"Unfortunately, after looking at the winners and many
of the other entries, I conclude that they couldn't.
"From one perspective, the winners successfully imitated the
structure of professional ads. The winner and the first runner up
in particular captured perfectly the unctuous cadences of a
voiceover speaking vaguely mystical generalities. With
stereotypical electronic music looping in the background, the
winner recited a list of answers to its initial question, "What
does it mean to be free?" The first runner-up lacked the music
(although it did have sound effects), but went on in equally vague
terms about evolution.
"Given my mental ad-blocker, I had to watch both several times
before I could absorb them, because I kept tuning them out. I'd
seen their like before countless times, so they had the effect that
any cliche does: I stopped paying attention, even when I made a
conscious effort"
