Want To Know Where Society Is Going? Watch A Commercial

Mixed race families and girl engineers were two commercial storylines promoted by retailers like Cheerios, Coca Cola, and Goldiblox during the Super Bowl.

Yes, they're trying to sell a product, but does the ad industry have their finger on the proverbial pulse of the nation more than movies, art, or even music? What role does the ad industry have in how we conceptualize the melting pot of the U.S.?

Rachel Rubin, the director of the Center for the Study of Humanities, Culture and Society at UMass Boston, and sociologist Michael Jeffries, the Knafel assistant professor of social sciences at Wellesley College, joined host Callie Crossley on Under the Radarto discuss.