Super Bowl Ads Super Raunchy

As if Christina Aguilera’s rendition of the National Anthem wasn’t offending enough…then the commercials started.

It was the first year that both of my boys (ages 11 and 9) were genuinely interested in the Super Bowl, and I was excited as a dad to be able to sit down and watch it with them, hoping to enjoy the game and the commercials together. But by the end of the game, I was convinced—this Super Bowl should have been rated PG-13 (at minimum) for the advertisement content. I mean seriously, if there had been an executive from Teleflora sitting in my living room when their ad came across my television set, the Black Eyed Peas would have had an extra member for their halftime show--if you get my drift. Don’t they realize kids all across the country are watching? Why should I have to explain what a “rack” is to two young boys while watching a football game?

Then there were the GoDaddy commercials, but at least I’m smart enough to know by now what kind of content those will have, so a click flick of the remote solved that. But just when I thought it was safe with a Pepsi Max commercial coming on in the second half (the first Pepsi Max ad where the wife throws a can and accidentally hits the girl was ok), I was once again forced to hit the “change channel button” on the remote control after one of the actors repeatedly said he wanted to sleep with his date. And there were an insane amount of beer commercials, but I guess that was to be expected.

I was so upset with the people at Teleflora that I sent them a nasty email expressing my displeasure with their commercial. They responded by telling me they were “trying innovative ways to break through the clutter with our advertising.” I just wonder how many of their employees sat in their living rooms with their children watching that ad and felt a little ashamed at their decision to run it. Amazingly, I haven’t seen or heard a lot of backlash from the general public on the content of these ads. In fact, there seems to be more praise for them than displeasure. Maybe that’s just how far our country has fallen, that we’ve just become so immune to all of it that we let it skim right over us.

Maybe, it’s time we do something about that.