2018 Super Bowl ads: Best and worst
From Cenex to PETA, here are the best and worst commercials from Super Bowl 52.
February 8, 2018
I’m a few days behind in commenting on this year’s Super Bowl, and while I readily admit the outcome of the game made no difference to me, I did tune in to watch the commercials and the halftime show.
It’s interesting to see what the advertising execs come up with each year, and as always, there were a few clear winners and a few definite losers. The agricultural industry won’t likely forget the inspiring “So God Made A Farmer” ad from Ram Trucks, and we cringed at Chipotle’s animated video from 2013 that demonized livestock production.
In 2018, we saw the typical ads for items like beef, chips, laundry detergent and luxury vehicles, but there were a few created that didn’t get national airtime.
The best of these was one created by Cenex. Featuring “Albert the Bull,” the commercial highlighted the town of Audubon, Iowa, and tells the story of the beef industry, rural communities and the local co-ops that fuel area residents.
Watch Cenex’s #SB52 TV commercial here.
Learn more about Albert the Bull’s story by clicking here.
On the flip side of this feel-good story was PETA, whose ad didn’t air for one reason or another; however, it’s still making the rounds on YouTube. The ad manages to not only insult every animal-owning citizen, but also inappropriately pokes fun at Christians and accuses meat eaters as being sinners.
In the commercial, a man walks into a confessional and describes the abuse and bloody, horrific deaths suffered by animals we eat and how he’s tried to convince others that it’s OK. He says to the priest, “We cannot get that many animals from farm to plate without doing some really shady sh… stuff.”
The priest then tells the man, who works in the livestock industry, that there is no penance, nor any forgiveness, for his sins of butchering and eating animals. The commercial cuts to a judging congregation and the clear message, “Go Vegan.”
READ: HumaneWatch roasts HSUS in Super Bowl ad
I’m glad that this commercial didn’t actually air during the Super Bowl, and it just reaffirms my belief that these activists will do anything, and I mean anything, to get people to stop eating meat. Whether it’s dancing naked in a street protest, euthanizing dogs and cats they claim to protect while taking people’s hard-earned money or trying to twist the ideologies presented by the church to fit their own agendas — it’s unacceptable and wrong.
PETA did get one thing right in the ad. Consumers do want to know where their food comes from and how it gets to their dinner table. Fortunately for them and us, the reality is far less sinister, and much more beneficial to human health and our daily lives, than PETA would like us to believe.
The opinions of Amanda Radke are not necessarily those of beefmagazine.com or Farm Progress.
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