Economic woes don’t disappear from Super Bowl ads
February 2, 2009
NEW YORK – Along with the usual punchlines, cartoonish violence and car chases, the real world of a depressed economy slipped into the showcase of Super Bowl commercials.
In a Bud Light commercial, employees sat around a conference table while their exasperated boss wondered what they could do to make their budget.
“We could cut back on marketing,” one person said.
“We could eliminate bonuses,” said another, a line more timely than even Anheuser-Busch could have foreseen.
“How about if we stop buying Bud Light for every meeting?” one employee wondered, an act of betrayal that got him tossed out the boardroom window.
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Even before the kickoff, Daryn from Texas testified on-screen about how she’s trying to make ends meet: “If someone asks me how they can make money right now, I say do what I’m doing, sell Avon,” she said in touting the cosmetics company.
The talking babies hawking E-Trade Financial Corp. commiserated: “This economy has been a little rough, man.”
To be sure, most of the ads struck their usual comedic tone. There was a snow globe thrown to the crotch to sell Doritos, Danica Patrick taking her fifth shower of the day for Go Daddy Group Inc. and a hilarious Conan O’Brien piece about a cheesy commercial he thought was only going to be shown in Sweden.