Dove.

For those of you communists who were doing something besides watching the game yesterday, this stand-out spot for the Dove Self-Esteem Fund featured portraits of young girls with titles like hates her freckles and wishes she were blonde, followed by the line: Let’s change their minds. It’s the one commercial the entire game that might actually have any sort of real impact. Let’s be honest, everyone at the party we attended deemed the Bud Light ads the funniest–just before heading to the fridge for another Stella.

“But wait,” you say, “an ad about…girls? And their self-esteem?”
“Yes. Girls.”
“In bikinis?”
“No bikinis.”
“On a FOOTBALL GAME?”

Yes, Grasshopper. Those journalists who referred to it as the Super Bowl’s first female-targeted spot missed the point. The media placement alone was Dove’s way of saying that this isn’t just a woman’s issue. It’s everyone’s issue. Of course it’s also their way of saying, “please buy our soap,” which I plan to just as soon as I run out of my lemon-verbena Bliss bar.