More Super Bowl Thoughts
by Tom Neven on 02/05/2009 at 11:13 AM
Yes, I know the Super Bowl was four days ago, but I've been busy. I can't let a few matters go uncommented on, though.
The Arizona Cardinals have nothing to be ashamed of. I thought last year's Super Bowl was the most exciting I'd ever seen. I stand corrected: This year's topped them all. Still, the Cards played a great game—except for those last 10 seconds before halftime; that was the difference in the game. And Pittsburgh did not get a cheap win; they earned it. Congrats to Steelers fans.
Bruce Springsteen was pretty good, but I prefer his "Tom Joad/Nebraska/Devils & Dust" material to his rockers like "Glory Days," which to my ear are fairly pedestrian.
There wasn't a single commercial worth watching this year. Instead we got to see:
- a man change a pretty woman's clothes into lingerie by eating a Dorito. Yeah, lots of laughs there.
- a woman in lingerie crawl on all fours toward the camera—in 3D, no less.
- a woman receive a box of flowers that hurled insults such as, "No one wants to see you naked."
- a panel of busty women testify at a congressional hearing as to whether they have been "enhanced," ending with the most ... um, well-enhanced of the bunch starting to remove her shirt.
I watched the game with our church's youth group, and I felt bad for the teenage girls in the room, seeing themselves objectified by businesses wanting their dollars. Me, I'll make a point of not patronizing any of them.
Speaking of commercials, when did they become such a big deal? I've watched almost every Super Bowl since the first one in 1966, with the exception of a few when I lived overseas in the late '70s and early '80s. I don't remember the commercials becoming such a big deal until about 10 or 15 years ago. It's a football game, folks, not a freak show. (By the way, Danica Patrick still hasn't won a major race. Maybe she should consider instead a career appearing half-naked in titillating TV commercials. Oh, wait …)
If this continues, I'm going to have to stop watching the Super Bowl, even though the game itself might be good. I'm no longer a sniggering adolescent boy, and I resent the advertisers' thinking I and their entire audience are.
1. Shannon K said the following at 11:25 AM on Feb 5:
Tom, you write: "There wasn’t a single commercial worth watching this year."
Well, *I* got a chuckle out of at least one of them -- the commercial for Denny's, where the thugs were interrupted during their planning by a waitress spraying whipped cream smilies on their pancakes. Interesting way of putting down IHOP, IMO. Though I like their other commercial, where the ranchers talking about losing their herds stop to request more "giggle drops," better. That one's been playing regularly during the bull riding events I watch during the last few weeks, and it still makes me laugh!
I agree with your larger point, though, that the objectification of women in many of the commercials was just sickening. And it's becoming more like that during other football games too. Football is my first love as far as sports are concerned, but stomaching the commercials gets harder every year.
2. Ame said the following at 11:27 AM on Feb 5:
I resent most all the commercials for all football games. My girls aren't much into football, but even if I'm watching the game, I won't let them watch the commercials. I've trained them to turn the channel or turn the TV off for such stupid filth. I'm terribly disappointed that a parent cannot even sit down to watch a noon football game and not worry about the commercials.
Glad I didn't bother to try to watch them this year.
3. obewan said the following at 11:29 AM on Feb 5:
">>There wasn’t a single commercial worth watching this year.<<"
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What about the animals trying to play catch? The bull getting hit in the head with a frisbe; the Dalmation catching the frisbe; or the huge horse playing fetch with a log/tree only to be rebuked as a "showoff" by his master? Oh, I forgot, it was a beer commercial and there were teens present. I didn't see anything base or offensive in all the tire commercials.
4. Tami said the following at 11:51 AM on Feb 5:
I think advertising started to become a big deal with that Apple "1984" ad. Then it seems like the dot-com era made the costs go up insanely.
I didn't watch the game; saw some of the ads later. I thought the "Cash4Gold" ad was pretty funny.
5. NeedACatchyName said the following at 12:00 PM on Feb 5:
I didn't really like the Bruce Springsteen halftime myself, but it was fairly well received by most people. At least you can count on the halftime show to be fairly family friendly, though there were a couple of, ahem, suggestive gestures using the microphone stand as a prop. After the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" of a few years ago the NFL isn't taking any chances, and therefore the current "aging family friendly rock dinosaur performs some of their greatest hits" style of show should continue for the foreseeable future.
As far as good commercial go, they were generally duds, but I think you have to give props to the Hulu commercial with Alec Baldwin, who continues to show why he is one of the funniest people on TV.
