![]() The Covid-19-aware ads feel surreal, like background details in a Don DeLillo novel, and the sheer volume of them is overwhelming. What reassures me is that even brands that just want to sell you stuff can’t avoid the virus. That’s all fine, even nice as long as you can believe that a company’s values are the same ones they advertise, which, historically, you can’t. ![]() Ad after ad invokes ideas of family, and supporting workers, and all of us being in this together. The conglomerate behind Budweiser is donating all of its sports and entertainment event budget to the Red Cross GrubHub is imploring viewers to save local restaurants by ordering takeout the Las Vegas tourism board - famous for “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” - stresses that your health and safety are more important than the lights and shows of Sin City. Many companies are aiming for a message of explicit goodness, speaking to our sense of community and social responsibility. Advertisers will always try to reflect and influence our cultural moment, and this one is proving to be no exception. Commercials telegraph what companies want Americans to think about them and can’t help but show us what they really think about us. It’s a little bit cultural anthropology, a little bit knowing your enemy, a little bit that I’m open to a quick, cheap cry thanks to a Subaru spot, a little bit being too lazy to fast-forward on my DVR. Slightly oddly for my urban millennial demographic, I’ve never avoided ads (I still subscribe to cable, plus I cheaped out on my Hulu subscription). I’ve always watched a lot of TV, but it’s even more now. For me, it’s that I’m finding comfort in commercials. It seems like everyone has gone a little soft in the pandemic: Friends who usually traffic in purposely gross memes are sending wholesome aquarium videos Jim Cramer is talking about sacrifice New Yorkers are suddenly hot for Andrew Cuomo.
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