Despite my qualms with our overly consumerist culture, I’ll admit that I do like watching Super Bowl ads. I enjoyed the silliness of Lil Nas X in the Doritos commercial, Google’s Loretta ad took a tug at my heartstrings, and the Tide commercials series was brilliantly funny. There were, however, a few ads that just didn’t sit right with me, not because their jokes didn’t land, but because they were so grossly disingenuous and misleading. While all advertisements are designed to put the company/product in a positive light, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief with some of these Super Bowl ads. Sitting through these three commercials was especially painful.
- The Trump “Criminal Justice Reform” Ad
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This ad was the quintessential example of a selfish, disingenuous, disgraceful entity capitalizing on someone else’s hardship for their own fraudulent gain. This ad told the story of Alice Johnson, a non-violent first-time offender who was sentenced to life imprisonment for her involvement in a Memphis cocaine trafficking operation. President Trump commuted Alice’s sentence after Kim Kardashian-West met with him to persuade him to grant Alice clemency; this, of course, is not mentioned in the ad at all. The commercial states, “Thanks to President Trump, people like Alice are getting a second chance.” Actually, thanks to President Trump’s well-known stance on supporting the death penalty for drug offenses, people like Alice are afraid every day that the criminal justice system will not treat them equally as their white counterparts. Additionally, the ad states that “thousands of families are being reunited” as a result of Trump’s “criminal justice reform.” This statement is so sickening considering the fact that this was one single pardon impacting one family, and that thousands of families are being forcefully separated at the southern border due to Trump’s immigration policies. Suffice to say that this ad made my blood boil, especially when you consider how many Super Bowl viewers who were probably delighted by it.
- The Walmart “United Towns” Ad
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Next up we have one of America’s largest, greediest corporations trying to characterize itself as the simple, good-hearted, small-town store that sees Americans for who they truly are. With sweeping shots of main streets and neighbors-helping-neighbors, this Walmart ad misguides its viewers into thinking that their business has somehow positively contributed to the harmonious everyday lives of small-town folk. The ad states, “when we stop and look around what we see are sparks. Sparks of hope, of compassion…neighbors lift each other up expecting nothing in return.” It’s interesting that Walmart is trying to associate itself with hope and compassion in American heartlands when its business model squashes out small businesses, traps workers in cycles of poverty, and exploits the public for their own material gain. What this ad doesn’t show is how Walmart’s business is predicated on sucking the life out of the people and towns that are most marginalized in society.
- Kia’s “Tough Never Quits” Ad
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As car ads tend to do, Kia’s Super Bowl commercial brought together humanity’s desire for endurance and tenacious spirit to sell a car with the same qualities. This ad, however, capitalized on Las Vegas Raiders player Josh Jacobs’ personal obstacles and determination in a pretty tasteless way. The ad depicts Jacobs imagining what it would be like to talk to his younger self about his life ahead. Jacobs says, “I’d tell him, ‘it’s gonna be hard growing up homeless…you’ve gotta be tougher than the world around you.’” In the end, Jacobs drives up to a football field and tells his younger self to “push yourself to be someone, and someday you will be.” The premise is certainly heartwarming, but it’s disingenuousness comes from the fact that Kia is using Jacobs’ story solely to sell a car without truly addressing the injustices that this person faced. The ad gives the impression that just by working hard you can get out of homelessness and poverty when we all know that pervasive, oppressive systems are what keep most people from doing just that. This ad also contributes to the problematic ideology of the sports industrial complex that justifies its exploitation of black men with rags-to-riches stories. Jacobs’ story is powerful and touching, and this is why I find it so disgusting to capitalize on it with no intention to address the social issues that it raises.