Super Bowl Commercials

I haven’t written in a while. If you look at today’s first post you’ll notice a book review that got five of five stars. It also took just a week to read. I usually have enough on my plate that full books take couple of weeks. As a rule if I haven’t written in a while check out the “currently reading” book!

There were some things that I took a break from reading for. I did watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. I like Jon Stewart’s name for the game, the Seahawks’ “take your Broncos to work day.” I don’t really have a lot else to say about the game except that there were playoff games that were played better but I didn’t have to miss any commercials or Bruno Mars for a bathroom break this year. My opinion, the halftime show was great this year except that The Red Hot Chili Peppers could have stayed home. Bruno Mars was fantastic and I would love to torture David by making him go to will Bruno Mars concert someday.

As for the ads there were too many car commercials and the car commercials were not written as anything special. Super Bowl commercials are supposed to be either funny, shocking or moving. My number one commercial this year was M&Ms. I had to get another opinion to make sure that it wasn’t just that I love the M&M characters, especially Yellow. But David agreed and he doesn’t have a personal connection to Yellow.

The Tim Tebow ad for T-Mobile was fantastic. I loved his being able to laugh at himself with why “No Contract” is the best way to go. I also really liked the Chevy Silverado ad with the “sexy bull.

I thought it was very cool that there were two, count them, two yogurt commercials this year. I have to give the best yogurt commercial nod to Chobani for the bear trashing the store until it finds “natural” yogurt. But I’m still in Oikos fan. The Oikos ad was just a few seconds and couple of paid actors too long. The sexy ad with Oikos spokesman John Stamos had some serious innuendo but it ends with his two former Full House costars at the end giving the joke that the three still live together. It was a dumb joke and not funny. They could have finished leaving innuendo open or create a light joke-ending from that innuendo. There’s nothing wrong with innuendo; sex still sells.

It boggles my mind what people who have big mouths and little worlds find to complain about. There are complaints about the Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad with America The Beautiful sung in many languages celebrating our diversity and it celebrates the immigrants who added to our American culture. As the daughter of an immigrant I am offended that there are people who actually find that ad to be offensive. I don’t think I’m “better” than everyone else but I’m certainly “better” than someone who finds equality to be offensive.

I’d like to share a public service announcement that aired in the early 1970s when I was a very young child and that spot has never left my mind or the way I think.


That PSA is why I’ve often said that I’m not “politically correct,” politically correct is me. Not labeling people, being open and loving them for who they are has always made sense.

Which brings me back to how exactly does the average brain work and can we fix it? I generally don’t read a lot of the commercial reviews after the Super Bowl. I review them myself. But I do read the teasers before the Super Bowl. Going into this year’s Super Bowl there was already a lot of hubbub about Cheerios bringing back their interracial family. I wasn’t sure what spot they were talking about so I had to go looking to find that spot. Folks, I guess that PSA really stuck because I remember the ad but I didn’t remember that it was an interracial family. The original ad was a great ad and I remember the adorable little girl putting Cheerios on daddy’s heart while he was asleep because Cheerios are heart healthy. An awesome ad because I remember it, I remember the message and remember the product. I forgot to notice and be bothered by the fact that the little girl, Gracie’s, parents have different skin colors. This year’s Cheerios is a continuation with daddy using the Cheerios to let Gracie know she has a little brother on the way. Gracie adds a Cheerio to “bargain” to add a puppy in the mix. What I really took away, aside from brand recognition, was when daddy said “deal” the look on mommy’s face was priceless.