Trending News|February 04, 2014 08:35 EST
Coca-Cola Commercial Sparks Controversy by Featuring First Gay Couple in Super Bowl Commercial (VIDEO)
Coca-Cola's Super Bowl commercial has garnered widespread criticism after the big game on Sunday. The same commercial that had people ranting and raving over "America the Beautiful" being sung in different languages, also featured a gay couple pictured with kids, making it the first time a homosexual couple has ever been featured in a Super Bowl Ad.
During Sunday's 2014 Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, Coca Cola featured an ad that shows a gay couple and their daughter, making it the first time a gay couple with an apparently adopted child had been featured in a Super Bowl ad.
The controversial ad comes on the heels of the 56th Annual Grammy Awards marrying dozens of homosexual couples live on CBS. The event was widely criticized as a political stunt by Grammy Award organizers.
Coca Cola's Super Bowl commercial comes after they faced backlash from gay activists for the company's sponsorship of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in wake of Russia's legal restrictions on LGBT propoganda towards children.
They also got heat from gay activists for a social media campaign related to the Olympics that allegedly prevented users from typing the word "gay" on a customizable Coke can, but allowed the use of the word "straight."
Another dispute between Coca Cola and gay activists took place in Ireland over the company's decision to switch footage they had on one of their ads of a gay couple being married. A spokesperson for the beverage company told Ireland's TheJournal.ie that the company did not include an image of a same-sex couple in Ireland's version of the commercial because same-sex marriage does not exist in the country - marriage remains defined as the union between a man and a woman.
However, gay activists have now praised Coca Cola's Super Bowl commercial for supporting gay marriage. Others meanwhile took to Facebook to say they believed the inclusion of the gay couple as just political propaganda. Some criticized it as being against and discrediting the biblical union of marriage that God established between one man and one woman.
Coca-Cola also posted on their Facebook page a five-minute behind-the-scenes video of the ad which featured interviews with its participants including the gay couple. In the segment the video compares the struggle of homosexuals to the struggle for Blacks against racism.