If it's possible for the New York Times to jump the proverbial shark, they went one better. Given this, it would appear they jumped right out of an ever rising sea due to global warming and landed in a rest home by a beach in Iraq:
No commercial that appeared last night during Super Bowl XLI directly addressed Iraq, unlike a patriotic spot for Budweiser beer that ran during the game two years ago. But the ongoing war seemed to linger just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials.
More than a dozen spots celebrated violence in an exaggerated, cartoonlike vein that was intended to be humorous, but often came across as cruel or callous.
You see, those commercials weren't slick messages often containing bottles launched from Madison Avenue and designed to sell products like beer at millions of dollars a pop. They were all metaphors for a nation deflated, if not defeated, and dangerously obsessed with Bush's misguided war.
The problem with the spot, created internally at Prudential, was that whenever the announcer said, “a rock” — invoking the Prudential logo, the rock of Gibraltar — it sounded as if he were saying, yes, “Iraq.”
Okay, is it just me, or does it sound like the editors at the NY Times must have taped the Superbowl commercials and are now playing them backwards to distill the hidden message buried deep within?
It was as if Madison Avenue were channeling Doc in “West Side Story,” the gentle owner of the candy store in the neighborhood that the two street gangs, the Jets and Sharks, fight over. “Why do you kids live like there’s a war on?” Doc asks plaintively. (Well, Doc, this time, there is.)
During other wars, Madison Avenue has appealed to a yearning for peace. That was expressed in several Super Bowl spots evocative of “Hilltop,” the classic Coca-Cola commercial from 1971, when the Vietnam War divided a world that needed to be taught to sing in perfect harmony.
Coca-Cola borrowed pages from its own playbook with two whimsical spots for Coca-Cola Classic, “Happiness Factory” and “Video Game,” that were as sweet as they were upbeat. The commercials, by Wieden & Kennedy, provided a welcome counterpoint to the martial tone of the evening.
Those who wish the last four years of history had never happened could find solace in several commercials that used the device of ending an awful tale by revealing it was only a dream.
Good grief, they have finally gone totally insane.
—Dan Riehl is a blogger and journalist. Read more of his work at Riehl World View.
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How stupid! Can't these peopl
February 5, 2007 - 00:30 ET by msh1973How stupid! Can't these people just enjoy one minute of life. The Super Bowl is almost like a holiday in the U.S., get together with family and friends, eat great food and have fun. My family and I had a great time. We enjoyed the Bud commercial with the dogs (of course).
I did notice that coke se
February 5, 2007 - 01:24 ET by Conservative VoiceI did notice that coke seemed to want to be considered the hippie cola choice. Seems counter intuitive for an energy drink to take on the hippe image on itself.
I also noticed that the commercials seemed a bit more trashy. The chevy commercial with all the guys in their underwear, the two guys kissing each other in a snickers commercial, and the one where some lady in marketing dancing in a wet top for some internet company (I forget which one). Where is some common decency? Any of this picked up by the media? Nope, moral decay is not on their radar screen.
The commercials were actual
February 5, 2007 - 02:30 ET by ckc1227The commercials were actually rather lame this year. Not a one of them stood out, not to me at least. Even the girls in the godaddy spot weren't all that attractive. I mean, sure, they were nice looking, but they could have done so much better. Still, I wouldn't mind working in that marketing department.
Liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid.
I agree, though I did like th
February 5, 2007 - 03:11 ET by Conservative VoiceI agree, though I did like the Jack in the Box comercial.
I’m so glad someone noticed
February 5, 2007 - 05:02 ET by USA4freedomI’m so glad someone noticed the article in Drudge from the NYT. I think that people over there have totally lost it.
“You see, those commercials weren't slick messages often containing bottles launched from Madison Avenue and designed to sell products like beer at millions of dollars a pop. They were all metaphors for a nation deflated, if not defeated, and dangerously obsessed with Bush's misguided war.” ????? That was Madison Ave. spending millions per min. to complain about Bushes war?
So I looked up metaphor, (its been 35 years since the last English class for me) and I found as the example: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players
They have their exits and their entrances;
Hmm, I think I get it. Its like, the NYT is the Titanic
The editorial section is useless seaman
With out proper protection, we will all sink (together).
I almost feel sorry for you jerks at the NYT, if you weren’t so dam dangerous to this great and wonderful country. It’s a dam football game just try to enjoy something rather than find some hidden agenda. Eat a pizza, drink a beer or (Evian if you prefer.) Get a life.
America is best described by one word, freedom... Dwight D. Eisenhower
NYTimes is off it's rocker
February 5, 2007 - 10:37 ET by SamGreat post USA4freedom! These people are obsessed beyond hope. The freakin' commercials were made to move the products - not cry about the war, A-Holes!
As Groucho Marx used to say
February 5, 2007 - 07:06 ET by motherbeltTo the NY Times:
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Get over yourselves.
"...it sounded as if he
February 5, 2007 - 09:48 ET by saw the light"...it sounded as if he were saying, yes, Iraq."
If you try hard enough, you can hear whatever you want in everything.
During a training class I took on safe driving, we were shown a study. A group of people were shown a fire truck driving down a street twice. Once the truck was driving with lights and siren and the other without them. The truck was traveling the same speed during each pass. The people were then asked to estimate the speed of the truck in each pass. The pass with lights and siren were estimated much faster than the other, even though the speed was the same.
This shows that people bring their bias (fire trucks drive fast, or Iraq is screwed up) to everything. The New York Slimes cannot get their hatred for all things Bush out of any aspect of the paper, including a review of entertainment!!!!!
On a lighter note, the Blockbuster commercial with the mouse was my vote for the best commercial, however. My wife and I nearly fell off our chairs laughing.
"People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news." - A.J. Liebling
I agree the Blockbuster with
February 5, 2007 - 10:00 ET by USA4freedomI agree the Blockbuster with the mouse was the best. I use to run a bar and during the superbowl people would go to the bathroom during the game to watch the commercials. They would boo the serious ones.
America is best described by one word, freedom... Dwight D. Eisenhower
The nerds at the Times must h
February 5, 2007 - 10:41 ET by JPR1The nerds at the Times must have been off getting more bean-dip when the animated Coke spot ran.
Beautiful piece. A guy who appears to be a total thug turns out to be the quintessential American “good-guy”.
Loved it when he gives a homeless guy his jacket, puts him in a car full of great looking babes, then stiff-arms a mugger and recovers grandmas purse.
All of his “reckless” and “violent” actions had compassionate purpose.
Reminded me of the Iraq war.
Coke Video Game
February 5, 2007 - 12:58 ET by SoldierOfEternityThe funny thing is, I would love to play that game. Seriously, it looks great. Yank a yuppie out of the car, clink your coke to his, and then proceed to undo everything a GTA person has done. Imagine it! You could link it with GTA and play online!
Now we just need a name. Grand Tour America? Has to stick with the GTA initials. C'mon, people, let's see some creativity!
As I read this on Drudge I wi
February 5, 2007 - 12:25 ET by MassConservativeAs I read this on Drudge I wish it would have come with a 'drinking recepticles down' warning.
As the NYT continues their freefall to complete irrelevancy via BDS part of me wants to feel sorry for them with articles like this. The other part of me wants to applaud them for taking a leap from harmless Superbowl ads to a statement on the war. This is a leap I am not sure Evil Kneivel could have pulled off in his prime.
Now it has got me thinking. Is it possible that the horse flatulance ad from a few years back was a statement on the condition of the refugees in darfur??