One Down, One to Go

Well, the right eye is done, and let me tell you, it was quite an experience. Best light show in town. For a few minutes there, I thought I was living inside a kaleidoscope. Seriously. I was pretty nervous about anyone doing anything to my eyeballs, but this is a miracle of modern technology and science. Not only was it extremely not painful, the first thing I noticed the next morning was that the woodwork in the bathroom was screaming white, and the lightbulbs have got to be changed in there. I needed sunglasses! I am happily anticipating eye #2 so I can truly appreciate the light show. All joking aside, the difference between my right eye (fixed) and my left eye (not fixed) is astounding.

To be perfectly honest, I did not watch the Stupid Bowl. I have never watched the Stupid Bowl. I have been summoned to watch an ad or two over the years, and I have watched ads the morning after online. But I have never subjected myself to the abject boredom of watching over-muscled men banging into each other for no apparent reason. I think the game is violent and stupid, and an incredible waste of resources. 

I had not even planned on watching any ads this morning, until one of my fellow bloggers, a native New Jersey person, mentioned how totally offensive Bruce Springsteen's Jeep ad was. New Jersey, Springsteen, and offensive may not ever have appeared in a sentence together. So, yes, I had to watch this purported train wreck. If you haven't seen it, please watch it now.

UPDATE: You can't, Jeep has pulled the video after it was known the Springsteen was arrest for DUI in a National Park. I'm not 100% sure I'm buying that....but we'll see.  2/5/2021

Here's the ad anyway

I'm not sure I would call it offensive as much as I would call it disturbing. Bruce Springsteen has always been the working guy kinda hero. A musical/lyrical Everyman. People relate to his music, his poetry, his messages. But he doesn't sing in this ad, he speaks. Almost in the faintest echo of Amanda Gorman's cadence. But the images don't match the message. 

The opening shot is taken by a drone, showing the church that is purported to sit at the exact center of the lower 48 states. It's a lovely image of the cross atop the chapel. The voiceover is modulated and serious sounding, adding intentional gravitas to the message. The message itself is benign when you just read the text:

There’s a chapel in Kansas, standing on the exact center of the lower 48. It never closes.

 

All are more than welcome to come meet here in the middle. It's no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately, between red and blue, between servant and citizen, between our freedom and our fear.

 

Now fear has never been the best of who we are, and as for freedom, it's not the property of just the fortunate few, it belongs to us all. Whoever you are, wherever you're from, it's what connects us, and we need that connection. We need the middle.

 

We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground, so we can get there. We can make it to the mountaintop through the desert, and we will cross this divide. Our light has always found its way through the darkness. And there's hope on the road up ahead. 

Where I get into trouble with this ad is in the imagery. I'm not talking about Ol' Cowboy Bruce from New Jersey in his worn out cowboy boots and beat up cowboy hat. I'm talking about the subliminal message in all those crosses. From the opening shot, this is an ad directed at White Christian America. Even the closing shot is a cross. No ad agency in their right mind signed off on this without knowing there was going to be a giant impact, and that it wasn't gonna be all good. 

Why would they do that?

There is a lot written that this ad is promoting unity with non-accountability. That the ad says we should just move on and stop trying to assess responsibility for the last month, let alone the last year or four years. The text as delivered is calming and sensible. But the sites selected are all white-bread America. I think the person in the diner is a Person of Color, but I cannot be sure. You can't tell me that Jeep missed the part about inclusion and diversity. But I can be sure that the last image, the one that looks like Cavalry with barbed wire is totally scary and is not a plea for unity. It's something else entirely. 

What were they thinking?

I really tried to look at this ad from a whole bunch of viewpoints. It didn't matter. The words did not match the images. The images were pretty clearly directed at Christian Whites, the ones who were still donating to Feckless Loser's campaign to overturn the election. Were they targeting that group subliminally to say, It's over; come back to the centrist position of the GOP ? Or were they telling them White Supremacy is the source of light and truth? It's not easy to discern which message is the target message when the images do not match the words. 

These guys spend tons of money on ads. This one is two minutes plus. There is no way you will ever convince me that the ad agency did not know what it was doing, or that Bruce Springsteen thought this was benign. It's inconceivable. 

There is nothing benign or harmless about this ad. Anything Springsteen has to say about it will be coached and probably apologetic, but all bullshit. They knew exactly what they were putting up and they were hoping We, the People would aw, shucks the Boss in his cowboy clothes. They were counting on the emotional impact, but not the one it appears to have punched. 

But truth be told, We, the People are so emotionally impacted at this point that one more layer will just compound the anger, not assuage it. This ad does not help the cause of unity. 

Nope. Not one bit.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Want a Stupid Bowl ad with a message we needed to see,

try this one from 1984