Demented 4 Ever

The Super Bowl is the one day of the year where we, as Americans, forget our love for skipping commercials. For many it is their sole purpose for watching the Super Bowl in the first place. For me I wouldn’t say the commercials  were my sole purpose: food, friends, and family came first. (I am willing to argue with anyone that Super Bowl food is superior to food from any other holiday.) I, for one, am one of those who prioritizes the commercials over the game itself (except in ‘08 when Kurt Warner took the Cardinals the Super Bowl). At least I was one. 

Over the last ten years or so I felt myself getting less excited about the commercials and I would go as far as to say that I am getting annoyed by them. I can’t tell if I am outgrowing them or if they really are getting less funny, less inspiring, and more hacky. Maybe I’m tired of seeing some of the same commercials. I know the Budweiser Clydesdales are a tradition. I know they’re meant to make me feel patriotic, but I am so tired of seeing them. I won’t go as far as to say we should turn them into glue, but I think it’s time for them to stay in their nice stables in St. Louis. Which is weird, because as the son of a Budweiser employee, those commercials used to be one of my favorites. I think, in part, it was because my dad got a chance to see them before they aired, so he would tell me about them weeks in advance. As a kid I felt like I had some insider information. Nowadays though it feels like everyone has insider information because companies now are either releasing teasers for their commercials, or releasing the whole commercial online before the Super Bowl starts.  It is interesting that for this week’s prompt, in which we have to decide  our favorite Super Bowl commercial and do an argument breakdown  on it, I originally chose a commercial that was actually a teaser for its Super Bowl counterpart. I am talking about the Skittles and Gopuff collab commercial starring Elijah Wood.  

Now, I don’t watch a lot of live television so I am not sure when or where the original commercial aired, nor do I know how often it was on (though it has been on Youtube for at least a month already). For those who haven’t seen it, it is essentially two high-schoolers talking and one reveals they have a magic horn that summons a monster who delivers Skittles to them whenever they blow it. The Skittles monster (played by Elijah Wood) complains about having no free will and asks why they can’t order the Skittles from the app like normal teenagers. 

This commercial is nothing special, just your typical “what the fuck am I watching” level of absurdism (think of the Mt. Dew Puppy/Monkey/Baby commercial from the 2010s).  But it was the second part that got me. Here Wood announces that if you go to the Gopuff app you can sign up for a drawing in which ‘Elijah Wood’ will come to your house and record the next Gopuff commercial live for the Super Bowl. The teens ask him all the legality questions about a live commercial and  then reveal they don’t know who Elijah Wood is, much to the monster’s surprise. Elijah Wood is kind of a home town hero for me. He might also be one of the last A-list actors from Iowa to not have any controversy.  So the thought of no one knowing who he is is funny to me. But hey, I guess it could be possible. I mean the LOTR movies do turn 25 years old this year.  Maybe at this point Wood should move back to Cedar Rapids and reopen his parents’ old sub shop so I can try their famous sandwich I heard so much about.

 Like I said earlier, this was the commercial I planned on doing, but then I watched the live commercial they did for the Super Bowl and decided I had to do this one instead. Full disclosure: I didn’t get a chance to watch this live. In fact I missed the Super Bowl all together, so I’m not sure what parts of the commercial made it on air, if any of it, but that is  beside the point. 

Because the commercial is a collaboration between two companies, it has two things it is trying to sell, but I think the message is the same. They pose a question of morality: Is your own convenience worth destroying someone’s life?  Now this might sound a bit out there, but bear with me while I try to break this down as a classical argument. To get the audience’s attention, they needed a hook. I would say there are actually two. One, a celebrity dressed  as a bright orange three legged monster is going to get your attention. Second, what caught my attention was the fact they did this commercial live.  In the past Skittles has tried to find gimmicks to stand out from the rest of the commercials. In 2018 they did a campaign prior to the Super Bowl that only their biggest fan would get to see that year’s Super Bowl commercial. So when everyone else spent millions for a commercial to be seen by millions, Skittles spent millions on just one fan. So why do your commercial live for a fan? What were they trying to prove? My thought: to prove they weren’t using generative AI. 

In the past few years more and more companies are using AI, while many consumers, like myself, are against it. It steals jobs from artists and actors. It wastes fresh water and electricity. All for the sake of personal  convenience and saving money. According to Michael Grothaus, a writer from Fast Company, 23% of this year’s Super Bowl  commercials used AI. So I can hear what you are saying 23%, that means 77% still didn’t use AI. Still, l Skittles was the only one to go to great lengths to prove they didn’t. 

Now let’s compare the Skittles commercial to Svedka Vodka, a company that openly said their entire commercial was written by, and made by, AI. Svedka’s commercial was 30 seconds long  with two robots dancing with a bottle of vodka and a cocktail shaker. Their dancing apparently shook the shaker enough to make a cocktail (as a bartender I can tell you that wouldn’t do shit). They drink the cocktail, and smile as they short circuit. The commercial ends with the tagline “Shake your Bots Off”. Now, as a consumer I didn’t drink Svedka in the past because I felt it tasted cheap, and now that they use AI, I feel like they are too cheap to use real people. And as a bartender I now won’t use Svedka because I think they believe bartenders should be replaced by dancing robots. 

Skittles and Gopuff on the other hand gave us a complex story that was easy to follow. In seven minutes two teenagers are taught that their actions cost a monster his happiness, his family, and free will, all for the sake of free Skittles delivered to them. It’s implied they are now willing to give up a lifetime supply of free Skittles, to then pay for them on the Gopuff app without having to sacrifice the convenience of delivery.   

Gopuff and Skittles delivered me the opportunity to watch  one of my favorite actors, while also employing  set designers, costume designers,  young actors, and everyone else involved in filming an actual commercial. They also gave three real people their fifteen minutes of fame all without using AI. To prove this commercial worked on at least one person this entire article was written while eating sour Skittles.