Hey everyone, I know that this is a departure from Children of Men, but, especially in light of the Superbowl, I thought that it would be interesting to talk about commercials and their roles in storytelling.

My dad and I were talking about the Superbowl commercials last night (he wasn’t that huge a fan of this year’s selection), and he asked me whether I think that movies or commercials are more effective at telling a story.

There’s obviously a lot of variables that go into that answer, and honestly, I don’t know if there even is one. I love to watch movies because there is something astounding in the amount of work that it takes to make a feature length film, but not all movies are huge successes or feel satisfying after we watch them. The same goes  with commercials. Sometimes, a good commercial can tell a story more hilarious or heartfelt  in 30 seconds than a film tells in 90 minutes, but other times, commercials can have so much build up, then fall flat (some can be just plain bizarre).

What do you think? Can 30 second commercials be as, or more, effective in telling narratives or delivering messages than feature length films? Does the amount of work it takes to make a commercial vs. a film factor into it? Are they even comparable or are they in a league of their own?

Here’s the link to the Superbowl XLIX commercials from this year, in case some of you didn’t get the chance to see them or wanted to check them out again:

http://www.superbowlcommercial2015.com