6. BDB said the following at 12:12 PM on Feb 5:
I do think that Denny's hit a home run, er, grand slam with their campaign. Like Apple, they made an impact. I haven't been to Denny's in years, but I'll bet there's a ton of former Denny's customers out there. The lines in my area were really long. It looks like they really thought through their plan. In a lighthearted way, they reminded everyone that they offer a full breakfast for the price of a Venti Cafe Mocha.
The last time the Cardinals were in L.A. they were playing the Dodgers. I'm still amazed that a baseball team did so well in the Super Bowl.
7. Kevin said the following at 12:47 PM on Feb 5:
I liked the one with the man crying at the bus stop and the coffee-drinking koala getting punched.
8. obewan said the following at 12:47 PM on Feb 5:
I thought the "Cash4Gold" ad was pretty funny. Tami
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I laughed pretty hard on that one too. Especially the part about him trading in his "prized possession" - a solid gold commode.
9. Brian said the following at 12:47 PM on Feb 5:
I have a projector and screen setup in my basement and we hosted 20-some adults on Sunday. I effectively combated most of the inappropriate commercials by doing a "screen mute" on the projector during the commercials that looked like they would be sketch. It was helpful that
It did seem like they were worse than ever this year. It makes me sad, because I used to enjoy football. Now I know it's best for me not to watch games.
10. J. said the following at 1:14 PM on Feb 5:
Tom, you don't think the E-trade commercials featuring the babies were worth watching??? They made me laugh out loud, and they were clever and tasteful to boot.
11. Andrew said the following at 1:20 PM on Feb 5:
The Budweiser commercial with the dog grabbing the stick and the horse coming back with a huge branch was hilarious! Budweiser does come out with some good commercials sometimes!
12. Dan Gill said the following at 1:20 PM on Feb 5:
"What about the animals trying to play catch? The bull getting hit in the head with a frisbe; the Dalmation catching the frisbe;"
Which one was that? I missed the game.
13. Celeste said the following at 1:24 PM on Feb 5:
I agree that the commercials were entirely innappropriate. It really put a sour taste in my mouth. In the same tone...I have a very hard time understanding why Mr. Neven thought it necessary to spell out to Boundless readers exactly what happened in these lustful commercials. Do people need to know/recall these details? Do they need lustful/distasteful images brought up in their minds while reading Boundless, of all places? Mr. Neven, while I appreciate your position on the issue, I lose respect for people who find the need to repeat in detail situations such as these.
14. Todd said the following at 1:47 PM on Feb 5:
I actually wrote a letter to the CEO of PepsiCo (parent company of Frito-Lay) about the first commercial Tom mentions.
I didn't appreciate that it showed a bus hitting the main character who ends up plastered against the windshield.
Just before Thanksgiving, I was driving on a dark stretch of road when a man walked out in front of me. I had no time to stop. He died later that night.
I am recovering, but that ad traumatized me and I let corporate know that. I just hope the man's family did not see that ad.
15. Christina (in green) said the following at 1:55 PM on Feb 5:
I agree with most of these guys that some of the commercials were actually good. You just happened to name the ones that were thoroughly disgusting (I was not pleased with the Go-Daddy ones).
I liked the Hulu commercial, though. You know, the one where its revealed to us that through excessive TV watching, your brain doesn't ROT, it turns to mush...so those in Hollywood can suck out your brains...because after all, they ARE aliens.
And the Cash4Gold was pleasantly amusing.
16. Ted Slater said the following at 3:06 PM on Feb 5:
I didn't watch the Superbowl. In part because of the commercials. It's not that I'm super-spiritual; it's just that I find them excruciatingly worthless, a waste of my time.
17. Adam said the following at 3:20 PM on Feb 5:
Wow, I almost think you watched a different game than I did. Yeah, there was a commercial or two that used implied sexuality/nudity to sell it's product. Sex has been used to sell things for longer than I can remember. I don't even remember half the commercials you mentioned.
Is there anyone from Europe that could comment on this blog? From what I've heard, sex isn't considered as big of an issue there. Violence is frowned upon a lot though. It would be interesting to analyze how many commercials used sex to sell vs. how many commercials used violence to sell (aka the other Doritos ad).
There were a few commercials that I remember were fantastic! They were:
Transformer 2 trailer
The Budweiser Clydesdale "Fetch"
Coke Zero: Mean Troy
Pepsi "Forever Young"
Many of the other movie trailers I was excited about as well. And how could you not enjoy Alec Baldwin as an alien in the Hulu ad?
18. BDB said the following at 3:31 PM on Feb 5:
Alec Baldwin as an alien? I thought that was for a new Reality TV series.
