With the Super Bowl being a nation-wide phenomenon, one would expect the anticipated advertisements to be lighthearted and family-friendly; however, accurate interpretations of this year’s commercials can expose disguised truths hidden behind cheesy punch lines and footage of friendly house pets.

While the Super Bowl commercials are notorious for being humorous, the true nature of these advertisements’ messages can be deceiving. For example, the jovial Volkswagen commercial depicting a chubby dog striving to lose weight illustrates the obesity stereotype of American society; the creative ad featuring Jay Leno prying the new Acura from Jerry Seinfeld’s grasp provides the notion that bribing is an acceptable approach to acquiring treasures, and the seemingly jocund Doritos commercial filming a dog offering a bag of chips to his owner in fact plays out a vulgar murder scenario.

A popular commercial during this year’s Super Bowl was the Volkswagen ad depicting a household dog’s journey to shed a few pounds. In order to compete with the speedy Volkswagen, the dissatisfied pooch trains day and night to reach his desired weight. As audiences smile at this endearing commercial, what many fail to realize is the biased message this commercial emits. If a dog can’t be overweight, what fate lies ahead for the millions of Americans whose bodies aren’t up to twenty-first-century standards? Obesity is a rapidly growing crisis in today’s American society, but just as eminent are the self-image problems young people are faced with. Despite the gruesome numbers of overweight Americans, people are starting to grasp what is defined as “overweight.” However, influences in the media can push this “fitness movement” too far and influence regressive side effects including anorexia and steroid use. As a result, the cutesy puppy commercial provoking viewing couch potatoes to whip into shape could subliminally make the viewers unnecessarily self-conscious and take their subjectively imperfect body issues to an injurious level.

Along with the underlying deceit in the Volkswagen commercial, a cleverly created advertisement featuring pop culture’s Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld depicts a seemingly harmless quarrel over the desirable new Acura sports car. The audience laughs when watching Seinfeld conjure up a series of benefactions in an attempt to persuade the car’s owner into awarding Seinfeld with the very first model of his desired Acura. Taken by the showering of eccentric gifts, the car salesman hands the key to an enthralled Seinfeld, who would find the key ripped from his grip several seconds later when Jay Leno flies in with a jetpack. Any viewer can see the humor in this commercial, but what the majority of watchers fail to identify is the ulterior message. The shiny new car is awarded to whoever could present the most extravagant gift; as a matter of fact, even after being promised to Seinfeld, the car is taken from Seinfeld’s possession solely because Jay Leno was able to offer a more elaborate trade. Reflecting today’s American society, Seinfeld’s unfortunate predicament proves that any verbally granted item can be stolen away as long as someone provides a more desirable offer. “Word of Mouth” is a dying trend, and even more deleterious to society is the simple truth that the better “stuff” one has, the more that person will be able to acquire.

What is perhaps the most ambiguous commercial is the one telling the story of a lost cat and a dog trying to cover the truth of the feline’s disappearance. This commercial was the favorite of the 2012 Super Bowl’s line of advertisements, and different families nationwide found the corners of their mouths turning up when realizing the commercial’s pun. The connection between the “Missing Cat” posters and the pile of dirt beside the guilty pooch clarify that the cat’s “disappearance” was evidently the canine’s wrongdoing. Upon realizing the potential danger in store, the culprit slyly edges a bag of Doritos to his shocked owner with the suave move of his paw. This series of events is undoubtedly funny, but underneath the benign exterior is a more prominent morbid truth; the events nonchalantly played out in the setting of a typical American home illustrate a typical murder cover-up. In reality, nothing is funny about bribing a witness with overly-salted, powdered-cheese chips to keep quiet about a murder. Even more disturbing is the fact that this murder occurred within a single family, and the Super Bowl is traditionally a very family-oriented event. Once again, the Super Bowl advertisements managed to manipulate an inappropriate message into a humorous tactic to flaunt the featured products.

While the Super Bowl commercials are notorious for being humorous, the true nature of these advertisements’ messages can be deceiving. This statement is supported by the overweight pooch, disappointed with his self-image, training numerous hours in order to outrun a car, popular comedians attempting to out-bribe each other for materialistic gain, and a well-trained canine attempting to cover up a murder scene. Ultimately, commercials are often deceiving, and even the most lighthearted television scenes tend to have underlying messages.