Unfortunately for Seattle Seahawks fans, this year’s Super Bowl was a bit of a letdown. Up until the last minute or so of the game it really seemed as if the team had the win, but with a plot twist that nobody saw coming the team and fans were crushed within a matter of seconds.
Watching the game was a roller coaster of emotions, and it seemed this year that the commercials were toying with emotions as well.
Super Bowl commercials attract a lot of viewers. Advertisers this year seemed to go the tear-jerker route instead of sticking with what they know – humor.
Super Bowl XLIX didn’t hesitate, starting the string of commercials off with a heart-stopping Chevrolet ad. It starts off with what sounded like one of the sportscasters talking about the Super Bowl, as if the game had come back on again, and then his voice starts to stutter and then the images start to go static. It truly looked and seemed like either the television or the cable companies were failing.
Then the screen goes black, but shortly pops up with the question, “What would you do if your TV went out? The all-new Chevy Colorado offers built-in 4G LTE Wi-Fi. You could stream the game in it. Just sayin’.”
Not only did my living room erupt in expletives and pale faces, but some were just stunned with silence. While it was a cruel joke to play on the millions of viewers who were watching, it was a brilliant way to capture the audience’s attention.
Taking home the award for the most adorable commercial was the Budweiser commercial. If there’s one way to get lots of humans riled up and teary at the same time, it’s puppies. This year, the puppy gets itself into a horse trailer and is taken away from its horse friend, home and owner and finds himself lost. Somehow, the puppy finds his way. Upon seeing his farm home all lit up at night, he starts to take off, until he hears growling. A wolf was waiting to eat him, but was stopped when the puppy’s clan of horse friends came to his rescue. In the background, a lovely cover of The Proclaimer’s “500 Miles” by Sleeping At Last played. It made the commercial saddening, and it was an incredible rendition of the original.
This was only one amongst the plethora of this year’s sad commercials. Nationwide featured a young boy talking about how he would never learn how to ride a bike, would never get married and would never experience life because he had died in a car accident. Dove Men’s “#RealStrength” commercial displayed a montage of adorable dad moments throughout children’s lives, which automatically made all the women in my family (including me, unfortunately) to let out very audible sighs of admiration, there was not a dry eye in the room. Nissan’s “With Dad” commercial showed the life of a young boy growing up without his father, who was a racecar driver, who is always at the risk of getting into an accident. He often chooses his career before his family. The ending was what got everybody to suck in their breath try not to cry.
While I want to complain about the sad commercials this year, meaningful commercials that get people to think and to express themselves are probably more than a bunch of feel-good, humorous ads.
When it comes down to it, though, three commercials stand out. Always’ “#LikeAGirl” commercial promoted the message of making the phrase “like a girl” a positive saying instead of negative one, as many consider it. It’s important to start showing revolutionary opinions like this during something that millions of people are watching. Not only is the message important for adults to realize, but it is important for young children to learn, as well.
Mountain Dew Kickstart had no message or reason behind it whatsoever, but it did have one thing: Dancing. Nonsensical, animals involved, weird as hell dancing. With an infectious beat in the background, it was hard not to bop along to the commercial while simultaneously cracking up.
My third favorite commercial was Esurance’s “Say My Name.” It featured Bryan Cranston, also known as Walter White from “Breaking Bad” and the father in “Malcom in the Middle”. That in itself was amazing.
This year the Super Bowl featured a mix of comedic commercials, heartwarming commercials, and meaningful, powerful commercials. Rather than going back to the norm of hilarity within every ad, I hope that Super Bowl 50 brings about the same kind of content that was shown this year.