#Mediawelike at the #SuperBowl

Last night, the Super Bowl provided last-minute thrills, dancing sharks, and plenty of funny, heartwarming, and even tragic advertisements. In recent years, The Representation Project, an organization devoted to promoting fair representation of gender in the media, has used the Super Bowl to draw attention to sexist commercials by tweeting #Notbuyingit after any misogynist or patronizing adverts. For the second year in a row, the organization tweeted #Mediawelike along with #Notbuyingit to promote companies representing progressive portrayals of gender and identity.

It seemed that this year provided more opportunity to use #Mediawelike then in years past, with advertisements focusing on families, empowerment, and acceptance. Below are several of the most notable #Mediawelike moments of the game.

Procter & Gamble's and Always's "Like a Girl" was originally released in the summer, but re-aired during the game. The commercial reclaims the old insult "Like a Girl" and highlights the ways conceptions of "girlhood" are used to devalue the pursuits and ambitions of young girls.  

Invisible Mindy, one of the more humorous spots of the night, depicts Mindy Kaling moving through town as seemingly invisible. The ad provides a thinly veiled critique of the ways women and women of color are deemed invisible in the media. Plus, Matt Damon makes a cameo at the end.

Dads seemed to be a common theme in this year's Super Bowl commercials. Dove focused an entire ad on the concept of masculinity and fatherhood. The spot show Dads in all moments of parenthood and claims that "real strength" is shown by caring.

One of the few serious ads of the night, project No More in conjunction with the NFL, presented a spot focusing on the realities of domestic violence. The ad was not without criticism, as many noted the irony of the NFL promoting domestic violence awareness after its notorious mishandling of several abuse cases in the 2015 season. Perhaps this commercial serves as a start for the NFL to take more action.  

 

Always a fan favorite for Super Bowl viewers, Coca Cola takes aim at cyberbulling in their latest ad and encourages viewers to #MakeitHappy as an alternative to spreading negativity and hate. 

 

What were your favorite commercials of the night? What did we miss? Do you think advertisements are getting more progressive? Are these advertisements indications of a more inclusive and equitable media to come?