Joe Rogan called the Super Bowl “a gigantic propaganda campaign” while speaking to Dr. Bret Weinstein on an episode of his podcast released Tuesday.
“I did not watch the Super Bowl but I got a ton of messages from people that watched it that were like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Like, the Super Bowl was a gigantic propaganda campaign. There’s Pfizer ads and weird woke commercials,” Rogan told Weinstein on his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
CBS‘ Super Bowl featured a number of Big Pharma advertisements, including a 60-second spot from Pfizer.
Drug maker Astella also ran a spot for their menopause drug Veozah, according to Benzinga.
The big game featured a number of other high-leverage brands spending millions of dollars to help shape public opinion, including Bud Light, which delivered a classic, inoffensive commercial as part of its ongoing attempt to rehabilitate the brand after the Dylan Mulvaney debacle. (RELATED: Is It Time To End The Bud Light Boycott? Conservatives Are Divided)
Rogan is one hundred percent correct here, though. The Super Bowl, with a record 123 million viewers this year, is arguably the last universal cultural touchstone left in America. That makes it every brand and political operative’s best chance to make their mark on the American psyche. And boy do these corporations leap at it.
Notably, Chinese retail giant Temu spent over $21 million on three spots for the same ad, trying to normalize their brand in America amid a rash of criticism and lawmaker opposition to its alleged ties to forced labor.
Pepsi Co. also spent big on a multitude of their products, including Doritos, Mountain Dew and a really weird ad for their lemon-lime soda brand, Starry.
These commercials can all be viewed as good fun if you stay psychologically vigilant. If you’re aware that these corporations are trying to push a woke agenda in an effort to package their product with a guilt-free lifestyle, then by all means enjoy them for the absurd monstrosities that they are.
I mean seriously, the Starry ad is literally about a pop star who used to bang a soda. Does it get more morally bankrupt than sex with inanimate objects?