19. BDB said the following at 3:34 PM on Feb 5:
I do think that the funniest year for ads required 2 years of viewing: the last year of the dot-com boom, followed the next year by the ads poking fun at all the collapsed dot-commers. Especially the Pets.com puppet landing in the dust just a week or so after they filed for bankruptcy.
One of the unanticipated consequences of the rules forbidding ads that show people consuming alcoholi beverages is that beer ads can be very funny. I'm glad Budweiser is still funny, despite being a Belgian company now.
20. Charles H. said the following at 3:38 PM on Feb 5:
ADS!! Personally, I love the talent and effort that goes into good ads (think Aflac) where a decidedly boring product is made part of the national vocabulary. Since Super Bowl Sunday is possibly the #1 TV ad blitz each year, it fascinates me.
Did anyone else think the Pedigree "Perhaps you should get a dog" commercial was just hilarious? The giant, ill-tempered ostrich chasing the postman cracked me up. Absolute favorite commercial of the game, even ahead of the Budweiser "showoff" horse and the Bud Light ski slope ad (with its terrific punch line - "Do you really think that was the best way to illustrate that?")
Christina #15, yeah, the Hulu spot was also hilarious. The "Mean Troy" spot, with Troy Polamalu doing his own take on the classic Mean Joe Greene commercial, was also a winner - albeit a questionable call for a nationwide ad, since some people inexplicably supported the Arizona Cardinals instead of the Steelers. =)
And as a gearhead, I have to differ with the ratings that put the Hyundai Genesis spot at the bottom of the rankings. Having seen their tireless 25-year struggle to gain respect in the US market, I laughed when I heard their rather in-your-face conclusion: "win one little award and suddenly everyone learns how to say your name!"
Losers:
- The entire "sex sells" crowd. I won't give them free PR by repeating their names, since it's pretty obvious who they were. I'm against it as a Christian and I'm against it as someone who takes an interest in Madison Avenue - it's the last refuge of lazy ad designers.
- Vizio. I have a basic, fundamental rule of what makes a good ad: associate your product with something happy. You're paying good money for your potential customers' time - why spend it reminding them of arguments, breakups, sickness, or the like? In Vizio's case, they paid good money for the privilege of insulting customers' business sense. What's up with that? Even better, since I was using a projector, the arrow that was supposed to point to my TV's brand name actually pointed to my folded-down futon (which, for the record, wasn't a Vizio either!)
- Doritos. Apart from point #1, why have a sad ending to your ads? If it's meant to be farce, it has to be CLEARLY farce.
21. Jake said the following at 3:47 PM on Feb 5:
I. I think the race to create the funniest Super Bowl commercial began with the Budweiser Frogs back in '94.
II. I'll bet the girls at your church are so accustomed to misogyny in advertising that these commercials had no effect on them. In fact, they probably see similar advertising in the women's magazines that they read. This doesn't excuse this practice, but as long as this kind of advertising yields profits, it will continue to be used.
III. I thought the game was very competitive, but the Steelers victory was not entirely clean. The Steelers had two penalties for unnecessary roughness and one for unsportsmanlike conduct. I think if we're going to talk about bad behaviour during the Super Bowl, it's worth mentioning James Harrison (Pit) punched Aaron Francisco (Arz) several times while he was on the ground, nowhere near the ball, after the play was dead. The Steelers also had the lead, so his behaviour can't be written off as 'frustration' as the commentators often like to do.
22. Zach Thompson said the following at 3:52 PM on Feb 5:
Why show the Super Bowl to the youth group?
23. BDB said the following at 3:55 PM on Feb 5:
Disclosure: I worked in TV advertising for seven years.
I do think that one of the best ad campaigns out there is Geico. They've kept it up for so long, running multiple simultaneous themes, it's truly masterful. The fact that the 2nd riches guy in the world, Warren Buffet, allows his main company to be so funny really speaks to his business genius.
I agree with Charles H. that ads relying on 'sex sells' are being lazy.
Please support the Auto Bailout! I'm getting so sick of the ads that replaced the car ads - everywhere from FoxNews to Discovery Channel has turned raunchy! Do I have to DVR everything I watch now?
24. Beth said the following at 4:24 PM on Feb 5:
It seems like there is not too many Steeler fans on this blog. GO STEELERS!
25. ptschett said the following at 4:48 PM on Feb 5:
My favorite was the ad for the Hyundai Genesis coupe that ran around kickoff time (the yellow car sliding around a racetrack, with the Smashing Pumpkins for background music.)
FWIW Danica Patrick won an IRL race last April in Japan. It was a fuel-mileage win, but it was a win.
