About this episode

The episode discusses the lack of car ads during Super Bowl LX and features guest Ian Chillag analyzing the cultural implications.

Super Bowl LX had everything, from ads for weight loss drugs and male grooming products to spots touting tax prep services and calming fears about our AI overlords. It also had one outstanding halftime performance from Bad Bunny. But what the game didn't have was a whole lot of car ads. (Or a whole lot of touchdowns, but that's a different story.) Why, after dominating the broadcast for decades, has the automobile industry gone cool on one of broadcasting's biggest nights? And what did the few cars ads that did run say about the state of the nation and American culture at this particularly fraught moment in time? Ian Chillag —creator and host of the award-winning Radiotopia podcast "Everything is Alive," the co-host of NPR's "How to Do Everything," and a senior producer of "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me"—joins us to break it all down. Join The War on Cars on Patreon and listen to exclusive ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers! Watch all of the Super Bowl ads. ( NY Times ) Listen to Ian Chillag's podcasts How to Do Everything and Everything is Alive . Order our new book, Life…

People in this episode

Host: The War on Cars, LLC

Guest: Ian Chillag

Topics covered

• Super Bowl
• advertising
• automobile industry
• American culture
• halftime performance
• media analysis

Keywords

• Super Bowl LX
• car ads
• Ian Chillag
• American culture
• advertising trends
• halftime performance
• media commentary

Sponsors

Cleverhood

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Radiotopia, NPR, Penguin Random House

Books & works: Everything is Alive, How to Do Everything, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile

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