Forget Bush’s State of the Union, you can measure the mood of the United States by assessing the vibe of the Super Bowl, and if yesterday’s game was any indication, Americans are feeling contrite. Unlike past annual spectacles, especially those produced by Fox, the patriotic mood was noticeably muted. With the exception of the requisite flyover of stealth fighters, there was little of the rah-rah-rah that is so typical of our Capitalist May Day parade. The militaristic tendencies of pre-game shows almost feel embarrassing considering our historical hubris. America is weeping inside.
The commercials were noticeably blah. Unlike previous years, violence guised as physical humor was considerably diminished, though it remained ambient in a ubiquitous way. The volume was substantially turned down on the misogyny, though Bud Light certainly did its share to tip the balance. There is a big uproar about the Snickers ad, which apparently advocates violence against homosexuals. I missed that one, but you can read about it here.
In a system predicated on novelty, consumer produced ads were the one unusual element, a nod to the Web 2.0 consumer-as-producer phenomena that is threatening to dislodge network television’s primacy. Still, there was hardly anything challenging or interesting about these “democratic” ad products. Same old, same old.
Perhaps still reeling from Janet Jackson’s mammary (funny how a breast gets so much more attention than depleted uranium poisoning caused by US weapons), CBS did what ever possible to avoid overtly politicizing the event or involving potentially embarrassing artists, Prince being a safe, professional half-time act that provided all the soothing, feel-good energy necessary to assuage our fears that we are in the midst of a disastrous war and presidency. The tepid and safe is a sure sign that on the home front all is disquiet.
Some links:
An ad chart highlight acts of violence.
This NYT commentary discusses the cartoonish violence of the ads but its interactive multimedia chart(which I find quite useful because it shows how tech is outpacing auto ads), does not list in its subject categories “violence” or “misogyny,” which goes to show that if you don’t categorize it, it must not exist.
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