The Super Bowl was tonight. The Eagles beat the hated New England Patriots 41-33. All is right with the world. Some thoughts...
● Hurray for the good guys. The evil Patriots lost.
● I can't wait to see the denial and anger from the NFL media tomorrow.
● For the first time in a long time in a Patriots game, the Refs called a fair game. Interestingly, both my wife and I agreed that if the Patriots had won, we wouldn't have felt bad about this one because they really did play a fair game. It's amazing how much better the Super Bowl feels when the refs aren't deciding it!
● My favorite ads:
● Speaking of changing demographics... there was a time the NFL was almost entirely white (due to racism). Then it became almost entirely black (which created this idea that blacks were the best athletes). At that point, whites were relegated to quarterback and offense line and linebacker. That was literally about it. These days, whites can be found at wide receiver, running back, defensive end and defensive back as well. I will be curious if this keeps up. Right now, basketball and football are mainly black with baseball, hockey and soccer being mainly white (baseball and soccer also have a lot of Hispanics). It will be interesting to see how these games shift over time and what that means for their popularity or perception... if anything.
● We had wings today and had to order them three hours before the game or they wouldn't take our order. They were overwhelmed. In the middle of it all, a single girl scout set up shop right outside one of the wing places. She made a fortune!
Thoughts?
● Hurray for the good guys. The evil Patriots lost.
● I can't wait to see the denial and anger from the NFL media tomorrow.
● For the first time in a long time in a Patriots game, the Refs called a fair game. Interestingly, both my wife and I agreed that if the Patriots had won, we wouldn't have felt bad about this one because they really did play a fair game. It's amazing how much better the Super Bowl feels when the refs aren't deciding it!
● My favorite ads:
(1) The Vikings and their Dodge Ram. Awesome. So well done. And hilarious when they turn around at the end. Loved seeing them all headbanging in unison!● Worst ads:
(2) Dilly dilly. We ended up saying that all night. We even changed it to Philly Philly after one of our guests discovered an internet meme saying that.
(3) The Eli Manning Dirty Dancing ad was hilarious.
(4) The Doritos ad with Peter Dinklage was inspired. The addition with Morgan Freemen then cheapened the ad.
(1) Coke thinks Mexican lesbians matter to us.● It was interesting not to see so many of the usual Super Bowl suspects: no pizza ads, no McDonalds ads, no internet start up ads. NFL demographics must be changing.
(2) There was an ad that used babies and spewed liberal bumper stickers about how these kids were going to grow up as doctrinaire leftists. I can't even think what the ad was for. All it did was piss us off and bring hoots. The Matt Damon ad brought a "How's that Weinstein rape thing working for ya, Matt?"
(3) I really didn't like the Amazon Alexa ads where Alexa lost her voice and various celebrities took over. It was far too obvious and predictable. A creative company needs to show more.
(4) Chris Pratt. Not only do I have no idea why he was in the ads he was in, but I don't know what the product was either.
(5) The Tide ads. I get what they were trying to do. I even get where there is a hint of genius in the ads as they come close to making you think that any ad could be a Tide ad and therefore Tide stays on your brain. But somehow, I didn't care. And every time a Tide ad came up, it only reminded me of how little I cared.
● Speaking of changing demographics... there was a time the NFL was almost entirely white (due to racism). Then it became almost entirely black (which created this idea that blacks were the best athletes). At that point, whites were relegated to quarterback and offense line and linebacker. That was literally about it. These days, whites can be found at wide receiver, running back, defensive end and defensive back as well. I will be curious if this keeps up. Right now, basketball and football are mainly black with baseball, hockey and soccer being mainly white (baseball and soccer also have a lot of Hispanics). It will be interesting to see how these games shift over time and what that means for their popularity or perception... if anything.
● We had wings today and had to order them three hours before the game or they wouldn't take our order. They were overwhelmed. In the middle of it all, a single girl scout set up shop right outside one of the wing places. She made a fortune!
Thoughts?
It was a T-Mobile ad with the babies. Sh*tty ad.
