Had some friends over for the midwinter ritual. The football was pretty good. The commercials were not especially inspired. The half-time show was dazzling. But nothing, absolutely nothing, topped the little demonstration of the rickety USA infrastructure when for reasons still to be announced, the lights went out in the Superdome during the second half.
That such a symbol of Leisure Class wretched excess as the Superbowl could be stopped by the reality of industrial neglect was a subject of some mirth around here. Maybe the Leisure Classes will take notice when their symbols are disrupted but somehow, I doubt that means they will demand more investment in public goods. Just a guess.
Monday, February 4, 2013
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The "farmer" commercial turns out to have been ripped off. http://www.thenation.com/blog/172629/was-widely-hailed-farmer-super-bowl-ad-rip#
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw that the Dodge commercial was a remake of a YouTube hit where someone mixes some interesting photos of farm life with a Paul Harvey tribute to farmers. The original was very nice-especially for Youtube!
DeleteBut calling the Dodge commercial a rip-off is a stretch. 1) They probably paid for the legal rights to the Paul Harvey sound-clip. And 2) The photography is inspired—obviously done by prize-winning photographers.
It is good to run these sorts of commercials. At the announced rate of $3.8 million per 30 seconds, this thing cost Chrysler $15.2 large. The Harvey tribute sounds like every midwestern politician's stump speech from 1873 until the 1960s. Now these sentiments are rarely heard. They are good sentiments—they SHOULD be heard. And if Dodge sells a few more pick-ups, I can live with that outcome.
Another criticism being made of that commercial is that it shows American farmers as being all white. Somewhat true in our neck of the woods, but very few Euro-Americans had anything to do with any food you buy in the produce dept. at the grocery store.
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