I can hear it coming. There is a branch of religion and irreligion that worries that somewhere, someplace, somebody is having a good time. This good time must be suspect as good times always are and so jeremiads follow.
Super Bowl parties, the Super Bowl, football, and Doritos will all be condemned by the same sort of puritanical souls that banned Christmas: a trick done by religious fundamentalists a long time ago and atheists in my lifetime. Perhaps the most condemned feature of Super Bowl fun will be our enjoyment (and rating!) of the commercials during the broadcast.
Let me be clear: Commercialism is bad, but commercials can be a sign of a glorious culture. Second for second, they are some of the best video ever made. The amount of talent that goes into each one is staggering and it is churlish not to glory in that talent: God given. Just as I will marvel at the miracle of the human body stretching for a touchdown catch, so I will laugh, cry, and marvel at the talent that can tell a story in a minute or less!
But aren’t commercials trying to sell me something? Why, yes, yes they are! And I am thankful for this sign of a healthy market and being asked to buy. I have always known commercials were selling me something and sometimes they helped me buy something. I got what I wanted and the company got what they wanted: how marvelous, how ethical! Mostly, I bought nothing and yet they still tried to entertain me.
I have gained more pleasure from commercials (at least during the Super Bowl) than they have gained sales from me.
But what of the children? What of the weak minded? Don’t commercials manipulate them into evil consumerism? I watched commercials as a child and when I wanted something I could not or should have had my parents said “no” and taught me about the nature of commercials. In fact, a lifetime of exposure to commercials has given me a healthy immunity to a sales pitch.
The way to condemn bad commercials is to know enough to praise good ones: the problem with a bad commercial is not that they are selling something, but that they do so using vice. A commercial can no more create false desires in me (if I am virtuous) than a woman creates lust in me by what she wears. If I inordinately desire a new Ford after Super Bowl Sunday commercials, I should thank God that they have revealed a vileness in me.
Commercialism, living for consuming, is very, very bad, but I do not think that evil is new to our age. Nor do I think I can tell a man is driven by consumption by counting the number of things he has. I have known people with few possessions obsessed with having them or with everyone else having them and wealthy people who owned many things whose property had little or no power over them. The man who loves consuming material goods inordinately is wicked, whatever amount he consumes. The man who loves feasting, partying with friends, and entertainments appropriately is the kind of man I want to call friend.
Most of what I know about commercials I learned from Kim Gaynor, the world’s most interesting man. He made them, enjoyed them, and could tell you more interesting facts about a 30 second spot than most of us can learn from a three hour epic film. It was Kim Gaynor who showed me the writing and artistic talent required to make even the simplest commercial. He opened my eyes to commercials as art.
Tomorrow I get to enjoy the apex of that art form for free.
I am not deceived. Many commercials on Super Bowl Sunday will be vulgar, objectify people, and revel in crudity. Much of all art and culture infects me with those vices daily. People like I am are often vulgar, objectifying, and crude. I aspire to be better than that, but to do that I must learn to see the chaste, the noble, and the sublime in the midst of the vile. Why bother? Because this is what I must do in every area of my life. If I do not watch a single ad on Super Bowl Sunday, my heart will still contain vulgarity. I must purify my heart and one way to do so is to learn to reject the bad while rejoicing in the good. I will be thankful for every commercial that is not vulgar, uplifts the human spirit, and is funny (even Shakespearean!) without mere crudity.
If it is fun, there is good to it. Let’s purge the evil and enjoy the fun. Let the commercials roll and pass the Doritos.
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