My take on some Super Bowl commercials

I didn’t turn on the Super Bowl until halftime, so I missed whatever commercials aired before then. But it’s been hard to overlook the popular ones if you’ve had a TV on in the last two weeks. News about the ads, ads promoting the ads, etc. It got pretty silly, really.

I fail miserably at watching the game in order to watch the ads — far too many years of training in reflexively “tuning out” the commercials.

But in advance of the game I saw the Taco Bell ad with the retirees sneaking out at night to party. I loved it and would be in the middle of all that if somebody else did the night driving. I disagreed with some of the seniors over at Time Goes By, many of whom seem to think that (a) “senior” is a pejorative and some of whom think (b) this ad denigrates seniors. To me it it just shows that you never outgrow your love of fun and food, especially Taco Bell. (Full disclosure: I’m a huge Taco Bell fan and was not paid for this statement!)

Then there was the GoDaddy ad which totally grossed me out. Talk about disgusting and distasteful. Some commenters over at Huffington Post seemed to think people were disgusted only because the guy was a nerd, and that if it had been Brad Pitt, no one would have given it a second thought. Wrong! I was grossed out because it looked like she was kissing a kid, the closeup was gratuitous and voyeuristic, it went on way too long, and most of all … the sound! Ick! I’m probably reacting like the old prude I am, but it was the sound that really turned my stomach. GoDaddy should go hide under a rock after this.

On a much higher note, this Dodge truck ad, “Farmer,” actually caught my attention and pulled me from the laptop back to the TV to see what it was about. How could I resist the beautiful images and the mellow intonations of Paul Harvey talking about deep-rooted American values in his 1978 tribute “So God Made a Farmer,” which I’d never heard before. I miss Paul Harvey. He was the only “talk radio” that I bothered listening to.

And finally, this Budweiser ad was by far my favorite. It leaves me misty-eyed every time I watch it. I get very emotional about my critters, and I’ve loved the Clydesdales since I was a horse-crazy little girl. I saw them once, live, and was completely awed by those magnificent horses that towered over me.

Oh, the game? I was rooting for the Ravens.