Tom Brady Is The Boss

an ad the atlantic in their science section yesterday described as : A Super Bowl Ad That the Biden Presidency Made Possible GM has cast its electric vehicles as normal American cars, in a normal Super Bowl ad. Here are seven ways to think about that. […] The only twist is that both cars—Ferrell’s Cadillac Lyriq, and his friends’ Hummer EV—have electric motors. Gone are the humpty-dumpty lines of older GM electric vehicles, such as the Chevy Bolt. Gone is the playboy sensuality of the Tesla Model 3. These are normal American cars, being driven in a normal American Super Bowl ad. Since the modern era in American climate politics began in 1988, when the NASA climate scientist James Hansen informed a U.S. Senate committee that the long-hypothesized threat of global warming had begun to make itself felt, 33 years of effort—from environmentalists, scientists, activists, engineers, bureaucrats, politicians, the whole societal caboodle—have gone into this moment, of making electric cars seem normal. 3. The point of the ad isn’t Norway. Norway is the MacGuffin, the foil for Will Ferrell’s hapless masculinity. The point of the ad is that America has lagged behind other rich countries in adopting an important piece of consumer technology, which is (1) correct and (2) partially GM’s fault. Like, it is GM’s fault recently. Ferrell was an inspired choice, because there’s a certain type of Will Ferrell character—the flabby guy, misled by his vanities, who eventually winds up in the right place partly because of others’ love—that mirrors GM’s past few years. Because… Read more »

wapo:

The 8 best Super Bowl commercials, from an ‘Edward Scissorhands’ sequel to Michael B. Jordan’s Alexa

It’s tough out there for ad agencies. If there was ever a Super Bowl when they had to hit exactly the right tone — not too “In these challenging times,” but also not too glib about a global pandemic; not pretending our country has no problems but also not purporting to solve them, like Pepsi’s infamous 2017 Kendall Jenner ad — this was the year to walk that tightrope. Plus, there was the added challenge of filming with coronavirus restrictions. A few were obviously green-screened. Tonally, many fell spectacularly flat. And overall, it was a weak year for commercials, thanks to an overreliance on bland celebrity cameos. No instant classics were born on Sunday night.
But in these challenging times (we know, we know) a handful of spots made us laugh, and one made us mist up. And only one of them referenced covid. The pandemic was inescapable, represented in the stands with the cardboard cutout fans, and it was visualized in the halftime show, with the dancers’ plague doctor-esque masks. But maybe what we wanted from our commercials was the chance to pretend that everything was normal — at least, until we can drink beer and eat chips together again.

[continues with their choice ads list]

craig, about your thread title: the real “Boss” — bruce, not tom — at the super bowl last night

https://youtu.be/D2XYH-IEvhI

BB, here’s cbsnews recap which sounds more exciting than the brady/mahomes one: It was a rough match for Team Fluff: Team Ruff defeated their opponents in the 17th annual Puppy Bowl on Sunday with a dramatic comeback. This year’s game featured 70 puppies from 22 shelters that were split up into two teams to compete for “touchdowns” in a canine-sized football stadium.  Hosted by Snoop Dogg and Martha Stuart, the game got off to a wild start with Team Ruff’s Archer, an American Staffordshire Terrier, receiving a penalty for “illegal use of the goal posts” for ripping off the goal post of the opposing team. Despite the rocky start, Ruff’s Muffin, a terrier mix, made the first touchdown for the team after an impressive tackle from hearing-impaired terrier Marshall, who’s training to be a support dog for frontline workers of the COVID pandemic. The dogs were able to catch their breath during the halftime show, performed by a stimulated band of cats, with the help of DJ Grand Master Scratch on the turntables. In the final quarter, Jett, a two-legged lab with his own wheeled cart, scored a touchdown for Team Fluff. After much back and forth with both teams scoring multiple touchdowns, Team Ruff’s Muffin scored another one for the team, bringing the score up to 66-69 with less than a minute left in the game. With the team only three points behind, Team Ruff’s Big Boss Paulie, an American Staffordshire Terrier and Dutch Shepherd mix, jolted for a touchdown… Read more »

also at the hill:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is putting an additional $100,000 behind its push to tie vulnerable Republicans to the QAnon conspiracy theory and Rep. Marjorie Greene Taylor (R-Ga.), releasing new Spanish language ads Monday targeting three GOP House members in competitive districts.
The ad buy represents the DCCC’s first six-figure Spanish language ad buy of the 2022 cycle and it builds on the $550,000 worth of ads released last week accusing eight Republicans of aligning with the fringe elements of the party that were involved in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The ads will run in distircts represented by Reps. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.).
“QAnon, a conspiracy theory born online. Sent QAnon followers like Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress that attacked the Capitol and murdered a cop,” one of the ads states. “Then Republicans like David Valadao voted to support Marjorie Taylor Greene, letting QAnon win. Congressman David Valadao should have stood with us. David Valadao stood with Q, not you.”
[continues]

$5 million for a few seconds?  heck, craig, according to bloomberg, mahomes would not only have had to slog through a tough 4 hours being beaten up but also had to win the game to earn the expected $7 million in endorsement ads. 

was he exposed to covid during the 1/6 insurrection?  was he in the room with those who refused to wear masks?

the hill:

Rep. Ron Wright (R-Texas) died on Sunday evening after testing positive for COVID-19 late last month.
[…]
Wright, 67, had previously been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2019. He is the first sitting member of Congress to die from COVID-19.
Wright announced his diagnosis on Jan. 21, stating he had “mild symptoms.” He was later hospitalized and treated at Baylor Hospital. 
[continues]