A Big Beautiful Door

There certainly seemed to be a great divide between the political landscape in Washington D.C. and that of Corporate America last night at the Super Bowl. Both major US political parties have spent the last couple of weeks pointing out what divides us, both in this country and around the world. Last night corporate America fought back with a number of commercials.

The first that comes to mind was the Coke commercial that showed people from various cultures singing “America the Beautiful” in a number of languages.

Airbnb is being sued for discriminating against African-Americans and violating the Fair Housing Act. They countered with their “We Accept” ad.

Earlier this year Anheuser Busch started to print “America” on its labels instead of Budweiser. They also included phrases such as "E Pluribus Unum" and "indivisible since 1776." The only problem with that is due to the incompetence of Bud’s management team they sold out to, a Belgium company InBev years ago. Here is their take on immigration.

If that was too subtle for you 84 Lumber of all companies made an advertisement that even in this atmosphere was deemed too controversial by the Fox network. Fox rejected the original cut of the ad that featured a wall that blocked people seeking work in the United States. The 90 second advertisement that did air pointed people to 84 Lumber’s website. Of course the website immediately crashed. I went to YouTube and saw the full version. When I woke up the next morning it had over 2 million views. This ad was not something casually dreamed up by the ad agency of 84. It was a specific decision made by the owner of the company who is a Trump supporter.

In a statement, 84 Lumber’s president and owner, Maggie Hardy Magerko, said: “Even President Trump has said there should be a ‘big beautiful door in the wall so that people can come into this country legally.’ It’s not about the wall. It’s about the door in the wall. If people are willing to work hard and make this country better, that door should be open to them."

You can read more about the controversial ad here.
What was your favorite Super Bowl Ad? Post a link in the comments section below.

Gatekeeping In Action.

The NFL Players Association produced a television advertisement
to air during the NFLPA All Star Game this February 5^th. CBS told
them “their moneys no good here”. Is it because CBS is one of the four networks
that get around $4 billion dollars from the NFL to broadcast their product?

nflpa tv ad

In the Heat of the Marketplace, Media Conglomerates

With the economy swirling away down the toilet, Iran enriching uranium to 20% and the nation surrounded by terrorists, perhaps news of yet another media merger does not do enough to pin the fear meter to make it to the top of the news cycle. One of my favorite media critics thinks differently though. Lisa de Moraes, who writes ”The TV Column” for the Washington Post, took on the exciting job of covering a Senate subcommittee hearing on the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC. Yes that is correct; the cable delivery system wants to be your primary content provider. What could go wrong? You can learn more on Ms. Moraes' take on the proposed merger.

My favorite part is when Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says with a straight face, “Our success will stimulate our competitors to be more innovative, too. So this joint venture should be good for consumers, innovation and competition”. Translated from CEO to English that reads - “by buying out our competitors we hope to make even more money, forcing the other media moguls to do the same and leaving the consumer with even fewer choices.”


Wasn't this all settled by the Paramount decision of 1948, when the United States Supreme Court declared it illegal for movie studios to own the theaters in which the movies that they produced were shown?

Tom Shales on the Muck and Mire at NBC

When I was a young lad growing up watching the world in black and white on the RCA console TV, there aired a poor man's version of Abbott and Costello. The show was called "Mack and Myer for Hire". Now as the NBC television Network settles into the "Muck and Mire" of its own design, NBC threatens to become a poor man's version of a television network.

Read what my favorite television critic, (Tom Shales) has to say about NBC by clicking on his name at the top of the post.