Every year, the Super Bowl airs at least one ad that makes people uncomfortable—like, squirm-in-your-chair uncomfortable.
Sometimes, these ads are genuine flops, like Nationwide’s notorious “dead boy ad.” Other times, viewers squirm because the advertiser actually wants them to (see “Perfect Match,” below.) It’s up for debate how well either tactic works.
But most of the time, cringe is organic: some stuff is just plain embarrassing for viewers. On Super Bowl Sunday, those spots become a fine opportunity to refill the onion dip or do a bathroom run.
Oh wait, that was a cringe ad, too.
Febreze’s “Bathroom Break,” 2015
With due respect to Febreze, it can’t be easy to advertise a product whose very raison d’être depends on the fetor of cigarettes, gym socks, mildew, and wet dog. But when the subject of the spot is the effluvium of a bowel movement, you’re on Cringe Highway without any exits.
Sure, there’s humor in this ad (some might view the likening of audible flatulence to a steamboat whistle as clever), but it’s impossible to not to mentally picture what’s truly taking place just below the faces of those people seated on the toilet, glowing with expulsive relief.
