The Super Bowl might not be interesting for everyone, that’s what the commercials are for. Each year PreachingToday.com takes a look at some of the most interesting ads and shows how you can use them in your sermons. Here are two examples from this year list that can move from water cooler conversation into your sermon as an illustration. For the rest of the illustrations you can check out "News That Illustrates-Super Bowl Ad Edition."
'Internet?'
In a BMW commercial during the recent big game, Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric are seen (hilariously) arguing about the new-fangled “internet” in a 1994 clip from the Today Show. Think about it: 21 years ago, we didn’t know what the Internet was. “Google” was just a number that mathematicians joked about, phone books were relevant at times when you hadn’t lost power, and to find out if a restaurant was good, you ate there or talked to somebody who had. You “wall”? Probably made of sheet rock, and if someone posted on it, then they’d better have used scotch tape. It seems like our society’s changed in a flash with the advent of connected computers. We couldn’t have predicted it in 1994. What else is around the corner in the future, that for all our wisdom and knowledge we can’t see coming? Will we allow the uncertainty of days to come to point us to God?
Pay with Lovin'
In a viral marketing stunt, McDonalds is introducing a new currency in their stores for random customers in the month of February: “Lovin’”. Before your mind goes … there, don’t worry. As one recent Super Bowl commercial shows, the person ordering the food will be given an act of love or joy to do to pay for his or her food. Some examples? "Tell your mom you love her,” “tell me what you love about your son,” “the total says she has to dance right now,” “one big family hug." Paying off debts with love? Hmm. Sounds familiar. But in the real world, the principles of economics still apply—the more costly the debt, the more costly the love needed to pay it.
To send you back down memory lane of past Super Bowl ads, see what PreachingToday.com said about the past four years of Super Bowl ads.
