Super Bowl Bonanza

For those of you who watched that cultural spectacle known as the Super Bowl, you may have been bored to tears by the quality of play. However, the commercials provided some interesting points to examine.

First, the Burger King commercial had to be one of the oddest I’ve seen in a while. The ad featured a collection of women dressed as parts of a Whopper. As they danced around in a showtunes sort of way, they created a full sandwich by the end of the commercial. Now, I’m not much for fast food anyway, but this ad was particularly nasty. For one, the different parts of the burger were people, which is a bit odd. But more importantly, by the end of the ad, the message had become: “Burger King: where sandwiches are made out of a bunch of women piled together.” This message hinted at the consumption of women as objects, but this time it couldn’t be more literal. Any thoughts?

The other ad that was interesting was the Dove Self Esteem Fund. This ad was a montage of girls (maybe ages 5-10) that described how they were unhappy with their bodies. I think one of the more striking elements of the ad was how it was situated in relation to the other ads during the Super Bowl. Usually, Super Bowl ads are full of fairly blantant sexism, but this ad was taking a new stance. But even within that message, you could read a couple of subtexts. First, the company selling the product is a beauty product company. How is that potential contradiction solved? Second, does this commercial recreate the image of women as victims?