Commercial Statements

One of the most interesting aspects of the Super Bowl each year is the competition to craft the best commercial. In fact, often people are just as excited about the commercial breaks as the game itself.

Yesterday was no different. A flurry of funny ads hit the airwaves during the beginning part of the game. Among my early favorites were ads by Pepsi and Doritos. The Pepsi commercial featuring a woman being knocked out by a flying can of Pepsi was hilarious. Doritos, meanwhile, kept it's string in tact of offering funny ads. The ad featuring a pug running through a glass window was great, the ad featuring the crazed Doritos fan who licked the hands and pants of co-workers was funny in a creepy way, and the house sitting ad was inspired.

A couple others did well. Bridgestone offered some good ads, and of course the Darth Vader kid ad from Volkswagen was pretty great.

Then there were others that left something to be desired. I could go the rest of my life without another Go Daddy.com ad. And the ads from Coke were esoteric at best.

But I was more interested in the ads that didn't make the cut. A couple weeks ago an ad for the website Jesus Hates Obama (yes, apparently it's a real site) was rejected. Thankfully. Always nice to see people using ignorance and hate to damage the cause.

This morning, there were three others that didn't make the list. First was an eTrade commercial that was weird. Second was a commercial from the NFL Players Association attempting to rally fan support, which was rejected for obvious reasons. The final rejected ad came from the site Ashley Madison. Never heard of it? I hadn't either.

It turns out Ashley Madison is a website designed for married people to help them have affairs. Yes, you read that correctly. The ad is just about as offensive as one might imagine, and I was relieved that it didn't pass the censors at FOX.

I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition to our service Sunday, in which we talked about the Biblical value and purpose for marriage. Of course that meaning and purpose has long been skewed by secular society, and this new Ashley Madison website is just an indication that the trend has continued. It's hard to believe we now actually have website designed to facilitate and encourage extra marital affairs. Judging by the divorce rate, this is a problem that didn't need any extra encouragement.

I guess it re-enforces for me the hopelessness of those that don't know the Gospel. When you don't have faith to provide hope, meaning, and context in your life, you struggle to find it in the things of this world. That's what leads to the creation of sites like Ashley Madison, and that is why it is so important for us to carry the message of the Gospel out into the world.