks or people acting like rednecks. If you dislike the stereotype, you're gonna have to share more bad stuff that happens that's not tinged with redneck.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

Spoiler

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Hardly. That's much more Canada's thing.

America's "thing" according to the rest of the world is rednecks, which is why most aren't really surprised by this story.

I do have to say, though, it's delicious that it's being said to be "Unamerican" to sing the song in anything other than ENGLish, the language of ENGLand...

Labeling us all as rednecks is pretty screwed up. Please don't stereotype people.

I've been to America several times and never actually met a redneck, so if anything, I'm more inclined to believe none of you guys are rednecks.

However, literally every bad story about America that ever gets discussed here involves rednecks or people acting like rednecks. If you dislike the stereotype, you're gonna have to share more bad stuff that happens that's not tinged with redneck.

So it's the fault of the stereotype's victims that they didn't dispel it themselves? That's equally screwed up. The burden of proof lies with the accuser, not the person defending themselves.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Hardly. That's much more Canada's thing.

America's "thing" according to the rest of the world is rednecks, which is why most aren't really surprised by this story.

I do have to say, though, it's delicious that it's being said to be "Unamerican" to sing the song in anything other than ENGLish, the language of ENGLand...

Labeling us all as rednecks is pretty screwed up. Please don't stereotype people.

I don't think you're all rednecks, but the fact that you're avatar is Dale is kind of funny.

 

[lacktheknack]

Spoiler

America has always been a country of immigrants.

I thought that was our thing...

Hardly. That's much more Canada's thing.

America's "thing" according to the rest of the world is rednecks, which is why most aren't really surprised by this story.

I do have to say, though, it's delicious that it's being said to be "Unamerican" to sing the song in anything other than ENGLish, the language of ENGLand...

Labeling us all as rednecks is pretty screwed up. Please don't stereotype people.

I've been to America several times and never actually met a redneck, so if anything, I'm more inclined to believe none of you guys are rednecks.

However, literally every bad story about America that ever gets discussed here involves rednecks or people acting like rednecks. If you dislike the stereotype, you're gonna have to share more bad stuff that happens that's not tinged with redneck.

So it's the fault of the stereotype's victims that they didn't dispel it themselves? That's equally screwed up. The burden of proof lies with the accuser, not the person defending themselves.

I'm not accusing you, or saying that you need to fix it.

I'm just saying what is, and what would change it if you so desired.

Heck, I associate with a group who's best known for protesting funerals (Baptists). I've been trying to dispel that image for years, but I've given up, because people's snap-judgements of you aren't actually important outside of job interviews.