As a football fan, I have always had interest in the Super Bowl.  I loved anticipating the conclusion of the NFL season, watching an epic battle between the two best teams of the league.  There was also the half-time performance, which has grown to new heights as world-class performers pull out all stops.  Even people who are not football fans can enjoy that.  Lastly, there are the great commercials that entertained, and I looked forward to those, too.

Commercials would typically have comedic value that would induce a lot of "water cooler" talk the next day as friends and co-workers would discuss, quote, or re-enact the most popular and the funniest scenes of a particular commercial.  This seemed to be the goal of companies that bought the ad space.  They wanted you to talk about their commercial or at least make an impact so strong you would remember their brand, service, or product – and buy it.  Some were better than others, and sometimes ads would make you laugh your head off or affect you so deeply that you would not remember what the commercial was for.  

Well, where have the funny commercials gone?  The last several Super Bowls have been virtually devoid of hilarity and are now just propaganda.  Instead of making the customers laugh, these new-style ads are more interested in driving an agenda, while trying to guilt you for having certain views or ideas.  They pull at your heartstrings without telling the entire truth of a subject, apparently in an attempt to sway those of us viewing to think our own views are wrong and that they, or the company they represent, know better.  It's just propaganda; it can't be called advertising anymore.

Now, I'm all for companies doing what it takes to move their products, but advertising is to encourage people to buy a product.  It's not to force-feed them some agenda or political viewpoint.

No matter where you stand on an issue, propaganda in advertising's clothing alienates viewers whose opinions differ from those of the agenda in the commercial.  And those views aren't going to change: viewers have valid reasons based on their own lifetimes of experience for holding those views.

I don't quite understand why companies do this, either.  In a country more divided than ever, much of it thanks to the media, why would companies want to alienate 50% of their viewers?  Are the companies' views so strong that they feel they have to influence those who may not feel as they do?  Why not just sell a product?  How about making the viewer want to go buy their product with an ad that all people can enjoy, whether dramatic or comedic?  Why participate in an agenda-driven commercial and view it through emotion and half-truths?

If they want to push an agenda with big-dollar commercials, maybe those who disagree with the promoted agenda need to stop sending them those dollars.

Let's take a look at the 84 Lumber, the Coca-Cola "America," and Anheuser-Busch ads and piece together a rebuttal to the agenda they are driving.

• 84 Lumber: The ad featured a single mom and her daughter making a trek across Mexico to get into the U.S.  It tried to pull at your heartstrings.  You, as a viewer, feel sorry for them as they travel and endure hardships trying to get to America.  You feel compassion for them and are pressured to feel that they have earned their place in America.  If you don't come to that conclusion, well, then you are cold-hearted, since you would put up a wall or rein in illegal immigration and actually have a border.  

As the tale of the noble mother and young daughter rolled across the screen, the other reality, that of an unguarded border – with murders, kidnappings, drunk drivers, drugs, and Americans' jobs lost because of illegal immigration – was ignored.  All that is shown is a fictitious situation to convince the viewer that all illegal immigration springs from a singular altruistic "act of love" motive.  Yet when reasonable people express concern about drug smuggling, cartels, murders, drunk driving illegals, etc., they are labeled racists, and they are told they can't lump all illegals into that lot. 

These latter concerns, however, are actual situations and reasonable responses that the fictional commercial glossed over or didn't bring up.  To have a such a reasonable view, people need to know the facts in order to make a rational decision instead of an emotional one based on sympathetic portrayals in ads designed to sell a product.  I didn't watch the conclusion of this commercial, because, having seen as much as I did, I didn't want to give them the clicks they wanted on their website.  I'll save that click for a complaint or message to the company.

• There was also the Coca-Cola "America" ad.  The commercial had been aired before and showed many different races and cultures in America as the song "America" was sung in different languages.  The message is that the country is made up of immigrants from all over the world.  This is true, but immigrants have been coming here to take part in America and assimilate into society for decades.  Shared goals, common dreams – the key word is "assimilate," which means speak the language and adhere to our laws, live in freedom, and let others live in freedom with the pursuit of happiness. 

Nobody hates immigrants.  To claim that is a straw man, a false flag: the problem is that many immigrants today are not assimilating.  That includes Hispanics, and especially migrants from Islamic nations.  I'm all for immigrants coming to our country, but they need to do it legally, obey our laws, respect our borders, assimilate, and adhere to the ideals of our Constitution.  They should not come here to balkanize and divide.

Asking immigrants to adapt to their new homelands is what reasonable countries do, and this is not an unreasonable request.  Coca Cola's ad is promoting the idea that it is OK to not assimilate or speak our language, raising questions as to whether it is also OK not to stand forth with the ideas of our Constitution.

• Amheuser-Busch:  Their ad was not overtly propagandistic, but it was subtle and easily detected at the beginning, as "Adolfus Busch" was portrayed as a humble immigrant getting off the boat in America and being greeted by a man yelling in his face that he isn't wanted here.  This is taking a dig at anyone who may want to reasonably slow down immigration from countries that hate America and export jihadist terror around the world.  The ad seeks to silence anyone who may feel this way by allowing a brewmaster who built an empire to now be the face of illegal immigrants and Muslims from America-hating countries.  Anheuser-Busch can say otherwise, but this part of the commercial was gratuitous, and they knew exactly why they stuck that sequence into the scene.

Once again, they are making a statement that you are wrong if you want to limit immigration or enforce immigration law in a reasonable manner.  And what's more, this is to say that the American people are on to it.  We can see right through what comes off as a sneaky propaganda effort under the guise of selling products.  We aren't being fooled.

So please, NFL and advertisers, we already know and recognize the propaganda, and we are not happy with it.  Let's bring back the funny, cute, and intriguing commercials that once enhanced the Super Bowl experience.  I think you would get a lot more bang for your buck if you didn't alienate 50% or 60% of your demographics.  Let's stop with your agenda-pushing  and propagandizing commercials, for it is only annoying us, the viewers.  It's time to get back to making us laugh and to enjoy the commercial breaks again.