I’m so old I can remember back 35 years or so to a time when Super Bowls were, with a few exceptions, rather boring, because they were one-sided contests effectively over by halftime. But the commercials were awesome! Naturally when everyone was talking more about the commercials than the game on Monday morning, ad agencies took it too far and started trying too hard.

Meanwhile, the games improved, such that now the commercials are an annoying interruption, and so overproduced that you often can’t keep the product in mind. Here was my Twitter take after the end of the 3rd quarter ad break:

And it was!

But there was one ad in the second half that did manage to arrest and hold my rapt attention. You know which one it was:

I’m not quite old enough to recall any campaign ads from the 1960 campaign, but right away you knew what connection was being suggested. Here’s the original ad, just for a baseline:

But beyond a play to Boomer nostalgia, the controversy over the ad, especially within the Kennedy family, shows how it succeeded in its purpose. It doesn’t hurt RFK Jr’s attempt to burnish his independent credentials to have Kennedy, Inc. mad at him.

Though as far as Boomer nostalgia goes, I’d prefer one of these, though I can’t find any available on eBay: