The Super Bowl LI Ads Sold an Escape to the Future
In years past, Super Bowl ads have functioned as a kind of primal scream for America’s inner self, raging against the tyranny of everything from eco-friendly cars to hunger to our gridlocked bowels. They’ve eschewed hope and change in favor of Viagra and a cryogenically frozen Scott Baio, often crystallizing the idea that being great again means going backwards. They’ve assured Americans that Chevy trucks and high-sodium corn chips are the cure for all that ails us.
But this year, things were very different.
Super Bowl LI, coming as it does after one of the most divisive presidential elections in recent memory, was . While or , one of the most notorious pop-cultural figures of the last three decades sits in the Oval Office, having won an election by the same messagethat Super Bowl ads have previously tended to preach. This year, most brands were savvy enough to realize that a change was necessary. Their 2017 theme, in a nutshell? Escape to the future.
