Live sound professionals have a love/hate relationship with microphones. Pros love ’em because they get the job done, but pros also hate ’em because, well, sometimes they don’t get the job done. With that in mind, if you haven’t seen the new 2025 Ford Lincoln Navigator Black Label full-size luxury SUV ad starring tennis superstar Serena Williams yet, this is either gonna be the best thing you’ll see all day—or something that oughta be scored with a Sarah McLachlan song instead of “The Blue Danube Waltz.”

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It’s a bright, warm morning in West Palm Beach, when all of a sudden, it’s raining microphones!

Will West Palm Beach drown in a veritable sea of mics from a noted Niles, Illinois-based pro-audio manufacturer celebrating its 100th anniversary this year?

Into the chaos steps Serena Williams! Is it raining mics because she’s there? Is it because the 2025 Ford Lincoln Navigator Black Label full-size luxury SUV is there? There’s no time for these questions! Above all, Williams is a woman of action, so she catches a microphone and pauses to consider it—and that catch saves the world from the cardioid dynamic downpour! Who’ll stop the rain? That would be Serena Williams, John Fogerty; that would be Serena Williams.

Williams’ work here is done, so she gives it a smirking mic drop and drives off into the sunset in her miraculously un-dented 2025 Ford Lincoln Navigator Black Label full-size luxury SUV.

Now, were hundreds if not thousands of poor, innocent microphones destroyed for this ad? Should we be reporting Serena to DAMITT (Don’t Abuse Microphones, International Tennis Titans)?

No, of course not. With the exception of the Hero Mic that gets all the close-ups, the mics don’t appear to have XLR pins in them.

Plus the extra bounce when they slam into the ground seems to indicate the mics are in fact made of rubber—except the ones in the swimming pool, which need to sink.

A short behind-the-scenes clip about the ad also shows that the “mics” are light enough to be shot out of confetti cannons…

…and dumped out of crates.

Still, fake or not, the ad’s horrifying finale will give any audio pro nightmares.

So, if you only take away one thing from this incredibly expensive television advertisement selling the Ford Lincoln Navigator Black Label full-size luxury SUV, it’s this:

Next time you’re low on microphones, put Serena Williams on the guest list and hope she shows up.

[All jokes aside, we love this ad!]

Blog: How To Clean A Nasty Microphone