100 Billion Words

Watching the Super Bowl has become an American tradition.

For many of us, it’s not just the game we’re interested in. We also watch for the halftime show and for the commercials.

Think about that: we actually watch for the commercials.

For most of the year, television commercials are the things we fast-forward past on our DVRs. The things we mute so we can discuss what we were discussing during the last commercial. The things we ignore while we get a snack.

But during the Super Bowl, commercials are different.

We’ve learned through the years how much advertisers pay for these commercials, and we’ve come to expect quality.

We also know that the media in all its forms — including entertainment shows, morning news, bloggers, tweeters, YouTubers, etc. — are rushing to publish their versions of the best commercials from the evening.

Allow me to share my favorite commercial from last night’s contest between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots. It was from Google. It focused on people and features the Google online translation service.

The voiceover announcer’s first words are, “More than 100 billion words are translated every day.” He then goes on to give us a few categories in which translation is used: food, friendship, sport, belief, and fear. “Words that can hurt and sometimes divide.”

Then he gave us something positive: “But every day the most translated words in the world are ‘How are you?‘, ‘Thank you!‘ and ‘I love you.‘”

I think we should find it encouraging that the most translated words — every day, around the world — are words that bring us together.

Oftentimes, words that push us apart seem to get more attention. My hope is that the cynics are simply louder than the kind.

Let me encourage you today — as you translate your feelings, views, and thoughts into words — to let those words be ones that bring us together to make our families, our communities, and our workplaces better places to be.

Watch the commercial here: