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Among the Ferris Bueller comebacks, slingshot babies, and polar bears, one famous St. Louisan made a quick appearance in one of this year's national Super Bowl commercials. Jim McKelvey, the St. Louis innovator who co-founded Square and Third Degree Glass Factory, appeared in Best Buy's Super Bowl commercial that paid tribute to the technololgy industry's game-changers. About 12 seconds into the commercial (see below), McKelvey says, "and I turned [your smart phone] into a bank," referring to his mobile banking innovation Square. Other innovators featured in the spot included camera phone inventor Philippe Kahn, text-to-speech inventor Ray Kurzweil, SMS message innovator Neil Papworth, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom, Shazam creators Chris Barton and Avery Wang, and Words With Friends game creators Paul and David Bettner. Watch the televised commercial and extended version below.
To learn more about McKelvey and his St. Louis roots, check out the March 2011 SLM feature, "Jim McKelvey Has Altered the Way Money Changes Hands. Now What?"
