February 2, 2015

The St. Louis-Only Heroin Ad

There were quite a few stellar commercials during Super Bowl XLIX yesterday. The St. Louis area was lucky enough to be shown this crazy commercial from the NCADA-St. Louis chapter. That would be the local chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. The chapter says 2,300 people in the St. Louis area have died in the last eight years from heroin use. The NCADA worked with Mark Schupp of Schupp Consulting on the ad, which was directed by Scott Ferguson.

“That’s How”, or “the St. Louis heroin ad”, features a catchy song about how a teen got addicted to heroin and overdoses. The song plays while a teen takes heroin in his room as his mother, played by Kirsten Wylder, is downstairs putting away the groceries. She sees his stuff and senses something is off. She runs upstairs to find her son dead. The end.

 

Johnny Manziel In Treatment Facility

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN tweeted out news this morning that Johnny Manizel of the Cleveland Browns has entered a treatment facility. Manziel, of course, has been somewhat defined by his partying ways since his days at Texas A&M. Back in June Manziel was photographed drinking on an inflatable swan at a party.

Here’s a statement from Manizel’s advisor, Brad Beckworth. Ray Farmer, the general manager of the Cleveland Browns also released a statement in support of Manziel’s decision to get treatment.

 

“Johnny knows there are areas in which he needs to improve in order to be a better family member, friend and teammate,” Beckworth said.

— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) February 2, 2015

 

Nationwide Draws Criticism For Make Safe Happen Super Bowl Ad  People who apparently believe the world is full of rainbows and unicorns were all up in arms after watching the Nationwide “Make Safe Happen” commercial during Super Bowl XLIX last night. Like the heroin ad, the commercial seeks to raise awareness. In this case, the commercial takes on preventable accidents that lead to an astounding amount of childhood deaths.

Nationwide issued a statement after the ad aired saying the they wanted to start a conversation about the leading cause of childhood deaths. The ad opens with a young boy talking about things in life he’ll never get to do as a dream sequence plays. The boy then reveals that he won’t get to ever do these things because he died.

McDonald’s “Pay With Lovin” Campaign Could Mean Free Food For You

McDonald’s aired commercials during the 2015 Super Bowl last night around their new “Pay With Lovin'” campaign. As part of the campaign, participating restaurants will pick out customers during certain times to pay for their meal with a gesture of love. Per the official rules, customers picked could be asked to do things “like fist bumping the Lovin’ Lead, calling a loved one, telling the Lovin’ Lead what the Participant loves about their significant other, blowing a kiss, or other general sentiment or Lovin’ Act in the theme of the Game.” The contest will run from today, February 2, until February 14. Each participating restaurant will have 100 “prizes” to give out during that time. 35 of those will be given out today, the most of any day. 10 were to be given out this morning between 6am – 11 am, 12 from 11 am – 3 pm and 13 between 3 pm – 6 pm tonight. Here’s the full “Pay With Lovin'” prize breakdown.

Budweiser Goes After Haters With “Brewed The Hard Way” Spot

Budweiser took off the gloves last night with their “Brewed The Hard Way” Super Bowl spot. The commercial takes on craft beer nerds that like to bash the brand as being shitty beer. Personally, I loved the commercials. Oddly enough, I watched it at a craft beer bar that doesn’t serve Budweiser. I was sitting next to two guys who work for local breweries and they loved it too. I viewed it as more of Budweiser saying “we are what we are” in the face of many people in the craft beer community that have taken their own shots at the brand. I also viewed it as ad for the Budweiser brand rather than Anheuser-Busch InBev. Local brewer Civil Life probably had the best reaction to the ad on Twitter.

 

Just found out Dylan has been making beer the easy way since 2011. Must buy machines, puppy and hire ad agency. pic.twitter.com/iXsdHfpfdK — Be Civil (@TheCivilLife) February 2, 2015

 

Many people in the craft beer community did not like the spot, such as Jim Vorel from Paste Magazine. Chris Morris of Fortune asked if Budweiser misfired with the ad. Vorel dissects each point made in the commercial and points out the Budweiser’s parent company is currently on a craft brewery-buying spree. The company actually just picked up Elysian Brewing, which makes a pumpkin peach ale. That would be the beer that the commercial seems to mock.

 

Jimmy Fallon And The Roots Sing ‘We Are The Champions” A Capella

Jimmy Fallon and The Roots put together this amazing a capella performance of “We Are The Champions” last night on Fallon Tonight Live. The song also features Usher, Ariana Grande, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Meghan Trainor and Sam Smith among others.

 

Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart and Jimmy Fallon Face Off In Lip Sync Battle

Speaking of Mr. Fallon, this also happened on the show last night. Will Ferrell went first with “Drunk In Love” by Beyoncé. Fallon followed with “Since U Been Gone”. Kevin Hart closed out the first round with John Legend’s “All of Me”. Drew Barrymore makes an appearance in round two.

 

American Sniper Sets Box Office Record For Super Bowl Weekend

American Sniper brought in $31.85 million over the weekend. That total set a record for Super Bowl Weekend, barely beating out a Miley Cyrus concert movie that opened over Super Bowl Weekend in 2008. Paddington and Project Almanac each brought in about $8.5 million to fill out the top three. Black or White (which wasn’t very good) brought in $6.5 million and The Boy Next Door (also not very good) brought in $6 million.

We’ll have more on the numbers on Thursday in our Weekend Movie Guide. We’ll also preview Jupiter Ascending, Seventh Son and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.

President Obama To Propose 10-year Budget 

President Barack Obama will propose a 10-year budget for the nation later today that will add only $6 trillion to the National Debt over that time. Among the highlights of the proposed budget are higher tax rates for U.S. companies that seek to evade taxes by keeping corporate profits overseas and a plan to cut the corporate tax rate.

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