Superbowl XLI: Break 10

""Downsizing is the cutest" | General Motors

Summary: Remember Short Circuit? That movie robot sure was cute. Johnny 5 is alive, and working at a GM auto plant. Good thing the American automotive labor force was replaced with such a darned cute robot! But too bad GM didn't have a better business model. Because now GM had to fire a huge portion of its cute robot work force. Now how will the cute robot afford food and health insurance for its cute robot kids? In the commercial the robot is fired from work at the plant, but the viewer is spared any images of the hardship suffered by the robot's family or community. He tries to find work doing unskilled robot labor, like holding a sign for a condo development or working as a fast food drive-thru speaker. But robot, unable to do anything else in the world, is despondent enough to take his own life.

High Point: When we realize that this whole struggle was just a dream.

Low Point: The final, tenuous connection between this commercial and the GM 100,000 mile warrantee, its raison d'etre.

Will this commercial calm or inflame the Iraqi civil war? Hey, Iraq. Don't hate America. Look, we have terrible unemployment also. General Motors is doing so badly, it had to lay off its workers and it robots. Imagine a world where skilled robots are forced to work unskilled robot jobs. There's a Mexican robot willing to do your robot job for half the robot wage you make. But hey, that's the free robot market, right?

"Coke Black!" | Coca-Cola

Summary: White background, empty coke bottle, title cards of the greatest moments in Black History. Blues Music. Slogan "Coke Celebrates Black History. Especially Today."

High Point: A short history lesson!

Low Point: Blacks haven't done anything since 1963?

Will this commercial calm or inflame the Iraqi civil war? You know what? Fuck the Iraq question, at least temporarily. Did anyone notice that this Coke commercial featured empty bottles, which, when placed in front of the white background, turned the focus of the commercial white? How is an ad about Black history devoid of the only thing that might color this commercial brown? Who is the marketing firm responsible for this? White and White Supremacy in Advertising, LLC?

— Aemilia Scott (aemilia at flakmag dot com)