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Super Bowl Ads: Detritus From a Cultural Wasteland
MOTUS A.D. ^ | 2-3-20 | MOTUS

Posted on 02/03/2020 7:24:13 AM PST by NOBO2012

If you watched the Super Bowl for the commercials you wasted 4 hours of your life. Unless you’re a Millennial as that’s who they were made for and - I’d speculate – by. Since advertising, like bond trading, is notorious for being a young man’s (generic usage, no complaints please) game I think it’s safe to assume that most of yesterday’s ads were conceptualized and written by members of the millennial demographic. And if they are our future, gird your loins for a tedious ride. The $5.6 million for a 30 second spots were mediocre at best and dreadful at worst.

We were presented with a panoply of post-modern themes: technology idolatry, pop culture idolatry, gender neutrality/bending, diversity and, of course, climate concern.

Thus we got Google’s maudlin portrayal of a man remembering his dead wife with all his Google assisted memories, the magic of technology assisted self-parking cars (Hyundai) and Ellen DeGeneres and her partner - the other wife in the couple - Portia de Rossi, imagining what life was like before Alexa. Oh, and Facebook showing us how they can bring us all together with their Groups feature. Brought to you by the people who invented “unfriending.” Facebook is more than instrumental in assisting people in tearing the thin fabric of civility apart via internet “conversations” than Donald Trump.

Image result for facebook unfriending memes"Facebook, bringing people together since 2004

Nearly every ad included either some pop culture reference and/or persona. From Boomers Sam Elliot (Doritos) and Martin Scorsese (Coke) to Gen Xers Naomi Rider (Sqarespace),

Jimmy Fallon (Michelob Ultra) and Molly Ringwald - for some reason hawking Avocados from Mexico on a surreal Shopping Channel.

Image result for super bowl commercials 2020 avocados"

The rest featured Millennials who I gratefully don’t know.

There was T-Mobile showcasing Anthony Anderson (?) and his mama demonstrating how well their 5G network works – even when mama goes clubbing!

Rocket Mortgage revealing that superhero Jason Moama(?) aka Aquaman is in reality more like Jethro Tull’s Aqualung.

Image result for super bowl commercials 2020 budweiser"

Disturbing.

The Millennial half of the Doritos commercial was Lil Nas X  who challenged Sam Eliott to some sort of old west dance-off.

Probably would have been funnier if I had even a fleeting hint of who Lil Nas is or his song Old Town Road. Even though they threw in the old Cowboy for good measure I’m clearly not their target audience.

Then there was the save-the-planet-by buying-an-electric-car theme: Audi used some star from Game of Thrones singing music from Frozen to promote theirs, Toyota Highlander showcased Cobie Smulders (?) rescuing people in trouble from a variety of stereotypical movie disaster scenarios. My favorite though had to be GM’s gutsy push for reintroducing a nameplate I thought had been deep-sixed forever: Hummer. Because nothing says “saving the planet” like a  big-assed all-terrain vehicle turned electric.

Image result for super bowl commercials 2020 GM hummer"

In the “diversity” category Budweiser takes first prize, presenting themselves as  the “Stereotype Smasher.” How brave of them.

And back to the gender-bending: Sabra  entertains us with a couple of drag queens - Kim Chi and Miz Cracker-  hawking their hummus dip. Makes me go hmmmmm but sure doesn’t make me hungry.

Lord, what a mess. I give the prize to Michaelob’s Ultra Pure Gold commercial “6 for 6-pack” ad. By promising “to help” transform 6 feet of farmland into “organic” for every 6-pack they sell they’ve managed to cram more BS and double-talk about caring for the planet and giving back - without you actually having to do anything other than buy their product - than anyone else in a minute spot.

There were plenty of other un-smart ads as well, including Snickers fixing the world by dropping a giant snickers into a giant hole – it could have worked, but it didn’t, Mr. Peanut’s funeral, Walmart’s delivery program…groaners all.

I did sort of enjoy the Bill Murray Jeep ad but it wasn’t great either.

Image result for super bowl commercials 2020 rocket mortgage"

Miss by an inch, miss by a mile.

So here’s to you liberalism: you’ve managed to replace comedy with farce and slap-stick, satire with ridicule, irony with cynicism and creativity with sequels and spin-offs. I fear I’m not woke enough to appreciate your ongoing contributions to culture.

If you still want to waste your time you can watch most of the SB commercials here.

Posted from: MOTUS A.D.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Humor; Politics
KEYWORDS: billmurray; commercials; hummer; superbowl; superbowlcommercials
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1 posted on 02/03/2020 7:24:13 AM PST by NOBO2012
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To: NOBO2012

Well said


2 posted on 02/03/2020 7:27:59 AM PST by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: NOBO2012
Really liked this commercial...

