We don’t need billionaire NFL owners to tell us how to feel

Like all the others, Super Bowl LIX’s TV presentation was a shock-and-awe display of American gluttony—a glut of football, celebrity, patriotism, and consumerism.

While the ghost of Tom Brady sucked up a lot of attention in the broadcast booth, and the Philadelphia Eagles’ trouncing of the Kansas City Chiefs made for a lackluster affair, the commercials remained a key centerpiece of the experience.

It would be incredibly “old man yells at clouds” to say that Super Bowl commercials were better back in my day. That’s just objectively a stupid thing to say. But I do find myself slightly wistful for a time when some companies and ad agencies tried. Occasionally, you’d get a commercial that plays like a short film and leaves an impression beyond trying to sell you plastic or soda water.

The strategy now is to hire a few random celebrities, pay the licensing fee for a nostalgic song, douse everything in bright colors, and make everyone yell at each other for 30 seconds (I’m looking at you, Dunkin).

But if any commercial lingered Monday morning, and not in a good way, it was the “No Reason to Hate” ones featuring Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.

Two versions of the spot ran during the game, both showcasing the rap and football legend espousing generic ideas about hating one another (“I hate you because we’re from different neighborhoods.” “I hate you because you look different.”) until we’re told, “The reasons for hate are as stupid as they sound.” The toothless PSA culminates with Snoop saying, “Man, I hate that things are so bad that we have to do a commercial about it.”

The commercial comes from billionaire and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS). Even if you didn’t know that a billionaire was bankrolling the PSA, you’d still assume that was the case. Only someone so removed from the day-to-day world that we all live in would think putting two insanely rich people (one of who is also an NFL team owner) together to showcase how “hate” is bad would be an effective strategy.

Despite its message to combat hate, many Super Bowl viewers seemed to be united in hating the ad.

There are also deeper layers to what makes the ad so insidious.

For one, Brady and Mr. Dogg have both shown support for President Donald Trump, who has made openly racist statements, built his political platform on punishing those who disagreed with him, and openly called for people to be evicted from their homeland so luxury property could be built on their homes. (Kraft, who had previously supported Trump, stopped doing so after the events of January 6).

Meanwhile, while showcasing this ad, Fox also allowed Kanye West to run a commercial in local markets for his Yeezy apparel brand, sending viewers to his website where he’s selling shirts with swastikas on them. This also comes just days after West praised Adolf Hitler and identified as a Nazi. All of the stations the ad ran on are Fox-owned and operated, which means the same company that showcased an ad telling you to stop hating also signed off on an ad promoting hate.

Beyond all of that, however, the tone-deaf nature of the ad is par for the course when it comes to how the wealthy and corporations message the rest of us regarding the biggest problems facing our country and world.

Whether it’s climate change, the economy, or “hate,” we are always expected to make changes while those in power continue with business as usual. Even though they are responsible for the income inequality, polluting, cheating, and ethical deficiencies that have created situations where “hate” proliferates, it’s our job to turn the other cheek, whatever that means in this context.

“I’m worried about what’s going on in the country,” Kraft told USA TODAY Sports about why he wanted to make the commercial. “With the ad, I’m trying to show how we can be better.”

What the f*ck does that even mean? Take the money you spent on putting those ads on the Super Bowl and donate it to a worthy cause. Something that can actually have a tangible impact on helping people.

In a final bit of irony, when you go to the YouTube page for the ad, the comments have been turned off. They quite literally don’t want to hear what people actually have to say.

People like Kraft don’t want to have to do anything to fix the world they broke; they just want us to stop complaining about it.