I noticed an odd trend this year in the Superbowl commercials, and I’m not sure that I was a big fan. Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way, but typically, Superbowl commercials tend to follow trends every year – a few years ago, everyone was doing their best to be funny, and more recently, advertisers were relying on bizarre humor to sell their products.

Well, this year, apparently the memo sent out to nearly every advertiser was to pull the heartstrings. Or attempt to, anyways. What frustrates me about this was that 1. I can only try to be emotionally manipulated so many times before it just stops working, and 2. very few of these actually made sense. For example: the Coke commercial where they sing “America the Beautiful.” Gorgeous song. Great message. Doesn’t make me want to drink a coke at all.

And that was an example of one of the good ones. I can’t remember the last time I was so obviously and overtly having my emotions targeted. Superbowl commercials are entertainment in and of themselves, so when I watch them, I want to be entertained. I don’t really need six car commercials beckoning me to reflect on my life, or Bruce Willis telling me to hug my family. Besides, I’m pretty sure the Denver Broncos dominated the market share of “making fans cry” already. OOOOO ZING!

With that said, it wasn’t all bad. The damn puppy/horse bestie commercial was the cutest things I’ve ever seen and I loved it.