This Year's Super Bowl Ads: All About Girl Power!

Remember how last year the Super Bowl commercials were all misogynistic and ew gross boy stuff? This year they’re throwing us ladies a bone. With Kim Kardashian! Is it still the year of the woman or was that last year?

Yes, that is a USAToday headline reading, “Kim Kardashian, Danica Patrick Have Super Bowl Girl Power.” They only halfheartedly try to make the case that the pathetic GoDaddy ads have anything to do with female empowerment (as opposed to lazy outrage-baiting), or that this Super Bowl is more lady-friendly than others. In addition to GoDaddy and Kardashian’s new Skechers ad debuting, Faith Hill is singing a voice-over!

Whatever your opinion of these public figures, and without having seen the commercials — Kardashian describes hers by saying it “gets a little slippery” — I will venture to say that this is not some sort of course corrective to the paranoid, sulky, or hackneyed “take my wife” crap from last year (and before).

There is, however this assessment:

“It tells you that more women are watching the Super Bowl,” said advertising industry consultant Allison Cohen. “All four of these women also have crossover appeal to men and women.”

It’s true — According to Nielsen, 37.7 million of last year’s 97.5 million Super Bowl viewers, or about 38 percent, were women between 18-54. That percentage has increased by 8 percent in the last 10 years. Also according to Nielsen: “Approximately 25 percent of all commercials were ‘better liked’ by men than by women; about 7 percent were ‘better liked’ by women than by men, and the rest were ‘gender neutral.'”

But clearly advertisers know better. “Most advertisers don’t have the guts to do the type of advertising that we do,” the CEO of GoDaddy tells USAToday. “We don’t worry about offending the vocal minority.” The numbers are clearly in his favor! And the popularity of his ads proves it! Oh, wait.

Kim Kardashian, Danica Patrick Have Super Bowl Girl Power [USAT]
Earlier: Woes Of Bros: Super Bowl Ads Star Pathetic Men — And The Women Who Ruined Them
Does Sexism Sell? With Super Bowl Commercials, Not Really