Super Bowl Ads

As I watched the Super Bowl Sunday night, I can honestly say that for the first time I was so entrenched in the game that I had to watch the majority of the commercials on the Internet the following day. I guess I can attribute this to being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan my whole life. Yes, I am from Texas, but my dad is from Pittsburgh, so he raised me to waive the terrible towel as a young kid, so I didn't grow up idolizing Troy Aikman and the rest of the great 1990's Dallas Cowboys teams. But that is another story. As for the advertisements throughout the 2009 Super Bowl.

I can honestly say I was a little disappointed, in the humor and originality of the commercials. It was also still apparent that the ethnic diversity in the commercials was very limited. I do have to say though, that since the election of President Obama, I have seen a more diverse selection of actors for commercials on television. But for the Super Bowl the majority of the main actors in the commercials were Caucasian males.

Now I do not know if this was done for any reason but it would seem to me that since the Super Bowl is one of the most watched programs on television, that there are more than just white males watching the game. For instance, my mom watched the game and although she is white, she is not male, and many of the commercials were not geared for women. 

On the other hand there were a couple of commercials with the main actor not being a white male. One of my favorite was the Coca-Cola re-make of the Mean Joe green commercial with current Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. Another commercial that I have truly enjoyed not just during the Super Bowl but for about the past year are the Miller High Life commercials with the African-American delivery guy. That guy knows what it means to live the so called "High Life" and I totally feel what he is saying in those commercials. Even though his Super Bowl ad was only one second, it made me think about all of his other funny commercials.

I feel that commercials are becoming more diverse but at the same time companies are still trying market to specific races and genders through their advertisements and it is apparent. Although these acts my not fit the model of political correctness and moral fairness, that every man is created equal, the companies are the paying customer, and can produce whatever type of advertisement they wish. Sometimes money, although materialistic can be larger than fairness.