The Day After

First off, sorry for the brief Super Bowl prediction write-up.  With this blog, I’m trying to present some new ideas and viewpoints on things, and I just didn’t have anything on the Super Bowl that had not been discussed ad nauseum in the 10M hours of pre-game coverage.   I do, however, have some thoughts about the game.

·         Kudos the Cardinals for not folding their tent after that gut-punch turnover right before the half.  My god, that was awful. 

·         Kudos to me and my buddy who accurately predicted the Warner INT before the half.  We only missed it by 6 plays or so.

·         Kudos to me for going 7-4 in the playoffs, and winning on my last 3 Super Bowl bets.

·         I did miss on the over/under, but it was close.  Zona just needed one last stop.  Damn.  I’da hit Sizzler if that hit.

·         I left the Cardinals for dead no less than 3 times.  They simply would not quit.  Very impressive effort by that crew.  I don’t want to sounds like a middle school soccer dad, but they should hold their heads up.  They played a great game.  It was a shame somebody had to lose.  It felt a little like last year’s US Open golf playoff at Torrey Pines.  You didn’t want to see Tiger or Rocco lose, but you knew somebody had to.

·         Overall, I thought the officiating was fine until after Pittsburgh’s winning touchdown.  I was glad they didn’t flag the Steelers for piling on Holmes after the winning TD.  However, how do you not flag Holmes for unsportsmanlike conduct after he used the football as prop for his LaBron/talc celebration?  That was blatant.  Whether or not you dig the rule, there is no question that he broke it.  15 yards means the Steelers kick-off from their own 15, which could have changed a lot for the Card’s final drive.  And how in the world do you not review the Warner fumble to end the game?  I’m not saying it was or wasn’t a fumble, but how do you not review it.  That’s why there’s replay.  Take the two minutes.  That was bad.  It seemed like the refs just wanted to get out of there after the Holmes game-winning TD.

·         All year I kept saying I didn’t buy the Steelers. Maybe it was because they won ugly, and I focused on the ugly.  But there’s no getting around it now.  They Steelers are a great team, Ben is a very good QB, Santonio Holmes is a great receiver, and they are a worthy world champion.   

 

And now probably the most notable item from this year’s Super Bowl:  The awful commercials.  No wonder our economy is slow.  Companies are spending millions on the most lifeless, boring wastes-of-30-seconds.  And there were some real train wrecks this year.  What are the Budweiser people thinking?  The lovey-dovey Clydesdale commercials made me not want to drink Bud to help make sure I don’t see those commercials next year.  And Audi – sorry whatever that was didn’t do anything for me.  Bridgestone?  Nice try.   Seriously, how hard is it to make a funny, fun, memorable commercial for the Super Bowl. 

 

I don’t know a thing about marketing, but I do know businesses, particularly large, bureaucratic businesses like the ones that can afford these commercials.  There are likely waves upon waves of approvals before these things get on the air.  And how these things get through those approvals is beyond me.    So let me try to offer some help to these people who so desperately need it.

1.       Funny is always better than sweet.  This is not an After School Special.  People are watching this game with friends, while drinking and eating, and generally trying to have a good time.  A majority of viewers are men.  We prefer to laugh.  How do you think Will Farrell made all that money?  Plus, we remember things that are funny.  We look them up on You Tube to remember how funny they are.  We talk about how funny they are with our buddies.  The easiest way to me memorable is to be funny.

2.       Of course funny is subjective.  But, there are several fail-safe funnies that you can beat like a drum.  The most popular are babies and animals (particularly monkeys) that are acting like people.  Look at history.  The CareerBuilder monkeys and E*Trade babies are particularly memorable ads.

3.       When in absolute doubt, slapstick violence is typically funny, particularly a man getting hit in the crotch with something. 

4.       If funny’s not your thing, might I suggest some hot chicks in sexually suggestive situations.  (The Go Daddy people are geniuses at this.)

 

Let’s make Super Bowl XLIV better than XLIII.

 

And, with that, we are done with the NFL for a while.  At least until draft time.  That part is always kinda bittersweet. Drink an Iron City for me, Steeler fans.

Tags: NFL, NFL Commentary, Super Bowl, Super Bowl Ads, Super Bowl XLIII