Sunday, February 5, the New England Patriots took on the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XI in Houston, Texas. Lady Gaga would also give the audience an exhilarating half-time show. However, many just came for the commercials. The 2017 slate of Super Bowl commercials featured some of the usually goofy chip commercials, some featuring celebrities, but many had a political undertone.
One of the most controversial commercials was by 84 Lumber. The commercial featured a young mother and her daughter venturing across Central America. The commercial concludes with many questions, but provides a link online to the rest of the commercial. The commercial concludes with Mother and Daughter reaching the US border and seeing a great wall. Horrified, the family embraces when a door appears. The family walks through and presumably is accepted and assimilated into American life. 84 Lumber saw their website crash during the Super Bowl, and became the fourth most mentioned term on Twitter. The commercial was supposed to be shown in its entirety, but Fox cut it later on. Some, while condemned by others applauded the commercial.
The biggest hit of the night was a Buick commercial, which showed a young boy playing football when someone shows up in a beautiful car. A man then asks, “What kind of car is that?” another replies, “It’s a Buick!” The man says, “If that’s a Buick then my kid is Cam Newton.” The Super-Star Carolina Panthers quarterback then takes the ball and wins the game.
Kia saw perhaps the most interest and applause for their commercial featuring funny-woman Melissa McCarthy taking up different environmental causes while getting into goofy situations. With an anti-environment administration, many suggested boycotting Kia for their take on climate change. The Left thoroughly enjoyed the commercial.
Coca-Cola and Airbnb faced perhaps the most backlash for their inclusive commercials. The Coca-Cola commercial has America the Beautiful being sung in different languages, and a woman in Hijab. The Airbnb commercial shows people of different races and flashes the statements, “No matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love, or who you worship, you deserve to belong.” Additionally, the commercial shows a man in a turban.
Anheuser-Busch saw backlash for their commercial depicting the immigration of its founder, Adolphus Busch, from Germany. Busch sets out to America, but is denied entrance. He eventually reaches the US only to experience extreme discrimination. Busch eventually builds his empire and solidifies his American dream.
The reoccurring theme of the commercials was unity, inclusiveness, multiculturalism, and acceptance. In light of Trump’s Muslim ban, many American’s are furious and are lashing out against the ban. Countless companies are boycotting the ban and using their collective spending power to stand up to Trump and say that America is for everyone. Though it is money motivated, American’s need to see that no matter who we root for, we are on the same team.
