What many Super Bowl viewers noticed on Sunday was the subtle–and sometimes not so subtle–way that commercials during the game seemed to relate to Donald Trump in one way or another. Recently, his immigration ban has upset leading figures in America and abroad, and on Sunday, 97 U.S. tech companies filed a joint court brief opposing it.

In case you missed them, here are some of the most politically outspoken, and funny, ads from Super Bowl night:

Budweiser

Arguably the most famous American beer, Budweiser, originated from a collaboration between two German immigrants; Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser. The new Bud commercial tells a dramatized story of Busch arriving by boat to the United States where he is initially heckled and told to go home. He then meets Anheuser who buys him a beer, marking the start of a friendship that produced the first American lager. That Americans wouldn’t have their Bud on a hot summer day if it weren’t for a couple of immigrants, might come as a shock to some. While the ad may not be completely true to the original story, it does tell a compelling story of the important role that immigrants played in American beer industry.

Wow. @Budweiser‘s Super Bowl ad is just wow. pic.twitter.com/j3AMrKz565

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 4, 2017

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola’s ad is a collection of voices singing “America The Beautiful” in different languages, showing faces from all over the world, and ending with the words, “together is beautiful.” Short and simple but very expressive.

Our diversity is our strength. America The Beautiful #SuperBowl #Coke pic.twitter.com/vhEBvJQ38d

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) February 6, 2017

It’s a 10 Haircare

The haircare product line offered a punch at Donald Trump’s famous hairdo with its ad’s opening line: “We’re in for at least four years of awful hair.” The ad went on showing all kinds of hair—old, young, facial, chest, dog hair, and much more.

Airbnb

Airbnb’s ad is a compilation of faces of different ethnicities accompanied by the text, “No matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love, or who you worship, we all belong.” It ends with the hashtag #weaccept. The company didn’t just make a subtle but fairly clear jab at President Trump; it also promised to provide 100,000 refugees with a place to stay and has a longtime goal to accommodate even more displaced people in the coming years.

Acceptance starts with all of us. #weaccept pic.twitter.com/btgqyYHVTK

— Airbnb (@Airbnb) February 6, 2017

84 Lumber

Probably the most obvious, and definitely the most tear-inducing, Super Bowl ad came from 84 Lumber, which showed a mother and daughter from a Latin-American country making the long and strenuous journey to the American border. The original ad is almost six minutes long, but Fox News banned the end from airing on TV, arguing that it was “too controversial.” The full-length ad shows the mother and daughter facing a wall, similar to the one Trump has talked about. The ad ends with the text, “The will to succeed is always welcome here.” The construction business relies heavily on workers from Mexico and other Latin-American countries, and an employee shortage will likely drive up construction prices.

Our complete Super Bowl story. See a mother & daughter’s symbolic journey toward becoming legal American citizens. https://t.co/AiI3MLrVd5

— 84 Lumber Company (@84LumberNews) February 6, 2017

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga has been praised for her halftime show during which she was lowered down from the ceiling like Spiderman then proceeded to dance, play piano and keytar, and finally threw the microphone off the stage before jumping off herself. It didn’t seem like a particularly blatant political statement, but if you listen closer, it very well could have been. After starting off singing “America the Beautiful” she quickly switched to “This Land is Your Land,” a song that has also been popular among those protesting Trump’s immigration ban.

Gaga also performed her song “Born This Way,” which is about being who you are and contains the line, “No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track baby I was born to survive.” During the show, over 800 Texas high school students contributed to the magnificence by waving coordinated lights below the stage while singing the line “Why don’t you stay.” Maybe the show wasn’t a political statement, maybe it was just Gaga being inclusive and herself, but really, that too is a statement.

Lady Gaga hugs teen during halftime show: “It was an amazing surprise” https://t.co/dbzqE8wfHgpic.twitter.com/4YnZNzSnUs

— billboard (@billboard) February 6, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Intentional or Not, These Super Bowl Ads Became Political appeared first on Law Street.

It’s officially October, which means that next month is election month, which means that shit is officially getting weird! Now, the Republican party has in recent years had a hard time connecting with a few groups of voters — namely women, young people, and minorities. In response, they’ve tried to switch some things up, and I do applaud them for that. But they might want to refine their plan a little more, because some of these ads created by Republican groups have just been plain weird. Without further ado, here are the three Republican ads I’ve seen in the past few weeks that have made me scratch my head.

Republicans are People Too

I don’t even fully count this one as any sort of political ad, but rather a…Public Service Announcement?

This spot is literally just a reminder to be nicer to Republicans. Which is nice I guess, but I feel like if the Republican party is at the point where it needs to remind potential voters that it’s composed of humans, the phrase “losing battle” may apply. The group that posted this video on YouTube was called “Republicans are People Too” and posted it with the disclosure:

It seems like it’s okay to say mean things about someone just because they’re Republican. That isn’t right. Before you write another mean post about Republicans, remember Republicans are people, too.

In a super awkward turn of events, it turns out that the “Republicans” in the video are actually stock photos. Which means I’m left with some terribly pressing question: do real Republicans actually use Macs???

Overall, this spot was a nice attempt at creating polite political discourse, but it came across a bit odd and sort of like aliens trying to communicate after observing Earth for just a few weeks.

Break up With Barack Obama

Americans for Shared Prosperity released this weird and creepy exercise in sexism a couple weeks ago.

First of all, why does he have to be her boyfriend? The message is perfectly fine! This spot is saying that she doesn’t like Obama anymore because he’s been bad for foreign policy and the economy and those are incredibly valid arguments! Why does it have to be framed like he’s an abusive boyfriend? It’s just distracting from the actual point of the ad!

To be fair, this isn’t a new tactic, during the 2012 elections, Lena Dunham starred in a weird Obama ad that compared voting for the first time to losing your virginity, and it was similarly weird and creepy.

I get that it’s supposed to be provocative or go viral or something, but it’s just weird. Also it makes it seem like you shouldn’t vote if you aren’t 100 percent sure about a candidate, which is not how democracy works.

But I digress. According to the head of Americans for Shared Prosperity, John Jordan, the goal of the ad was “to communicate with women voters in a way that outside groups and campaigns haven’t. The purpose of this is to treat women voters more like adults.” With all due respect Mr. Jordan, if you’d like to treat me like an adult, talk to me about the issues. Don’t make a creepy ad pretending that the president is my abusive boyfriend.

Say Yes to the Candidate

This ad is hands down my favorite, though. Similar to the ad above, it tries to relate to young female voters through something we can understand — DRESSES!!! Created by the College Republican National Committee for use by Rick Scott in the Florida gubernatorial race, it creates a metaphor between the candidates and dresses, say yes to the dress style.

Gag.

This is the one that has hit the news over the last few days, but the CRNC also made others for tough races, with just different candidates/facts inserted in.

There’s a big disconnect here with these three ads. The first tries to convince me that I need to realize that the Republican Party has a ton of diversity, but the next two try to target me, as a young woman, with apparently the only two things I’m interested in and can understand — boys and pretty dresses.

It is genuinely good that the Republican Party has realized that it needs to do something to win over the type of voters who have traditionally not voted for them. I hope it ends up leading to higher levels of discourse, compromise, and understanding. But these kind of ads are not the way to do it.

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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Ryan Heaney via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Republicans May Be ‘People Too,’ But They Sure Make Narrowminded Ads appeared first on Law Street.