Posts tagged Super Bowl
U.S. Census Mockumentary
Feb 16th
The U.S. Constitution requires a national census every ten years. It’s that time again and the Federal Government is spending our tax dollars on an ad campaign that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even worse, they ran this ad during the Super Bowl. I understand that running an ad during the Super Bowl is going to reach a large audience; however, shouldn’t the ad convey more information than this?
I love pretty much anything by Christopher Guest, but a mockumentary doesn’t seem like an effective way to promote the census.
Countdown to Fascism: The Green Police
Feb 8th
Each year at this time I hope to be dazzled by the fast-moving action on the field and the non-stop hilarity and/or profundity of the commercials that play in between. And each year any hopes of a memorable Super Bowl Sunday are dashed to bits in a hail of chips, queso and New Belgium beer (this year’s choice was a dark one called 1554; therefore, my stupor was a particularly stupefying one).
By the end of each year’s Super Bowl I’m left counting the cost to my body, my soul and my mind, and the reckoning is horrible. This year was worse than most, thanks in large part to the unending litany of crappy commercials. The agencies that created the spots all seemed to be trying far too hard to amuse. By doing so, any attempt at humor is usually forced and unnatural. And so it was.
There was one commercial, however, that stood out. Not because it was particularly clever, but because it was prophetic. I’m writing of course about Audi’s Green Police ad. I won’t bore you with a description of it; watch it below and let me know in the Comments whether or not you agree with my assessment, which follows the ad…
Okay then. Here’s why this ad is so prophetic… At first, I thought it was a satirical political ad aimed at Cap and Trade and the Climate Change-ocrats who would have each individual subject to draconian environmental rules and taxes. Come to find out the ad was for what I guess is a “socially responsible” car company called Audi. All Audis will simply pass through the fascist roadblocks that are sure to be part of our Utopian future because they’re so “green”.
Though the ad is obviously meant to be amusing, as in, “Ha ha ha. Wouldn’t that be funny if you were ticketed for having Styrofoam on your person? Hilarious!” It’s so absurd, you see, that it’s funny. But something tells me that Audi and the agency that created the ad would love to see this really happen.
It’s humor with an edge of truth in it; the scenes of constant harassment from the authorities regarding your personal consumption would actually happen if the environmentalists and their lackeys in Congress had their way. Of course, all those who spearhead the environmental regulation of the individual will be exempt, but everyone else (that’s me and you, by the way) will be subject to the microscopic bureaucratic meddling portrayed in the ad. The Green Police are funny (I guess) in the abstract, but less so in reality, kind of like the Gestapo and the KGB. Hilarious on paper, but rather authoritarian in person.