Super Bowl Masculinity Part 4: Where is your Adventure?

Commercial #3 is for the Dodge Charger. Watch it here: http://video.yahoo.com/network/100076996?v=6934463&l=7438495

If you have not noticed yet, each commercial is stepping up in its intensity. We have seen that society sees that men are called to be something; we have also seen that along the way men have forgotten who they are and must reclaim it. Lastly, we see that men are longing for something more. The only problem is that due to circumstances, due to culture, due to our sin nature we do not know how to receive what it is we are called to be and we get lost on the journey of becoming a man.

The power in this commercial lies in its simple voice over and mundane, beaten, broken, tame, frustrated, tired of life, apathetic faces of men. These faces and the monotone voices that are spoken over these faces show us a picture of men that are disconnected with life. These pictures serve to illustrate the point that the life that the average American male is living is leaving a giant, gaping hole in their spirit, in their heart.

The American, westernized man is depressed and who can blame them? Honestly, if we take a look at our society, our culture and even look at the men that are successful or have something that we wish ourselves have, we see that inside they are essentially longing for the same things we ourselves long for. What we can extrapolate from this is that our western culture is making us run inside a consumeristic rat race. This race is dramatically leading us nowhere as our life, our race is being played out on the world's largest treadmill. We are seeking and striving to catch this magical fruit that is dangling in front of us and will allow our spirit rest and peace, but in the end it is constantly, consistently inside our view but always eluding us by staying just out of reach of our fingertips.

This commercial is wearyingly filled with depressing, confining language as we receive the same message illustrated in facial expressions, conveying to us the principle that man is looking for something more, something deeper, something tangible, something to live our lives for and toward. To illustrate this, Anberlin’s “Burn Out Brighter (Northern Lights) says  we  want to "live inspired" and "die for something".

Frankly, this is what this commercial is telling us men want. We long for an adventure that is worth giving our life to.  Sadly, what is more intriguing is that Dodge is trying to convince men to believe that the missing piece in their life will be the Charger as it is "Man's last stand". This haunting, yet adventurously exciting phrase can mean one of two things. Either, we men are running out of time inside society and we need to act fast before our nueterization is complete or simply, we will not have to make another stand, because this car, the Charger, is what life is all about and will make you complete.

Men, this is not the only advertisement that is telling us what we need to be complete as an individual – it just so happens this was uniquely directed toward that longing in us on Super Bowl Sunday. What are you feeling your life with as you seek that adventure, that purpose? Do you feel that void in your life? Do you want to live inspired? Do you want to die for something? Or better yet, to quote John Piper, do you want to waste your life? There is an adventure waiting for us. God is inviting us into an epic journey that we get to take part in what God is doing, and we, men, get to play a part in it. Are you ready to play your part?