What Sells

May 2007.

Last night was that time of year when people from all over the planet, from all walks of life-colors, creeds, genders, persuasions, and differences-come together for one magical purpose…the Super Bowl.

I admit it…for the past two years I also have succumb to nearly omnipresent call to plant my fanny on a couch, eat some dip and watch this thing…the whole thing.  I watched the pre-game show, the first half, the half time show, the second half and, of course, the commercials.  To me, the game was fun to watch, the half time show knocked me over, I won’t say anything about the pre-game (remember what thumper’s dad told him), but it is the commercials that have me typing away.  They had a theme.

One after the other, the theme became more and more clear.

I suppose this is not new by any stretch.  In the 80’s and 90’s we heard that “sex sells” and commercials were thusly filled with statuesque, sweaty nakedness in slow motion trying to sell you a pair of shoes.  Interestingly enough, there was little to none of this last night.  So, what happened?  Did sex stop selling?  Have we become a more chaste society?  I don’t think so.  It seems to me that something else simply sells more at the moment.  This is the theme that I saw again and again: Violence.

When the first commercial aired with the friends playing “rock, paper scissors” and the one friend actually beamed the other in the head with a rock, I admit that I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe.  As the parade of man to man violence continued, I still thought little of it and laughed at most.  Then, a new commercial for a car company aired.  The commercial depicted a robot losing his job, being in despair and eventually committing suicide by throwing himself off of a bridge (it turns out it was only a robotic dream, but the story was already told).  And at this, I had to pause.

What was I laughing at?  When did the idea of hopelessness become funny?  What is it that makes suicide a good depiction for a commercial?  Sitting with my friend, we wondered how many people were watching this who have experienced suicide of loved ones?  We wondered what the coach of one of the teams-who experienced the tragic suicide of his own son not too long ago-what he thought of it.  And none of the commercials were so funny any more.

It seems to me that the root of our (and I include myself in this) ability to be so callous at, and even attracted to, violence, hopelessness and death, is our falling asleep to the preciousness of the gift of Life.  It is so easy to do.  So easy to forget.

The problem with this forgetting is that if we lose appreciation for Life, we lose connection with the Source of Life.  If we lose these things, what reason is there to live at all?  Perhaps one will see reason when things are going their way, but what about in times of hardship?  What about when the cancer returns, or she doesn’t, or the bills outweigh the income or the pink slip comes and all is lost for sure this time?  If I have lost sight of the gift that is Life…if I have lost appreciation for the most basic and yet most essential of all things…what else is there?

So, some may think me a bit oversensitive.  Maybe too square or prude or lame or buggin’ or whatever…maybe.  But today, I will think about what matters most and I realize that the best commercial of the night (for me), was Coca-Cola’s.

It started out looking like a violent video game where the hero speeds through the streets then gets out of his car and annihilates people.  You see him driving through the streets, get out of his car, go up to a man…and buy a Coke…and pay for it…and smile and walk away.  Then, he moves through the street performing random acts of kindness for the rest of the commercial.  It sounds sappy of you didn’t see it but it was actually quite cool.

Sappy or cool, either way, I think Coke got it right.  The reality is, I will interact with many people today: in the office, on the highway, in the market and maybe even on the street.  And I will have the opportunity to impact a moment of their lives.  Will my impact be one that springs from a celebration of Life or from a place of forgetting how precious Life is?

I hope I will remember that all life comes from God and is precious, precious, precious.  I hope that I will remember that falling asleep to this fact is much easier than I think sometimes.

Here’s to Coke for reminding us that Life is worth staying awake for.