1 Mother 2 Another

We dutifully tuned in Sunday night to
watch the Superbowl, though neither team was particularly appealing
to us. The girls were excited about the game, sure, but mostly they
were overjoyed at the chance to sit down and watch some live
television.


With commercials.


This household skips commercials whenever possible, so a chance to
stare at our nation’s great advertising machine on its
holiest day of the year was simply too much for the girls to
resist. We still paused the commercials whenever something violent
or completely sexual came on, but we tried to let the girls catch
their entertainment where they could.


And in return, my entertainment was watching the girls watch the
commercials.

It’s so interesting to me to see
them process an ad – and get something completely different
out of it than the advertiser originally intended. I tried my
hardest to casually explain the commercials as truthfully as
possible, breaking down the hype and getting to the root of
something.


But sometimes it was just more fun to watch them go.


One commercial in particular captured the girls’ attention: a
car commercial where the prospective buyer suddenly had a small
second head coming out of him, that sang happily to the car dealer.
Following are actual quotes from the two girls:


“Wow, how did they make a second head come out of
that?”


“Do you think the second head is attached to the body or is
it separate?”


“Does the man know he has a second head?”


“Can second heads only sing? Can’t they talk
plainly?”


“When the two heads go to bed at night, do they sleep in the
same bed or in different beds?”


Congratulations, national car brand. You created a commercial that
had my daughters were still talking about it the next day.


Just not in the way you meant, I’m guessing.