The Super Bowl Ads That Stirred Political Controversy

As the United States experiences its political renaissance or its political implosion, opinions have seeped into media like wildfire and Super Bowl 51's commercials were no exception. While the Anheuser-Busch ad, "Born The Hard Way," caused the hashtag "Boycott Budweiser" last week, Airbnb's commercial, which was aimed at refugees and immigrants, hoped to get the hashtag "We Accept" trending in the Twitterverse. Airbnb's website states it has a five-year goal to make sure 100,000 people have short-term housing who may be displaced due to war or natural disasters. Other commercials included Coca-Cola's revived 2014 Super Bowl ad, "America The Beautiful," and Audi's equal pay for women commercial, while 84 Lumber's immigration ad was deemed too controversial to air during the Super Bowl and is now only viewable online. Despite efforts to keep politics out of the ads, the NFL brought us a commercial called "Inside These Lines," which also offered a message of inclusion. But don't worry, if you wanted light fluffy, non-political commercials, you got them, including the first "live" Super Bowl commercial, starring Adam Driver, which might have been cooler if there was anything about it that made it seem like it was actually "live."