The recent Super Bowl boasted over 148 million viewers, making it one of the most viewed broadcasts in American history, according to CBS Sports. During the commercial breaks, political advertisements from the campaigns of President Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg aired. Both ads sparked controversy, and rightfully so — politics do not belong in football.
Usually, the Super Bowl is known for spectacular half time shows, outlandish commercials and the most hyped-up football game of the year. It should stay that way — the Super Bowl should not be known for its political ads.
The divisive nature of politics has increased tensions nationwide. To alleviate this our country needs to find a middle ground on which to agree.
“If Americans don’t learn to build bridges with each other, we may see more government shutdowns, lying, segregation — and even violence,” Zaid Jilani said in an article published at UC Berkley. Football has the potential to be that unifying bridge.
Football is an American tradition, and sports, in general, have the potential to be one of the greatest unifying forces among people. Nothing brings a community together more than rooting for a home-team. When individuals are supporting the Kennesaw State football game, they are not Democrats or Republicans, they are Owls fans. This is the same across every sport. By running political ads during the Super Bowl, politicians are only serving to politically divide living rooms across America.
This year, the Super Bowl took place the day before the Iowa caucus. With potentially 100 million viewers, politicians had a lot to gain by running their ads during this telecast, according to NBC News. Both candidates spent around $10 million for 60 seconds of ad time each according to CNBC.
This is not the correct use of funds for either individual. As the incumbent, Trump should be spending resources on the American people instead of spending $10 million on a re-election ad.
Bloomberg’s ad focused on the issue of gun violence in the U.S. While this is an important issue, Bloomberg’s resources should instead be spent on establishing his own platform for the upcoming election.
Additionally, the result of these ads is only more political division among Americans. Conflict between CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers and the news outlet Townhall ensued on Twitter as a response to Trump’s ad, according to Townhall. Similar conflicts are sure to have occurred in households across America. Viewers should have been enjoying football — instead, they were forced to think about politics.
“I really don’t care to see anything political, I just want to watch football,” said freshman early childhood education major Avery Smith said.
“For the last two years it’s been impossible to go to a bar on a Monday night and not have to talk about politics, most Americans are sick of that,” Harvard University political scientist Yascha Mounk said in The New York Times. “I think you can win in 2020 by promising that if you become president, people can go back to talking about football.”
Americans should be able to separate political discussion from football. America’s politically saturated culture will continue to cause conflict, but for just one night, once a year, people should be able to enjoy their favorite sport without the fun-sucking annoyance of politics.
Ayla McGinnis contributed to this article.