ReplyDeleteMore later, but LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, the Girl Scout setting up outside at the wing place! That girl is going places!
ReplyDeleteBev, I was so impressed. Such great thinking. She must have had thousands of hungry people coming by looking for snacks and waiting in line for up to 20 minutes as she stood there. I'll bet she sold out.
ReplyDeleteWow. So I'm reading all these Super Bowl articles and they are pure cynicism. Twitter too is full of smug losers.
ReplyDelete1. I don't like the Bradys, trust me, but there is NOTHING to comment on about his wife drinking a small glass of wine. Yet, the smug basement dwellers of the internet are spewing all kinds of nasty comments on that. Do you really think that's any different than the billions of people drinking beer or whisky during the game? OMG! She's drinking wine. I am so special for claiming that I would never do that. //sniffs own butt
2. The response to the ads is stupid, herdlike and cynical too. "The internet" likes the ones with "in" celebrities and snarks on the ones with post-popular or never-cool celebrities... because that's what herd do. Yes, you are not special, Lord of the Basement, you are a (mostly) human-shaped cow. And frankly, I'm surprised your soul didn't crack from your intense cynicism.
3. The fake-outrage over the use of things like Martin Luther King's speech is so cynical it's sickening. The ad was a good one making a great point and done with class and style. The response pretends it's automatically wrong just because it was an ad that used MLK.
4. The attacks on Justin Timberlake are BS too. Yes, the sound was bad. Shit happens. The show itself was excellent. I was with several of his fans and they loved it and even I thought it was one of the better performances at a super bowl -- lots of motion, action, stage changes and known but not ancient songs. Turning the street lights into the Prince sign is one of the lasting images of the game. And yet, "the internet" is acting as if they could have done so much better. Yeah, right. These same people couldn't string two notes together and probably can't get their butts out of their chairs without a lift.
5. Again, I hate Tom Brady, but the fact he couldn't make a really difficult catch doesn't invalidate his achievements you self-aggrandizing twitterholes. I'd like to see any of you even run 20 yard, much less make the catch.
The cynicism makes me sick.
Let me get out of the way that I may be the only person in America who feels indifferent to Tom Brady.
ReplyDeleteI missed the halftime show, but I figure it'll be on YouTube. Sounds like it was good but nothing for the history books. I do like JT.
As for the ads, I'm still smiling at the TD Ameritrade ad where they couldn't get Lionel Richie to say "all night long." I think that nods to the demographic shift. Think about the age bracket that knows that song, let alone who sings it.
Coke has been consistently and astonishingly terrible at Super Bowl ads. That said, it doesn't exactly hurt them. For Coke, a Super Bowl spot is pretty much obligitory, so they can virtue signal with impunity. I know I haven't quit Coca-Cola. Be interesting to see what they're promoting in the future when what they're promoting now has been deemed "problematic." I still don't know what the f*** was up with that Diet Coke Mango ad.
Not only were the Amazon Alexa/Echo ads predictable, but they conveyed a message that the device is unreliable. As a marketer myself, that's the kind of secondary message you're supposed to work hard to avoid. It doesn't matter if people will understand the joke, the secondary message gets into people's heads regardless. For me personally, I was already mildly creeped out by big brother devices on the kitchen counter. Now that's been paired with Hannibal Lecter. Smooth move, Alexa.
The Tide ads were good in that they created a running joke for the durration of the Super Bowl. Gets people repeating your brand name. As someone who is physically allergic to Tide, it's not going to make me switch. Besides, I think Tide is the Coca-Cola of detergents. The advertising doesn't do a whole lot. At least they didn't virtue signal. I still think Tide should've found a way to cash in on the Tide Pods meme.
The T-Mobile ad was *barf*. Also, very poor brand connection. Unlike Coke and Tide, T-Mobile isn't a dominant player in their space. I'd be surprised if they get any bang for their buck, which would only serve them right.
On a similar note, which truck was it that advertized with an MLK speech? See? It was a stirring ad, but what good is it if you can't tie it to the product? (Sidenote: appropriating famous speeches for ads doesn't sit right with me, but I haven't fully explored the feeling.)
