The Birthing Person Halftime Show

It used to be that you shouldn’t ask a woman if she’s pregnant but now I don’t even think it’s politically correct to ask a woman if she’s a woman. So this birthing person named Rihanna, who might nor might not be pregnant (I haven’t asked her), was the halftime show of the Super Bowl. I’d definitely agree that performing live to a lip-sync track at the Super Bowl while you might be carrying a clump of cells (some people call a fetus) has GOT to be difficult. With that said, I would have rather watched any of the other 720 American billionaires (yes, Rihanna is a billionaire) play a show between halves… Rihanna was THAT boring. If it weren’t for the floating platforms, I might have done something productive during halftime. The game itself was great until the last two minutes and if you watched then you know how the referees once again screwed over another team NOT named the Chiefs. People who saw the disastrous ending to the game were quick to comment on Twitter. Even Burger King (who needs to stop these ads) got in on the action.

Rihanna will rank among the worst halftime shows, although it should be said that she stayed fully clothed, didn’t have any wardrobe malfunctions, and generally didn’t do anything political. I guess not doing anything stupid means it was a great halftime show? I don’t know anymore. I found a list of all the previous halftime shows, with obviously the best being Prince (2007), U2 (2002), and Michael Jackson (1993). But let’s be honest, the Super Bowl is about the commercials, like this tear-jerker from The Farmer’s Dog. So boring halftime and bad refs aside, there were some great commercials. I’ll write about them soon!

Did you watch the game? What were your thoughts on the birthing person halftime show?

See you again tomorrow…

-Out of the Wilderness

The Farmer’s Dog Commercial – The Surprising Music and More!

Holy moly, I’m going to try getting through this post without crying but if you’ve seen this commercial, you already know that’s a fool’s errand. There were teams trying score more points than each other, but the Farmer’s Dog wins the Super Bowl this year. Here’s the fantastic commercial, then scroll down for more info…

The Music. An absolutlely perfect pairing for the commercial, the song is Lee Fields “Forever.” If you had to guess, would you say this song was released sometime in the 1950s or 1960s? Well, you and I would both be wrong! It came out in 2022 and this song commercial combo was the best part of the Super Bowl this year. Here’s the full track…

In the coming days I’m sure I’ll be writing about the Super Bowl and some of the commercials. But none will top this commercial and if you didn’t shed a tear, or at least almost shed a tear, take your cat and get outta here!

-Out of the Wilderness

These disappointing Super Bowl commercials…

To be perfectly honest, it seems like every year the highly-anticipated commercials become less and less exciting to watch. Don’t get me wrong, there are always a few that are ‘Super Bowl worthy’ but for the most part in the last decade or more the game ends and I wonder, “What happened to the commercials!?” And yet, every year I look forward to being entertained by the ads. You’d think companies paying millions would want to make something memorable (in a good way!) but maybe now it’s more about just getting their brand name in front of all the eyeballs.

With all that said, I have a question for you. Which ads are most disappointing to you? Maybe it goes all the way back to the .com era when a lot of the Super Bowl ads were for websites… you know, back when the internet was new. The commercials that inspired this post, and I’m sure we’ll see a handful during the Super Bowl this evening, are the ones advertising movies.

There is nothing more disappointing than a movie commercial during the Super Bowl.

-me

I understand why they do it. It’s such a big audience watching the game and for movie production companies, that ideally translates to money at the box office. I’m fine with movie commercials, but why not get a little creative with it? In other words, create a commercial for your movie specifically for the Super Bowl, not just a generic promo with clips from the movie. If the movie is THAT good, you must have good actors in it, so pay them a little extra to act in a commercial specifically cut to air during the Super Bowl.

So I think we’ll see those during today’s game, unfortunately. We’ll also see a few that make no sense, there are ALWAYS some of those. There will be one or two that spark controversy because certain people (*ahem* politicians) love to keep Americans divided. But thankfully, there will also be the diamonds in the rough and I’m hoping one or two of those include the Budweiser Clydesdales! 😉

To leave on a happy note, here is one of my favorite patriotic commercials from Jeep that had something to do with the Super Bowl in 2019, I can’t even remember if it aired during the game or just in the weeks leading up to it. Then I’ll also include the best Super Bowl commercial ever… from 2013. Budweiser and the horse that misses his buddy.

What are you looking forward to this Sunday, whether it’s the Super Bowl, the commercials, or something not related to football at all?

See you tomorrow…

-Out of the Wilderness

He Gets Us – The Commercials and More

By now you’ve probably seen the Jesus commercials on TV or streaming. The official campaign, “He Gets Us,” has an entire portfolio of ads but here’s one of their more recent ones to give you an idea of what they’re about.

The people behind these ads go by the same name, “Het Gets Us,” a non-profit organization with no specific church affiliation, and that’s on purpose. One of their main goals in a society that is seemingly burnt out on Christians and Christianity in general: Refocus on Jesus. It’s not unlike the well-known Ghandi quote, “If it weren’t for Christians, I’d be a Christian.”

As you can expect, these ads have been met with opposition. Even the ad above, which was created using AI technology, is facing backlash from some people claiming the artwork in it was used without permission of artists. I did a little research into that claim, and it’s kind of a gray area. The AI image generator creates original art but it could be plausible that it uses themes and styles from actual, real artists.

The ads are also being praised by people happy that Jesus is being preached to new generations in a way that isn’t cheesy or old-fashioned. Whether someone likes the commercials or not, one thing is for sure: They’re getting people’s attention. What happens after that is up to the viewer (and the Holy Spirit, I suppose 😉 ).

I read that there will be two of these “He Gets Us” commercials airing during the Super Bowl, so I’m sure there will be lots of online discussions about them. I’ll be using the hashtags #JesusCommercial and #HeGetsUs to find out how people are reacting.

See you tomorrow…

-Out of the Wilderness

The KIA Binky Commercial – The Music, the Cast, and the Logo

I’ll get to a little pet peeve I have with KIA later but first let’s take a look at their adorably fun commercial featuring a dad on an epic journey to retrieve his daughter’s favorite pacifier.

The Cast. I was surprised to find out the baby is played by twins Sequoia & Serenity Mork Macko. They’ve also appeared on TV as the baby on “The Goldbergs.” Here’s a clip their mom posted on Instagram (@TracyMork)…

Mom and Dad. Confirmed by KIA, the father is an actor named Nate Smith and Mom is played by Carly J. Casey.

The Music. The soundtrack of this commercial might sound familiar. It’s the soundtrack of another hero, Rocky Balboa. The song is called “Gonna Fly Now” by Bill Conti.

The Logo. I’ve said this before, but while I love the design of KIA vehicles, especially the Telluride, the OCD side of my brain keeps focusing on their logo. Not all of the diagonal lines are parallel!!!! It probably doesn’t matter, but the left side of the A isn’t aligned properly. Here’s a screen grab from this very KIA commercial showing the design mistake. In the screen grab below, the pink lines are all parallel, using the ‘K’ as the standard.

Design flaw aside, the commercial is great. I’m sure parents out there can 100% relate to the disaster of forgetting your baby’s favorite binky, blanket, stuffed animal, etc. Do you like the commercial? Chime in below with your thoughts!

-Out of the Wilderness