MickeyIsn't That Super?
Yesterday was the Super Bowl of football (Or "American football," as they say in countries where soccer is called football, a/k/a the rest of the world). It was a good game; the rain helped in a big way to keep things interesting- almost nothing better than watching the players scramble for a loose ball. The only thing better would be playing in the rain on a real muddy sod field, instead of the plastic carpet in Miami.
Of course, for me any shot of the cheerleaders beats any shot of the players, but that's why we have pay-per-peek channels.
It was (as predicted) a popular show, a 42 rating (about 42 million people in the U.S. watched it live) and a 63 share (63% of TV sets on at the time were tuned to the game). Correspondingly, the price to show a half-minute ad was something like two and a half million dollars- this is just to show it; that figure doesn't include any of the costs of producing the ads.
While this game was pretty close, past Superbowls were so one-sided that people began taking more notice of the ads than the game itself. This was due in large part to major big-budget ad campaigns being designed specifically for the most-watched show of the year, and a sort of feedback loop developed. The Superbowl became known for having more inventive commercials than we normally see (not that that would be hard at all), and so the advertisers tend to pull out the stops for the ads there.
We saw ads about corn chips reducing the intelligence of drivers and pedestrians alike. We saw a cautionary warning about mammal-on-mammal violence in pet shops. We saw people doing extremely stupid things in cars- yes, I know that almost every car ad has people doing stupid things. There was even one very intensely CGI-ed ad for Even Newer Coke With LSD.
I didn't have any particular team I rooted for (haven't cared enough to root for any particular team since a college bowl some years ago when my nephew was on the team), but it was a better than average game, with some actually entertaining commercials.
Of course, for me any shot of the cheerleaders beats any shot of the players, but that's why we have pay-per-peek channels.
It was (as predicted) a popular show, a 42 rating (about 42 million people in the U.S. watched it live) and a 63 share (63% of TV sets on at the time were tuned to the game). Correspondingly, the price to show a half-minute ad was something like two and a half million dollars- this is just to show it; that figure doesn't include any of the costs of producing the ads.
While this game was pretty close, past Superbowls were so one-sided that people began taking more notice of the ads than the game itself. This was due in large part to major big-budget ad campaigns being designed specifically for the most-watched show of the year, and a sort of feedback loop developed. The Superbowl became known for having more inventive commercials than we normally see (not that that would be hard at all), and so the advertisers tend to pull out the stops for the ads there.
We saw ads about corn chips reducing the intelligence of drivers and pedestrians alike. We saw a cautionary warning about mammal-on-mammal violence in pet shops. We saw people doing extremely stupid things in cars- yes, I know that almost every car ad has people doing stupid things. There was even one very intensely CGI-ed ad for Even Newer Coke With LSD.
I didn't have any particular team I rooted for (haven't cared enough to root for any particular team since a college bowl some years ago when my nephew was on the team), but it was a better than average game, with some actually entertaining commercials.
God's Stormtrooper
The commercials also didn't seem up to speed, to me. I did enjoy the careerbuilder.com spots, but for some reason a lot of people were not into them.....
Passionate Apathy
And turnovers aren't the only story; it's if you can score on the turnovers that makes a winner.
Celebrity Obsession
Like the superbowl, we get our best ads during the AFL Grand Final in Australia. Not that it'd be hard to do something more inventive and entertaining than the average commercials on tv daily!
Passionate Apathy
God's Stormtrooper
Passionate Apathy
Still waiting for Marc Okrand to tell us how that symbol is pronounced...