Commercials are arguably the most important part of the Super Bowl telecast. Every year, companies shell out millions of dollars just to get a 30 second advertisement during one of the most watched events on television. So, with so much money on the line, those 30 seconds have to be worth it.
In the past few years, there has been a trend of commercials being way too sexualized. A huge issued risen when the GoDaddy.com’s awkward kiss commercial aired. It shocked many people, especially parents who watched the Super Bowl with their young children. It was definitely not well received. Another overly sexualized commercial in recent history was the 2013 Axe commercial. Any parent would feel uncomfortable with the not-so-family-friendly commercials.
Thus, this year’s Super Bowl commercials lacked a lot of sexual and offensive content (The Coca-Cola commercial is another issue that shouldn’t even be an issue). Axe has stepped up their game with a very heartfelt and thoughtful commercial about making love and not war. For a company that is known to have a very sexual undertone, it was surprising for them to release this toned down commercial.
It seemed like the trend this year in the commercials was to play it safe. People began to realize that some people just have issues with certain content in their advertisements, such as crude jokes and overly sexualized women. Advertisers this year tried to keep it family friendly with socially conscious statements, patriotic messages and light humor.
Although, the majority of the commercials this year were kept from being overly sexual, it doesn’t mean that there were no commercials with some sexual innuendo. One particular example would be the Dannon Oikos commercial with the male cast of “Full House.” Uncle Jesse and that lady made the audience feel so uncomfortable when he suggest she lick the yogurt off his pants. We also cannot forget the David Beckham commercial with H&M. Let’s be real, that was a great commercial and no one should even be mad about the oversexualizing of that one.