Where Have You Gone, Spike Jonze?

It used to be that if you were an established film actor, you disdained work in commercials. Commercials were even a step below dinner theater. Perhaps it was acceptable if you were an established eminence, a Wilford Brimley or Sam Waterston, for instance. If you were a big shot like a Harrison, Gwyneth or Leo, then maybe you'd go to Japan and shill for a product not likely to be seen in America ("For relaxing times, make it Suntori time"). But it's not just has-beens like David Spade (for Capitol One) slumming it these days for advertisers. Is Brad Pitt's appearance in an otherwise unremarkable Super Bowl Pepsi commercial a sign of things to come? And what is with actors doing the voice-over work, like Julia Roberts for AOL or Jeff Bridges for Duracell? If you guys were hurting for money, you should have come to me.

I believe it's also time to write the epitaph for the "Super Bowl commercial." This doesn't mean that they'll foresake advertising entirely, resulting in an hour of football and then we all get back to our Sundays. That wouldn't be nearly enough time for announcers to impart cosmic significance to a sporting event. Maybe the cache of the prime American advertising slot is gone, but I only remember two commercials from the entire game, and only one was worth discussing afterwards (the one with the white cat and the spaghetti sauce). I hardly remember what it was advertising in the first place. Another American medium goes creatively bankrupt.