COLUMBIA, Ky. – Budweiser’s “First Delivery” might have been the most popular TV commercial that aired during Super Bowl LIX on Fox according to one national poll, but among a group of Lindsey Wilson College students, a spot advertising Ray Ban and Meta’s AI-powered glasses was Sunday night’s top banana.
For more than 20 years, with the exception of during the pandemic, the Lindsey Wilson Singers have evaluated the Super Bowl TV ads the morning after the big game.
In this year’s USA Today’s panel-based Super Bowl “Ad Meter,” a Budweiser ad about a Clydesdale foal making a special delivery was voters’ top choice.
But among the 18 Lindsey Wilson Singers who analyzed the nearly five dozen TV ads on Monday morning in W.W. Slider Humanities Center Recital Hall, “Hey Meta Who Eats Art?” was clearly the most relevant to them.
The commercial promoted Ray Ban and Meta’s glasses infused with artificial intelligence using the actors Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt, along with reality TV star and businesswoman Kris Jenner. In the ad, the two actors come across a piece of art in Jenner’s apartment, valued at $6.2 million, in which a banana is duct-taped to a wall – a reference to the 2019 work “Comedian” by artist Maurizio Cattelan. As Pratt consults his smart glasses to identify the artwork, Hemsworth eats the elongated berry.
That ad ranked No. 44 out of 57 positions in the USA Today polling, but as one Lindsey Wilson student noted, that didn’t diminish the ad’s significance to the Lindsey Wilson Singers.
“When we perform, we need to be like the $6.2 million piece of art. Our performance’s criterion is banana – we need to reach ‘banana,’” said Sabrina Ruiz ’26, an arts administration major and music minor from Louisville, Kentucky. “And the guy eating the banana obviously symbolizes the audience ‘eating our performance’ because they love it so much.”
Each Lindsey Wilson Singer voted on one of the 57 ads featured in USA Today’s “Ad Meter,” then the top two spots squared off in a final vote. The Lindsey Wilson Singers’ final tally was as lopsided as the actual Super Bowl LIX game between the Philadelphia Eagles and two-time defending champions Kansas City Chiefs – “Hey Meta Who Eats Art?” trounced Mountain Dew’s “Kiss from a Lime” by a 15-3 vote.
The power of advertising
Lindsey Wilson Associate Professor of Music & Director of Choral Programs Gerald Chafin said the annual exercise is a good way for the choral program’s students to think about how they perform and communicate.
“It’s helpful for us to talk about how these commercials communicate a message to an audience and what we need to do as performers to communicate our music to audience members,” said Chafin.
Hailee Corbin ’25 said the totality of the evening’s ads helped her appreciate the importance of invoking different feelings throughout a musical performance.
“Where all of the ads evoke humor and touch the heart, our performances should be like that,” said Corbin, a human services and counseling and Christian ministries double major from Greensburg, Kentucky. “And that’s how we arrange our music – to go back and forth to keep the audience watching and engaged.”
Watching the nearly 60 new ads that aired throughout Sunday evening reminded Amber Loy ’25 of the importance of details.
“We have to pay attention to the fine details, in the same way they do in the commercials so that we can sell what it means to be in Singers and portray to the audience what we are all about,” said Loy, a communication and human services and counseling double major from Columbia.
Not all of the Lindsey Wilson Singers, however, found a positive message in all of the ads. Although it received a vote in the Singers’ preliminary round, first-time Super Bowl advertiser Coffee Mate’s “Foam Diva” spot, which featured a dancing tongue, elicited strong negative reactions from several students when it was viewed.
“That was disgusting. It made me sick,” said Reilly Wells ’26, a media studies and theatre double major from Columbia.
LWC SINGERS SUPER BOWL ADS PHOTO – Lindsey Wilson College Singer Sabrina Ruiz ’26, an arts administration major and music minor from Louisville, Kentucky, lists her favorite ad aired during the Super Bowl LIX as Sadie Kemp ’26, an elementary education major from Columbia, looks on Monday morning in W.W. Slider Humanities Center Recital Hall.
LWC SINGERS SUPER BOWL ADS PHOTO – Members of the Lindsey Wilson College Singers react to the showing of Coffee Mate’s “Foam Diva” Super Bowl LIX TV ad on Monday morning in W.W. Slider Humanities Center Recital Hall. The spot, which featured a dancing tongue, elicited strong negative reactions from several students.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson College)