Entertainment

We're Glad ScarJo's Super Bowl Ad Was Banned

by Rachel Semigran

Scarlett Johansson's role as the new spokesperson for the at-home soft drink gizmo Sodastream has been far from smooth. She's received a good deal of grief already from the charity group Oxfam for her affiliation with the Israeli company and supporting a company whose products are made in the West Bank territory. And now the Super Bowl ad she filmed for Sodastream was banned and has been posted on the Internet. The ad was banned from airing for political reasons other than Middle Eastern conflict — it's over soda politics.

At the end of the ad Scarlett faces the camera and says, "Sorry Coke and Pepsi." And the powers that be pulled the ad. It was a bold move for an up-and-coming company to take stabs at the monolithic corporations that are Coke and Pepsi. During the Super Bowl. Really, Sodastream....Really?

Now the ad has plenty of bigger problems other than its rookie move of attacking its "competitors" on one of the most-watched nights of television. It's a really tired and predicatble concept. A sexy woman tries to tell you something "smart" and then says, "Screw it!" and rips off her smart lady attire into sexy lady attire and then just uses her sexy sexiness to sell the product. Lame. So, so very very lame. Scarlett, you are so much better than this...fizz.

The ad is truly perplexing and we have a handful of burning questions for Scarlett, Sodastream, and the world:

  1. What was with the creepy man voice over? Scarlett's voice is one of her sexiest assets. If you're going the cheap route with your advertising (Sex sells, dummies!), you might as well work with what ya got here.
  2. Why was Scar in a bathrobe and not a lab coat? She starts off the ad by saying "Like most doctors, my real job is saving the world." That was just poor styling and terrible scripting!
  3. Why did the voice over man keep saying "You doin it" ? Naughty soda is an unsavory concept.
  4. Again, why did you think calling out Coke and Pepsi by name during the Super Bowl was a good idea? THEY ARE THE ONES WHO SODA.

Take a look at the puzzling ad: