Super Bowl ads: Microcosm of the national divide

We wilfully missed Super Bowl and its much-jawed-about ads when they were first aired Sunday night, but these things filter down through the blogosphere, twittersphere and cable TV, all part of the primordial social-networking soup. Above, actor's portrayal of an emasculated husk of a man, a father who submits to the politically-correct green mouthings of his snot-nosed kid while the smug wife and mother smirks in approval. We love blogfriend Stoutcat's take: "insipid and annoying 'Priceless' commercial from MasterCard."

"To me, the target demographic is a certain subset of spineless upscale white men (all of the perps in the ad are affluent white guys) who just want to go with the flow," writes Jonah Goldberg in a brilliant dissection of "Audi's Gorewellian Super Bowl ad":

In that sense, the Audi ad has a lot in common with those execrable MasterCard commercials [above image]. Targeting the same demographic, those ads depicted hapless fathers being harangued by their children to get with the environmental program. MasterCard's tagline: "Helping Dad become a better man: Priceless."

We knew we'd seen that look before. "Paryan: The Beaten Dog," from a google image search for "beaten dog."

Althouse makes an opposite but equal point about a different demographic in "Men need pants," highlighting a couple of ads where the humiliated males grow a pair by the end of the commercial:

I'm saying it's about masculinity. Like most ads directed at men. You know how I've been railing for years about men in shorts? Here's my original men in shorts post. Key point: "shorts are children's clothes." Here's the second. Key point: "If you are in shorts, you are not a man."

Super Bowl advertising landscape as microcosm of the national divide — Blue State vs Red State, Obama and the international progressivists who know better than we do what's good for us vs the gun-and-religion clingers and Tea Partiers yearning to breathe free.

Comments

[goomp]

I just cut up my Master Card. I hope the Visa people are not as subservient to the men who grovel before their betters syndrome.

[Teresa]

I have to say that the commercials were a dismal lot this year. I didn't see the Mastercard commercial. Did see the Audi commercial. In regard to the Audi Green Police commercial I think I had a different take on it than anyone else I see on the blogs.

My son was stationed in Germany during the entire enlistment when he was not deployed. He disliked it very much in that they have so many crazy environmental rules over there - special permits to wash your car? Oh yeah. (the touristy stuff was okay but it was a PITA to live there)

I know those rules have hurt the German car companies. It made me wonder if this was Audi's way of taking a dig at those who are so far over the top they'd turn the world into a police state...

It might even be a good way to goad people into being less complacent over all the environmentalist whackos. After all - they did have some very over the top police searches going on - this rubs Americans the wrong way just by virtue of us being Americans.

Soooo... a little reverse psychology? Maybe. Or perhaps not.

[Gayle Miller]

There wasn't one decent commercial shown, except perhaps the Tebow commercial! Go figure.

Still snowed in here in Virginia. The idiots in D.C. haven't figured out yet how to get rid of the snow!

I would think that's the one thing our president might have clue about - coming from Chicago! He's such a fraud.