A failed artist with a fragile ego, lying on the floor in a locked room staring into a dizzyingly infinite mirror. This is the protagonist from Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Aleph,” who has descended to the cellar of a house owned by a rival prize-winning writer whom he despises. There he finds the Aleph, a small point in space that lets the viewer see everything in the universe at once. But this is also me, watching the Super Bowl commercials. Maybe it’s because I like to lie on the floor staring up at my television. Maybe it’s because I was confronted incomprehensibly with every pop culture reference at once. Or maybe it’s because I’m also a failed artist. But I thought of that character in the Aleph on Sunday night. Advertising is a mirror. “Outsiders see only the smooth, expertly contrived finished product, often better crafted than the programming and editorial matter it interrupts,” wrote advertising historian Stephen Fox.
“Insiders know that no successful ad can stray very far from where the audience already lives.” Now, the audience lives inside our own entertainment and the ads are reflecting the infinitely self-referential, sequel-soaked and nostalgia-baited entertainment where we’ve offshored our inner lives. Sunday night's commercials showed that the mirror has so much to reflect that its reflection can be baffling. This Walmart commercial is an incoherent parade of pop culture references. This Sabra commercial is an unintelligible grouping of pop culture figures from 90s wrestlers to viral TikTok stars, listed one after the other on a set with art direction of the Instagram-core style. This Mountain Dew commercial is The Shining. Why? I have no idea. This Discover commercial is a confusing sequence of characters you remember each saying “yes."Even Proctor & Gamble gave us the P&G Cinematic Universe's version of Infinity War. You love the MCU, now we hope you'll love the P&GCU. At least we all know why these characters are in the same commercial. Groundhog Day. Baby Yoda. Boston accents. MC Hammer. Only references and reintroductions produce any kind of signal.
In this way, the commercials are a photocopy of our entertainment industry, which is a photocopy of its once-original self. The photocopy of a photocopy that is this year's commercials somehow contains all the characters and references of our entertainment yet each commercial lacks any kind of intelligible story. At least Marvel movies have a beginning, middle and end. The exceptions were ads from Google, Amazon Echo and Michelob Ultra, which at least aspired to reach beyond our entertainment and into dreams we have of progress. To understand how the commercials got this way, look at the entertainment they’re intended to support rather than the people who created the commercials. "The Masked Singer" was the lead out program following the Super Bowl. It’s a show about other celebs, other entertainments, other moments in our pop culture history. It contains everything.
The shorter stuff
Is the "Friends" hoodie the next Thrasher hoodie? It can be seen on producer Joel Little in the new Taylor Swift documentary in the scene that starts at 51:55. (Netflix)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Inside The NBA" on TNT is the best and funniest show on TV. Shaq's emotional speech about Kobe was atypical but powerful. Tried not to cry. (YouTube)
The logo for the new Dune movie is good. (Screenrant)
Two things shocked me. One, everyone seems to know who the character Han from the Fast & Furious movies is. two, there's a Fast & Furious music festival!? (TheVerge)
JoJo Rabbit went for a fashion-ad-as-FYC-ad. For your consideration ads are usually boring. All four of these appeared in print in this weekend's Times. (Instagram)
The Birds of Prey soundtrack continues to be interesting. (Uproxx)
I relate to David Letterman's making his own embarrassment worse by fixating on it. (NYT)
Killer meme movie. (THR)
I would definitely watch a Goop Lab-style show about SF tech dudes getting Botox and cool sculpting. (WaPo)
Will this Charlie Puth song be our generation's go-to funeral song now? How did this happen? Please don't sing this when I die! (Billboard)
PlepWatch: Plepler joins Luminary board... (Variety)
...and might be hiring ex-Vice exec Josh Tyrangiel for his "little new venture." (NYT)
Neil Young is absolutely one of my favorites. He's salty. In this interviewer, the reporter briefly mentions a Grammy-winning artist who says the audio on a MacBook is suitable. Young's response: "I’ve never won a Grammy for music, so I wouldn’t know about that quality." (The Verge)
One of the nicest and coolest people in music I've ever had the honor of meeting a few times and interviewing once sadly died on Sunday. J. Scott, a DJ and manager, was also the founder of the enormously influential blog IMNOTATOY. (W)