Wieden+Kennedy Angers Racists with Soda Ad

Another year. Another Super Bowl. Another Wieden+Kennedy ad earns national attention – this time from people furious that Coca-Cola would acknowledge this nation’s immigrant roots by singing “America the Beautiful” in multiple languages.

The soda spot is the talk of social media today, mostly on Twitter. Many of the offensive comments like these started off using the hashtag #fuckcoke, which supporters of Coke's ad have reclaimed.

But what's not being much mentioned is that the ad is the latest from Wieden+Kennedy, the famed Portland advertising agency that's made a brand out of grandiose imagery with a political subtext.

The agency won praise from Democrats and complaints from some Republicans with its 2012 Super Bowl ad "It's Halftime in America," which starred a gruff Clint Eastwood singing a Portland poet's praises for the nation's work ethic in a Chrysler ad about the comeback of Detroit.

WWeek 2015

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