Also, there was an ad that I thought was just a spot for the Paralympics, but apparently wasn't.
Contrast those with the Budweiser ad with the water cans. I know it was a Budweiser ad because they put Budweiser in every frame. Added bonus, they're a conscientous company that actually did something, as opposed to chattering about "diversity." Double-bonus, their relief efforts are nearly 100% non-controversial. Triple-win for Bud, A++!
I agree with Andrew, Stella Artois totally undermined their efforts with their choice of spokesperson. Also, the "buy something to make a difference" message looks tacky set against Budweiser's self motivated efforts.
tryanmax,
ReplyDeleteOn JT, it was different. Usually, the super bowl show is the band on a single stage with guest stars doing nothing but everyone being impressed by their presence -- look it's Nasty Ass Rapper and Hillary Clinton getting jiggy! Yay! Here, JT was alone, but he was full of energy and hit the right tone. He moved all over the stadium and his stage changed a dozen times. Very frenetic. What's upset people today is that (1) the sound wasn't good for some reason and (2) he didn't bring any quest stars. Also, the Prince people are trying to get a moment of fame by complaining that Prince wouldn't have wanted him to do a tribute. Wah!
On the ads...
The diet Mango ad went over very poorly here with all age groups (pre-teen, teen, young and old Millenial and crotchety Xer). The Coke ad was ignored as soon as everyone realized it was just virtue signalling.
Agreed on Alexa. It just felt "wrong" somehow. Too predictable... not creative... made the product seem pointless if this is how people use it... and (as you add) unreliable.
On Tide, like I said, I could see the brilliance, but somehow it just didn't resonate with me.
The T-Mobile ad brought out a "f*ck you" and "oh joy, it's T-Mobile... can we switch to Verizon?" and then it was forgotten who sponsored it. We just recalled it as "that shitty baby ad."
No idea on the MLK ad. I do love the Viking ad though. :) I think the Paralympics ad was a truck, but I don't know.
The Budweiser ads scored with us too.
I'm surprised Stella kept using Damon after he became so linked to Weinstein.
By the way, there is a lot of elitist crapping on the Bud Light ad, but I can tell you why it was a total success...
ReplyDeleteFirst, the mere fact that this ad campaign has run for over half a year tells you that it's working for them. So I'm pretty sure people were looking forward to see how the story continued.
Even with us (none of whom drink Bud Light), we were curious how this series would end, and we laughed and talked about the prior ones, and everyone was saying "dilly dilly" throughout the game whenever someone opened a beer.
So I'm pretty sure this was much better than the cynics on Twitter claimed.
2 things: Am I the only one who saw the Australian Tourism ad? It was just fabulous with a fake very American Crocodile Dundee with a short take from Paul Hogan...
ReplyDeleteAlso - any thoughts on the 30 sec dead air? I assume we all experienced it...
The complaints even went so far as to criticize the Verizon/First Responder ad...seriously how can someone actually have anything negative to say about firefighters who drag people out of burning buildings...
ReplyDeleteInteresting social media analysis:
ReplyDelete(1) PepsiCo (PEP) stole the show with its 2018 Super Bowl commercials as its brands Doritos, Pepsi and Mountain Dew each delighted viewers and generated massive amounts of positive chatter. The company’s brands captured three of the top four spots in LikeFolio’s consumer buzz. Doritos and Mountain Dew took the No. 1 and No. 2 slot, respectively, for consumer sentiment, according to a LikeFolio analysis of social media mentions.
(2) While Pepsi’s commercials were loved in 2018, its rival Coca-Cola’s (KO) ads actually turned out to be the most hated. In fact, its commercial for Diet Coke turned in the lowest Super Bowl ad sentiment we have ever measured, at an absolutely dismal 33% positive. This is especially striking considering Coca-Cola was the 2017 Super Bowl ad winner with the rerun of its “America the Beautiful” ad.
