Photo: Anheuser-Busch
What could be better entertainment for aging and elderly parents
than watching some of these ads, if they didn’t see the game?
Sunday, February 2, 2014. Super Bowl XLVIII parties. And those ads–so costly and creative! I was far away from the TVs (but admittedly near the food) in conversation with other women and truly I wasn’t missing the game. What I was missing were most of the ads. (Note: for Super Bowl 2015 ads post click here.)
I was in front of a TV to see Puppy Love, however. At its end, I thought about aging parents and elders in care centers who were football fans, or simply watched past Super Bowl games looking forward to the ads. Then I wondered how many were still watching on TV or had fallen asleep or no longer cared.
If spirits need lifting, Puppy Love and a few other Super Bowl 2014 ads could do the job. Check the links below then take your laptops or iPads to wherever your aging parents or old people you care about are, connect to the wi fi and share.
One network describes this year’s ads in part:
…Even with the economy apparently improving, it appears that our cultural hearts still are beating for the past, and not so much for the present or future. Nostalgia for what was — or what our faulty memories tell us was — was woven into more than a dozen Super Bowl spots, perhaps none with more characters per second than Radio Shack’s ad, which featured 20 real or animated 1980s celebrities, from Hulk Hogan to Mary Lou Retton to Alf.
This also was the Super Bowl where simple was good — sometimes even great. In Anheuser-Busch’s puppy ad, the simple message: Dog loves horse. For Hyundai’s ad: Dad saves son. For Chrysler and Coke’s offerings: America is good.
On Sunday night, for a change, so were some of America’s ads.
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When we bring the world in–especially to those who can’t get out–we bring in stimulation, fun, life. Especially this year the Super Bowl ads will lift spirits and provide something fun and heartwarming to talk about as we try to help aging parents.
Note: For full screen, click bottom far right icon on ad’s screen
Puppy Love
America the Beautiful
A Hero’s Welcome
Dad’s Sixth Sense
Gracie
Check out “Newsworthy” (right sidebar). Links to timely information and research from top universities and respected professionals, plus practical information–to help parents age well.
Help! Aging Parents 
Susan – love your blog and this post in particular. It made me wish my father (born in Hungary) liked football AT ALL, but alas, he doesn’t. Everyone in his community asked him who he was rooting for in the Superbowl… and I am not sure he knows what the Superbowl is!
Thanks, Peter. I’m not really a football fan (baseball, yes!); and you may have guessed that from my post. Wondering– do you think your dad might like watching the few minutes of the “Puppy Love” or “Dad’s Sixth Sense” Super Bowl ads?…or even “America the Beautiful?” If you try, hope you’ll let me know. Not easy, I know.