26. Craig M. said the following at 5:33 PM on Feb 5:
I think commercials relying on sex are lazy and ineffective too, and probably offend as many people as they attract. That said, I thought the "sex commercials" were a pretty small subset overall. And the positive elements of a healthy (but not overblown) interest in organized sports and competition are really significant. Football is such a beautiful, strategy, physically amazing sport--and this was a GREAT game.
27. Brendan said the following at 6:29 PM on Feb 5:
First of all...
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOO! Super Bowl champs!
Now that that's out...
My campus ministry used this as an outreach event. We knew that since we're in Pittsburgh, people would really want to watch the game, and we provided the best screen on campus. I got to meet a bunch of new people!
The commercials were just okay. Whoever said that it was the Budweiser frogs that started it all was spot on...and I feel like the novelty's pretty much over. It's tough to be funny year after year.
Dorito's and GoDaddy were pretty typical - you just turn away for a second or two - but the flower one was so blunt! "No one wants to have sex with you" - that was awful!
My favorite was Budweiser and Denny's. I think Anheuser-Busch's new masters overdid the Clydesdale spots (three? seriously?), but they were all really good. I hope InBev stays true to the time-honored tradition of well-executed commercials on the Super Bowl.
And who will forget NANNERPUS?!? I laughed a lot through that one!
28. Kate (who is applying to law school!) said the following at 8:20 PM on Feb 5:
Just wanted to second the Go Steelers!
29. Jonathon said the following at 8:26 PM on Feb 5:
I watched it with some friends and we just flipped the channel to a different channel during the commercials ("wipeout" is a hilarious show, it turns out!). I was cheering Cardinals but you're right, the Steelers did earn it.
About the lustful commercials: stuff like that makes me hate, I mean HATE, watching TV.
30. Britainy said the following at 7:14 AM on Feb 6:
The Budweiser ads were by far the best. I don't drink, but all of them had me laughing this year. Also, the ad about having a dog instead was superb! But I can't forget the Dorito's commercial with the magic 8 ball - hilarious!
The flowers in a box ad was appalling - just as bad as the PETA ad in my opinion.
Well, if everyone is complaining about the horrible commercials - hopefully none of you reside in Arizona where there was 10 seconds of porn shown shortly after Larry Fitzgerald's TD run. Now that's disturbing & horrible. None of those commercials have anything on that.
PS ~ Go Steelers! :-D
31. Loris said the following at 7:40 AM on Feb 6:
I loved the Clydesdale ads! I was playing WoW during the Superbowl, so I missed a lot of the commercials. Seems I didn't miss much.
32. Andrew said the following at 11:49 AM on Feb 6:
I find it ridiculous to stop watching the Superbowl because of the commercials. There is a mute button on your remote, there is also a power button as well along with a channel up or down button. If you really like football but have issues with the commercials you will find ways around watching them. If however you don't care about football all that much than you probably won't watch it at all.
33. Laurel said the following at 1:48 PM on Feb 6:
Todd (#14)
I am so sorry to hear about your situation. I can't even imagine....
Good for you for sending a letter to PepsiCo. People these days always seem to be so worried about what will be offensive, but (in my opinion) they worry about small things and then make HUGE oversights such as someone being hit by a bus in a commercial for the sake of "comedy."
I pray that you and the family of the man can find peace and good through the situation. Thank you for being so open.
34. Esther said the following at 10:51 PM on Feb 8:
I notice no one mentioned the guy kissing the monkey. Eww.
I watched the game with Christian friends, and we were pretty offended with the ads. Mostly a lot of comments of, "was that really necessary?". I don't have TV at home, and rarely see commercials anymore, and I think I'm more sensitive than most. It's pretty shocking what makes it on the air.
35. Daniel B said the following at 11:29 PM on Feb 8:
Actually, Danica Patrick does have a major race win.
36. David (who is concerned for the Christian body) said the following at 9:57 AM on Feb 9:
I know it has been over a week, but this issue won't go away considering that TV probably won't go away for a long time from now.
Its a heart issue, folks. Really, it breaks my heart to see people look for the exceptions in an industry that has destroyed our culture.
I pray for you who struggle with moving past this stumbling block of television. My advice to you is to look into your heart and pray to God that he would search it and show you your true motivations for watching the television ads you know are going to be unhealthy for you.
I find myself giving this advice because, like you, I struggle with enjoying television ads that take my mind off of God and lust after my body's passions.
I thank those that turned this into an outreach opportunity, and I pray that God moved in the hearts of your guests with your hospitality.
Thanks to boundless for engaging this wonderful discussion.
37. BDB said the following at 3:31 PM on Feb 9:
I suppose some people won't think that Danica's IRL win in Japan "counted," kind of like the way Detroit automakers didn't think a little racing-oriented company called Honda should be taken seriously...