Coca-Cola’s gender-inclusive Super Bowl ad is affecting people in all the right ways

During the Super Bowl, we turn to the commercials for a good laugh, a celebrity cameo, or a shocking cultural moment. Sometimes a Super Bowl ad will mix social justice with capitalism in an insensitive way (we’re looking at you, Dodge Ram). Rarely does a Super Bowl ad touch the lives of the individuals watching it in a real and supportive way. Many people who saw the Coca-Cola ad on Sunday noticed that the brand used the non-binary gender pronoun “them.”

“There’s a Coke for he and she and her and me and them,” says the voiceover as it pans across a variety of human faces. The spot, directed by Alma Har’el, has been gaining a ton of acclaim for its small, but powerful, attention to gender-inclusive pronouns.

“Thank you to @Alma.harel and @cocacola for turning a space that so many brands use superficially into a platform for representation and change,” shared one Instagram user. “Coca-Cola used ‘Them’ as a singular pronoun during the big sports ball game,” wrote another.

Naturally, the moment caught the attention of many on social media, including GLAAD, which tweeted the crying emoji in response.

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/960395186135220224

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeziPuhlxB8

You can watch the entire spot below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPi9nTE70aA?start=57&feature=oembed

The best thing about the ad was that it didn’t exploit the gender binary to sell sodas but represented humans as we are. The ad claimed that there’s a Coke for everyone, and everyone includes: me, he, she, and them. Simple as that.