MacGyver's Middle Aged Escape - Best of the 2006 Superbowl Ads

I'll be the first to admit that the 2006 Superbowl offerings were slightly disappointing. Don't let the fact that I'm a native Seattle-ite and had to steady my hand from changing the station after the third blown call that might have won us the game. Forget all that, and forget the retirement party waltzing across the halftime stage, belting 40-year old tunes that only the oldest among us can even remember.

And the commercials? Well the commercials were kind of bland, but still clever in that Superbowl clever kind of way. We can go on and on about why Janet Jackson destroyed the Superbowl, but it's up to the companies to make the ads interesting. Racy doesn't have to be the only route to a good commercial.

Enter Richard Dean Anderson reprising his cult classic role as MacGyver one last time for a Mastercard ad. The Mastercard ad format, by now has become something of a pop culture phenomenon all by itself, the "Priceless" punchline used in satirical jabs for years now. It was a stroke of marketing genius, and for the Superbowl, Mastercard reached into the treasure chest of Americana and whipped out something we can all relate to. Whether we saw MacGyver in the glory days of feathered hair and mullets back in the 80s or just like to refer to every hair brained scheme you come with up as a "MacGyver'ed" solution, the cultural significance of the MacGyver list of supplies is just as entertaining now as 20 years ago.

The ad itself is a classic MacGyver scene. Using a sock to glide down a cord from a window, MacGyver then hotwires a semi-truck with a laundry list of supermarket supplied materials (which we see him purchasing with his Mastercard) then drives away from a massive explosion. The message is clear - be cool like MacGyver and use your Mastercard. And for my money, MacGyver does it all. Superbowl ads were meant to be made like this, pure pop culture and self referential, a humorous take on a classic slice of fun nostalgia..