"THROW THE CHILD" INFOMERCIAL ~ 2024 SUPERBOWL
Given his pedigree playing such characters as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier, when Patrick Stewart issues an instruction, one’s automatic instinct is to follow it.
However, in the new Super Bowl ad from Paramount+, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hesitates when that instruction is three simple words: Throw the child.
Created by ad agency Droga5 and directed by David Shane, “Sir Patrick Stewart Throws A Hail Arnold” manages to take so many of the elements that so many Super Bowl ads have—a collection of celebrities, a comedic concept—and combine them in a way that makes it feel fresh and actually funny.
Why are Stewart, Tagovailoa, Jeff Probst, Drew Barrymore, Knuckles, Arnold, Peppa, and Creed stuck on Paramount Mountain in the first place? Who cares! It’s all just weird enough to make the suspension of disbelief possible.
Credit to Droga5 for leaning into dark, odd humor for the Super Bowl, and to the brand for going with it. But the key here may be director David Shane, who has long been a master of commercial and short-form comedy.
For Shane, it’s all about a great script, and then looking for specific moments. “All stories, whether 24 seconds or 2 hours, are really a collection of moments,” Shane said. “Nobody tells their friends the plot of a movie over and over, but they do quote lines and specific scenes all the time. So, the first thing I’m doing is looking for that or the possibility of that in a script. Moments are about real human behavior. People laugh because they recognize themselves in what they’re watching.”
He said that another important quality to any funny ad is comedic friction. “Someone said this, it may have been Freud, but I don’t know because I never graduated college: ‘Violence is funny whether it is emotional or physical,’” said Shane. “In a script, that means finding where the friction is coming from, then it’s about finding the places where people are trying to not reveal what they’re thinking. We never think we’re an open book, but our expressions can betray that. What’s the subtext? Especially in commercials, I’m always trying to work the subtext. What are they saying . . . but what are they really saying? Also, awkwardness is funny.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/91022317/patrick-stewart-paramount-plus-super-bowl-commercial-2024-best-yet
COMMENTARY: The underlined texts above are enough for you to get the gist of this post. But, if not, then consider the images only in that 'infomercial/commercial for Paramount +. In propaganda, its important to use the best possible lures: images, numbers, slogans/catch phrases, stereotypes, and any/all discriminatory measures to reel the viewer in.
Looking at that infomercial, one should take notice of the carefully selected celebrities, the once popular grunge 'Christian' band -Creed, the mooning of that band, the old football player (representing aging population demanding to "Throw the Child"), a cheesy sheriff in shorts (disrespect of lawmen), a 'Miami' football player of color (American/Samoan Evangelical Christian with one son), a robot or transformer (the future singularity), and a torch bearer aside of a cartoon kid (ushering in the new reality).
What can any of that mean in context of the title of this blog? It points to the lack luster view of the nuclear family and children in the post-modern social imagination. The traditional family has no appeal no luster/value, women want abortions/control their own body which fits with with a selfish aging American population .So, of course, throw the child away because who needs them; and while you are at it, throw out religion as it is (Creed) passe.
As for Tua T... he did not throw the child because in the scene he was supposedly 'not ready for the moment'. Mmm. And, as a true Christian, he shouldn't be ready to throw the child. I guess he will eventually get ready or be totally excluded the next time this kind of thing comes up.
Hopefully, Tua did not think such violence was funny like the rest of America. He chose to opt out but still took the money for the gig. When you think about it... it was probably the right thing to do knowing there won't be a come back. Unless, he changes his 'religion'.