(3) Budweiser had a mixed night. Its touching “Stand By Me” ad was well received, and viewers enjoyed the Michelob Ultra “I like beer” song, grabbing the No. 4 position in consumer sentiment. Unfortunately, half of viewers truly disliked the Bud Light “Bud Knight — Dilly Dilly” commercial, which landed Bud Light on our Most Hated list for 2018.
(4) Tide did very well throughout the entire game, with clever “Tide ad” placements that tricked and amused viewers. Amazon’s (AMZN) “Alexa lost her voice” ad was also a big hit, getting the company into the top eight for consumer buzz and the third most loved by sentiment.
As I said... interesting.... but I also think limited. I have come to suspect that "social media" has become compartmentalized -- elitists, political left, political right, white trash, etc. Twitter and Facebook are very different in mindset, with Twitter being celebrity prone and Facebook being single-mom prone. The kids have escaped to Instagram. Not sure where white guys go. Etc.
The MSM seems to cover the elitist faction the most -- possibly because it includes celebrities. So without knowing which groups they are following, I take this with a huge grain of salt. But it is interesting.
Ah. They analyzed Twitter, so elitists and political left/right.
ReplyDeleteBev, I saw the Australian ad and thought they were remaking the movie. I lost interest at that point. The Rock's new movie won my kids over fast.
ReplyDeleteThe outrage community will attack anything. That was a very good ad.
We had the 30 seconds of blackness too. We thought it was our TV and turned it off and back on. LOL!
Bev, Speaking of firefighters, I laughed really hard at the ad with all the old people (they had a firefighter). "I'm 85 and I want to go home!" LOL!
ReplyDeletePatriots fans are bringing me such joy today:
ReplyDeleteThe Refs cheated us on the Hail Mary pass... they cost us the game!
The Refs cheated us on the diving touchdown... they cost us the game!
It was an illegal formation on the Foles touchdown... the Refs cost us the game!
The hit on Cooks was a dirty hit, and it wasn't called... the Refs cost us the game!
We would have won if Cooks wasn't injured... that hit cost us the game!
Belichick is a fool for not playing Malcom Jenkins... he cost us the game!
Brady should have caught that pass... he cost us the game!
They are such whiny b*tches when they lose. Irony much? And what rational person could turn on Belichlick or Brady? What a bunch of a-holes! They are the worst fan base in sports.
Andrew - that is EXACTLY why I can't stand the Patriots! They can't win OR lose gracefully!
ReplyDeleteBev, Same here. They are arrogant winners and sore losers. Did you know that Brady didn't even congratulate Nick Foles? He just walked off. Talk about poor sportsmanship. Has that ever happened before in a Super Bowl? Not to my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteAnd then today it's whiny conspiracy theory day and pour out your anger at the guy who took you to 8 Super Bowls. Jerks.
Not a big football fan but it was a fun to watch game though the Patriots losing caused the stock market to crash.
ReplyDeleteAh, I can rest easy again.
ReplyDeleteThe Steelers are still the only team with 6 Lombardi trophies...and it's probably going to stay that way for a while with their total lack of discipline.
Well, uh...8 days until spring training! (Pirates traded Cutch and Cole) Okay, my team's season is already over.
All that and Chief Wahoo is being retired, F1 dropped their Grid Girls so fat and ugly feminazis can feel smugly better about themselves, and USC sold the naming rights for the Coliseum to United Airlines...
What's next? Andy Geiger returning to power and the Horseshoe getting renamed 'Kroger Field?' Oh, wait...'Walmart and Kroger Stadium.' Wait, I'm wrong...'Coke presents Walmart and Kroger Stadium.' Hold on, I'm still wrong...'Coke presents Walmart and Kroger Stadium brought to you by Huntington Bank.'
Okay, I need to cheer myself up. Did anyone see how the XFL trolled the NFL yesterday? LINK
John Mahoney- Martin on 'Fraser'- has died.
ReplyDeleteThat just sucks. Most perfect cast ever.
R.I.P.
Philly has the most out of control fan base...they always have had.
ReplyDeleteThat's terrible about Jim Mahoney...great actor.
