Super Bowl Sunday, the annual championship game of the NFL, isn’t just a football game to Americans; it has become a national holiday where family and friends gather to watch the game, ads, as well as the halftime entertainment show.
This year, it aired once again, bringing the same level of hype and excitement all across America. But, looming in the background were the cries of dying Palestinians oceans away. Unlike any other year since Super Bowl Sunday aired, a new hypothetical war between Israel and Gaza rose to the surface.
How you may ask? Let us show you:
Israel’s Offense
Well, on the offensive side was Israel, whose main line of attack was the Superbowl Ads. They ran a series of 30-second ads during the NFL Super Bowl to push their narrative of the Gaza war.
Let’s cut to one of those ads that starts off with an NFL athlete playing with his son. It then cuts to clips of some of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza playing with their kids before the October 7 attacks.
This very ad is dedicated to Israeli dads currently held hostage in Gaza. To truly pull on the viewers’ heartstrings, they also added the hashtag: “Bring all dads back home.”
Palestine’s Defense
On the very opposite end of the coin is Palestine, going in with the defense and making use of the Super Bowl as a major wake-up call.
If you opened up social media on Sunday, you’ll definitely have come across at least one post showing a clip of the Super Bowl, especially Chris Brown’s halftime performance or the Israel Dad commercial.
These were followed by a harsh and immediate cut to the actual realities happening in Gaza, where children are getting killed and buildings are being destroyed.
One of the most creative posts is one that completely obliterates the Israel Dad commercial. In the original commercial, the narrator of the video calls out heartwarming characteristics of Israeli Dads, like how there are “the funny ones” and “the strong ones.”
In response, a Gazan version of the video was made depicting Gazan dads as the narrator calls out their powerful characteristics like “the patient ones,” “the brave ones,” and so on, with each quality accompanied by a video of a Gazan dad like Palestinian journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh representing these qualities.
Seeing how one major event has become a tool for a hypothetical war between Israel and Gaza further stresses the severity of the ongoing genocide and the importance of coming to a solution to end the crisis.