The 2011 Super Bowl Commercials

Let's face it, there may be more people who actually tune into the Super Bowl to watch the commercials than the game itself (especially this year). And there are probably many more who do not watch the game at all, but watch the commercials online. Unless the Rams are playing, I generally fall into that category.At any rate, it seems to me that the commercials are often more anticipated than the game itself.

This year I think produced a better batch of commercials than usual. That is not to say that there were not some very bad commercials this year. Indeed, some were downright offensive. Groupon Inc. used two ads spoofing public service announcements for well known causes. One spoofed public service announcements for saving the whales. The other, and the one that generated the most controversy, spoofed public service announcements for the human rights situation in Tibet. Personally, I think both were in very poor tastes. There are some things one simply does not joke about, among them a number of related species nearing extinction and the oppression of an entire people are two of them. The ad mentioning Tibet caused such outrage that it has since been pulled from the air. As far as I know, the one mentioning whales has not been. PErsonally, I don't think either should have aired at all.

Fortunately, the men bashing commercials of last year seem to have largely disappeared, although Pepsi Max produced one of the most offensive adverts of the bunch. As far as the commercials aired this year, I would say it was the third most offensive in the bunch. Entitled "First Date," the commercial features a young woman and a young man on their first date. The young woman is thinking such things as "Is he the one," "will he be a good father," and so on. The young man is thinking, "I want to sleep with her," over and over. Quite frankly, I find this to be an offensive stereotype of the male of the species in the extreme and not generally true of men. Not once on a first date have I ever repeatedly thought, " I want to sleep with her." In fact, my thoughts have been more akin to that of the young woman, pondering if she is the one, if she is good marriage material, and s on (here I must point out, of course, that I have thought "I want to sleep with her" on a first date, but I think everyone--including women--do at some point). The simple fact is that this Pepsi Max commercial is downright sexist, and Pepsi should be ashamed of themselves. It is no more right to bash men than it is women.

Enough of talking about the bad ads. Here are the commercials I thought were the best. The first is from Bridgestone, in which a beaver makes some very big changes. It's entitled "Carma"



Next up is an ad from CarMax, in which a modern day driver encounters customer service from the Sixties at a filling station. It's entitled "Gas Station."



Next is a Volkwagen advert which centres around the insect for which their best known car was named. It is entitled "Black Beetle."



Finally, there is the commercial which seems to be considered the best Super Bowl advert this year by general consensus. It is another commercial from Volkswagen and concerns a pint sized Darth Vader testing his power over The Force. Naturally, it is titled "The Force."