Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel Grapple With Newfangled ‘Internet’ in BMW Ad

Back in 1994, “Internet” was not yet an everyday word, as Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel humorously demonstrate in this Super Bowl ad for BMW.

In the spot, the pair are seen grappling with online lingo such as “Internet,” “.com,” and the “@” symbol in footage from a shoot of the Today show. “What is Internet anyway?” Gumbel asks frustratedly at one point.

Cut to today and the two are cruising in a BMW i3 that they find equally perplexing. The implication here of course is that the technology in BMW’s new vehicle will one day be as widely known as the Internet is today. We’ll see about that, but BMW has at least drawn the parallel in a humorous way. We only wish they hadn’t overreached with the twerking joke at the very end, which dates the ad even more than the 1994 file footage.