There were moments when it was possible to watch this year’s SuperBowl commercials and feel like we’re still living in a recognizable version of America. chaneyj writes
Only one brand this year dared to address head-on the chaotic and broken society in which we’re currently living: Snickers. Photo: SNICKERS/YouTube There were moments when it was possible to watch this year’s Super Bowl commercials and feel like we’re still living in a recognizable version of America.
As always, there were trailers for blockbuster movies, many of them sequels. Truly, what could be more American than yet another Fast & Furious movie and a sequel to Top Gun? As the prospect of a Top Gun follow-up underscores, there were many, many attempts to appeal to Gen-X/millennial nostalgia, another Super Bowl ad tradition established by past greats like the 2012 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Honda commercial.
And as ever, the advertising during the quintessential big-media American sporting event celebrated America. Specifically, it portrayed this country the way many Americans, and clearly corporate America, want it to be seen: as an evolved, inclusive place where people are good to each other and don’t spend half their days arguing on social media.
But just when you might begin to think, Hey, maybe everything is really okay, a commercial would sneak in and reintroduce the sense of unease that has become the new normal in an America where an impeached president is currently being put on trial with no witnesses nor evidence.