Agape
3 posted on 02/03/2020 7:29:37 AM PST by PigRigger (Satire is near impossible now. Liberals donÂ’t understand it and for conservatives it is reality.)
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To: NOBO2012

“We were presented with a panoply of post-modern themes: technology idolatry, pop culture idolatry, gender neutrality/bending, diversity and, of course, climate concern.”

And one more post-modern theme: stupidity


4 posted on 02/03/2020 7:30:56 AM PST by cymbeline
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To: NOBO2012

Long for the days of Budweiser frogs, Master Lock, and Apple “1984”.


5 posted on 02/03/2020 7:32:36 AM PST by C19fan
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To: NOBO2012
30 second spots were mediocre at best and dreadful at worst

Dreadful, but I'm sure the writers are in Schiff denial and thought they were great.

6 posted on 02/03/2020 7:33:06 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: NOBO2012
Cultural Wasteland

That about sums up the current state of the US. When we decided that diversity and multiculturalism were the highest ideals & that egalitarianism about the only thing worth projecting and protecting we were destined to be where we are. Nothing about an old white Western morality or history that is worth a damn. Morality has become old fashion and passe and our past apparently not worth emulating or protecting.

7 posted on 02/03/2020 7:34:05 AM PST by Altura Ct.
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To: NOBO2012

You know it’s bad when there’s not even a funny beer commercial in the bunch.


8 posted on 02/03/2020 7:34:28 AM PST by GnuThere
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To: NOBO2012

They had the Tide ad on up here (Canadian law blocks US ads on telecasts up here). Found the reverse sexism in one of them repulsive.


9 posted on 02/03/2020 7:34:44 AM PST by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966)
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To: NOBO2012

The dancing horse in the Doritos ad was pretty funny. Trump’s ad was the best one of the night.


10 posted on 02/03/2020 7:39:22 AM PST by Rocky
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To: NOBO2012

I know exactly when this author went to the kitchen for another beer:

Budweiser Typical American 2020 Super Bowl Commercial

https://youtu.be/yt-zXuAAD6Q


11 posted on 02/03/2020 7:39:41 AM PST by edwinland
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To: NOBO2012

Game was great, commercials plus half-time show, not so much. I had to watch to know what all the fuss was about. Learned really quick.


12 posted on 02/03/2020 7:40:34 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: NOBO2012
From Boomers Sam Elliot (Doritos) and Martin Scorsese (Coke) to Gen Xers Naomi Rider (Sqarespace),

Scorsese was born in 1942, too old to be a "Boomer".
13 posted on 02/03/2020 7:40:44 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: NOBO2012

I didn’t see the whole game, but I thought every one of the commercials that I saw was stupid. And the stupidest of all was one in which someone at a party threw a pot of soup into a ceiling fan which splattered it all over the guests and everything in the room. And it didn’t even say in the ad what was being advertised!

Superbowl ads are not cheap. Who would have paid beaucoup bucks for that piece of garbage?


14 posted on 02/03/2020 7:43:46 AM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: NOBO2012

I looked at the ads and said “This is the effect of rampant drug abuse.”


15 posted on 02/03/2020 7:46:29 AM PST by OrangeHoof (The Democrats - Unafraid to burn in Hell.)
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To: NOBO2012

I noticed that 50 % of the ads had 100% actors of color in them. The other 50% had actors of color, mostly dominating the ads.

Where’s the diversity?


16 posted on 02/03/2020 7:47:03 AM PST by PhiloBedo (You gotta roll with the punches, and get with what's real.)
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To: PigRigger

I like that. Thanks for posting.

I saw nothing of the Super Bowl or the commercials so have no idea how many commercials were good but that is a good one.


17 posted on 02/03/2020 7:52:13 AM PST by laplata (The Left/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Fiji Hill

i also didn’t know what products or companies were being advertised in some of the ads.

Hope their marketing people consider the expensive ad space worth it, if people can’t even understand what the product is, and/or what political statement you are trying to make.


18 posted on 02/03/2020 7:55:25 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: NOBO2012

I really wonder about a sport that generates as much or more talk about the commercials than about the game.


19 posted on 02/03/2020 7:57:22 AM PST by TexasKamaAina
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To: NOBO2012

The ads and half-time pole dancing represent what they think American popular culture is, and what they want it to be.

I liked some of the ads, but thought they paid way too much money for stupid stuff.


20 posted on 02/03/2020 8:04:54 AM PST by I want the USA back (The media is acting full-on as the Democratic Party's press agency now: Robert Spencer)
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