Anthony, Think of it as a buying opportunity. :)
ReplyDeleteRustbelt, "The United Coliseum" is somehow fitting, given the number of fights on United planes these days. United... first in fight.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, I don't think the Steelers will win another Super Bowl until they dump Tomlin. He just doesn't seem to have control over the team at key moments.
Isn't every Pirates' season over by this point? ;)
I think Cleveland should adopt the Grid Girl version of the Chief Wahoo's sister... Squaw Tahtah. Or they should change their name to "The Harvey Weinstein Gropers."
There's a marijuana company trying to get the naming rights to Mile High... seriously. Mile High Dopehead Field has a ring to it.
Critch, They have cheered injuries, threw batteries at Santa, and now trashed their own city. Great people.
ReplyDeleteSad about John Mahoney. I am surprised that he was only 77.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, every season's been over since Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. Oh, it's true.
ReplyDeleteBut what's terrible is they actually teased us for a few years, thinking they cared.
Then owner Bob Nutting decided to show his true, tight-fisted colors and scuttled the pitching staff at the first sign of a chink in the armor.
"We love you fans! And we want to put together a winning team for you! Or my name isn't Cherokee Jack!"
Agreed on the Steelers.
'United Coliseum'...makes me think of Manchester United. As in soccer riots. Of course, in L.A., they're called 'Lakers celebrations.' Or losses. Whatever.
Any fanbase willing to praise Jon Elway as their patron saint deserves the title 'Dopehead.'
I mean, come on. A Northwestern guy at QB? Nerds have their place- just not behind center.
Cuyahoga Flames. Or the Underworld Bombers. At least commemorate some kind of history for the city.
Also, Philly still sucks. Especially the Flyers.
We had a police officer shot and killed today in our city. Tragic. He had two seven-year twins. RIP.
ReplyDeleteAs a 12 year old in 1960, my dad had two season Ickes to the Eagles who played home games at Franklin Field. Rather than disappoint either my older brother or me, he let us go. My neighbor was a guy named Steve Van Buren. None of you know him, but google him. So, I feel like I have finally come full circle with my Eagles. The only thing that bothers me was Chris Collinsworth droning on hoping the winning touchdown. He wouldn't let it go still whining about it after the game. It was it even close. Tom Brady ... pit of misery, Philly Philly
ReplyDeleteI seem to have problems on portable gadgets. Tickets or Ickes. He let us attend the 1960 championship win over Vince Lombardi's Packers. collinsworth was whining the winning TD should have been an incomplete pass . Silly silly
ReplyDeleteI’ll keep it simple.
ReplyDeleteLiked: Tide ad, Michalob light with Pratt, Avocados from Mexico, TD Ameritrade
Hated: T-Mobile, Alexa, Dirty Dancing Giants (too gay), Coke
Dumb: all Jeep and Dodge, Bud Knight, Toyota (the Paralympic ad, I liked the ad but didn’t sell the car), Hyundai (as my wife pointed out, they didn’t know money was being donated when they bought the car)
The truth always comes out. Twitter is full of hate for Timberlake's show for a large number of reasons. But it seemed like a great show. Today, it comes out that Timberlake got the second highest sales boost ever at iTunes after a Super Bowl performance. So Twitter is full of crap... as always.
ReplyDeletePit of misery indeed, Jed! Philly Philly!
ReplyDeleteJed, Collinsworth was driving us nuts. He often cheers for certain teams and will drool over Brady even when calling games not involving the Patriots. By the end of this one, he was all-but openly cheering for the Patriots.
ReplyDeleteKoshcat, The Hyundai ad was stupid. It also seemed kind of asinine to pull these people out of the line as if they were in trouble. Not a good ad.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago the Phillies had little kids on the field before an exhibition game for an Easter Egg Hunt...the fans booed the little kids who didn't find any eggs...yep, someone hit a Cardinals player with a battery during one game. Keep it classy Philly...
ReplyDeleteI swear, only in SwampEast Missouri can you have thunder, lighting, freezing rain and sleet all at one time..we're doomed...(i think)
ReplyDelete