The Super Bowl, along with Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween is one of my top four days of the year. Two of my greatest passions in life (football and advertising) having their biggest days together, with great food and friends…what else could a man want?
Here are some my thoughts about Super Sunday…
The Game
I thought the game was very good. I have already heard some commentators rank it in the top two of all-time and I think that is sheer lunacy. It was painfully dull for two and a half quarters, very good for a quarter and spectacular for about five minutes, so to classify it as one of the best is a tad too much for me.
There were a number of outstanding plays that really made the game interesting, most notably the
I do think the game will be forever marred by the failure to replay Warner’s fumble at the end of the game. I am fully convinced that it should’ve been ruled an incomplete pass, however, that’s irrelevant. To not even look at it, with the championship of the league, literally, on the line is criminal to me.
I really think the Cardinals got the shaft on that one.
While my prediction of the game was incorrect, I did predict that the predication would be wrong, thus making the prediction correct.
I’ll pause so you can wrap your heads around that last sentence.
The Halftime Show
Before I launch into this, I would just like to disclose that I do not like Bruce Springsteen. I find his music annoying and his politics misguided; in fact, I wouldn’t even walk across the street to see him.
That said, I thought he was a very good choice by the NFL as his popularity is nearly unrivaled in this country, however, I think that it was the strangest halftime show that I can remember seeing.
What was with him running all over the place?
The piano climb in the beginning was really strange as it looked like he wasn’t going to make up onto it at first.
Then there was his dramatic pose before he started his first song. If you do not know what I am referring to, it was when he was on his knees with the microphone between his legs. He was down for so long, that, honestly, I really thought he hurt himself and that he couldn’t get up.
Then the whole referee guy throwing the flag…seriously, what was that?
But, without a doubt, the strangest moment was the knee slide into the camera. What the hell was he thinking? First, it took him about ten seconds to run the 15 feet to make the slide and then his face right afterwards was a mix of pain and regret…incredibly awkward to say the least. Also, I really could’ve done without a close up of The Boss’ crotch.
The stunts were so bizarre that I don’t even remember the rest of his performance.
The Commercials
Overall, I think they were a very poor group of spots.
In particular, all six Budweiser spots were really bad. Generally, I like the horse ads, but this year they were really lame and unimaginative.
Out of the disappoint lot, here are my top eight spots:
8. Castrol: Grease Monkeys
7. Pepsi: Mcgruder
6. Pepsi Max: I’m Good
5. Hyundai: Contract
4. Doritos: Crystal Ball
3. Gatorade: Mission G
2. Pedigree: Crazy Pets
1. Career Builder: Tips
That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.
-John
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3 comments:
Well John, you and I find a little more common ground with how we view the superbowl. I am a big advocate for watching the nfl and the superbowl, so much so, that I wrote numerous papers stating why the superbowl should be a national holiday in the U.S.
Great points about justifying the game as not one of the top two of all time, even though many sports writers have declared it that, but thats sport writers trying too hard (just like Springstein did) to be remembered and make their "mark" so to speak in the sports writing community, so really no need to get into that,
As far as Springstein's odd performance, he accomplished a few things every entertainer wants to accomplish with a performance--making people remember his odd and exhausting performance. As they say, any publicity is good publicity, and you want publicity when you just dropped a new a cd, like Springstein did ( Im aware the words "dropped" and springstein don't go together, that's my hip hop culture coming out though). From someone who has been involved in the entertainment industry and helped promote event concerts, I understand that Springstein was trying his best to get the crowd amped up and create high energy, the only problem is he tried too hard, thus explaining his akward performance.
And about the questionable no call/no challenge at the end, I think the nfl should impose a 3rd challenge that coaches would be allowed to use within the 2 minute mark, so each coach would get 1 challenge to use at either 2 minute mark. ( I know about the 1st 2 correct challenges get you a thrid, but doesn't help at the 2 minute mark)I know the game lasts longer and that is a concern, but i think the fans of the nfl wouldn't mind, and would approve of it so their team wouldn't get screwed in a game, esp. a the Big One.
But even though I live in AZ now, I can honestly say I don't feel bad about the outcome of the game because of my annoyance with all the fairweather fans who are actually from the state--They are pathetic.
Agreement all around. I felt the halftime show was the perfect bookend to an almost completely mundane first half of play.
The commercials were less than stellar this year but at least we were warned that most of the big players would not be "bringing it" this year.
I really enjoyed the visuals of Coca-Cola's ad with the various insects stealing the bottle of Coke. Some of Coke's recent ads have rivaled the imaginative efforts of GE's advertising.
Coke Zero's "remake" of the classic Mean Joe Green ad was a complete abomination.
All in all, it's still one of the best days in sports. I would love to see the game moved to Saturday evening though.
I thought the only respectable ads during the superbowl was the Career Builder spot, as well as the Hulu - Alec Baldwin in Huluwood. Those have my vote as the top of their class in this year's big game.
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