OPINION

One of the things that makes the Super Bowl special, along with the football, is the commercials. From ones that are relevant to pop culture to heartstring-pulling commercials to the just plain weird commercials, the night is full of ads that make us want to go out and buy what the commercials advertise.
One of the most remembered ads was T-Mobile’s “Restricted Hotline Bling.” The ad uses rapper Drake’s popular song and music video, “Hotline Bling,” which became popular in October of 2015. The commercial opens on Drake practicing for the music videos with the iconic dance and set and catchy lyrics, only to be interrupted by three people in suits. The people in suits are executives from a phone company, and make Drake put lines about hidden fees and all of the “small print” information included on phone plan contracts in his song. Drake happily obliges to adding to the song, and almost sarcastically says “This doesn’t ruin the song at all!” In an extended version of the commercial, the three executives ask if the can dance in the box that Drake danced in the music video, and it ended in them doing various dance moves in the pink lit up box.
Another commercial that was popular that evening was the ad for the Audi R8 V10. This commercial was one of the more heartwarming ones of the year. It opens up on an old man, who sits on the couch with a melancholy expression, gazing at pictures of him as an astronaut in his youth. His son pulls up to the house and is obviously concerned for his father. With the words “Alright commander, come with me,” he and his father go outside, where an Audi R8 V10 sits in the driveway. The notes to “Starman” by the recently deceased David Bowie start to play, and the old man walking to the car was compared to him walking to the rocket and as soon as he starts driving, the chorus of “Starman” plays and the old man starts smiling again.
Though all of the commercials have impacted us, I believe the one that affected us the most was “Puppy monkey baby” for Mountain Dew Kickstarter. The commercial opens up on three young men all sitting bored on the couch. One of them claims “Man, I might just chill tonight.” Suddenly a small square hole in the wall opens up and a creature walks in. The creature, put together almost like Frankenstein, has the face of a puppy, the body of a monkey and the legs of a baby. The puppy monkey baby carries a cooler of Mountain Dew Kickstarter and repeatedly sings “Puppy monkey baby.” He even licks one of the men’s faces. Then they follow the puppy monkey baby out of the room while dancing. The tagline is “Three Awesome Things Combined” comparing the soda, juice and energy drink to the puppy baby monkey.
“I could have gone my whole life without seeing Puppy Baby Monkey,” said Kamalynn Goudy, 12th grade. “But now that I saw it, it’s like, the one commercial that I remember. So I guess that made it a good commercial.”