Super Bowl Commercials

Watching the Super Bowl means I can’t change the channels when the commercials come on. The commercials, at least in the past, are what have kept me interested. Most of the time commercials are dull and boring and just a waste of time, but during the Super Bowl, they are funny and entertaining.

This years Super Bowl commercials were kind of a let down. There were about three or four that I really liked, but the rest were either just like a regular commercial or just stupid. The one second Miller Highlife commercial was by far the most original, just because I have never seen a one second commercial before. “Highlife.” That was all that was said, and it was effective because it left me thinking if it was supposed to be a joke or not.

My favorite commercial was the Pepsi Refresh Anthem commercial. After I saw it, I turned to the person sitting next to me and said, “That was a good commercial.” An immediate reaction like that for a commercial says that it really was a good commercial. It was not funny, which is usually what sets good ads apart, but it was catchy. I liked how they went back and forth between generations and I thought that it was very effective with a good song and images.
The other commercials that round out my top 5: Hulu.com with Alec Baldwin, LMAO by NBC, Castrol Oil with the monkeys, and a three way tie for fifth between Careebuilder.com tips for a new job, Coke with the bugs, and Bridgestone with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. These were all funny commercials (which you very rarely see outside of the Super Bowl), except for the Coke ad, but that was along the same lines as the Pepsi Refresh commercial.

Overall, I would say the commercials were below average. There were many that were just plain stupid. The front runners for this award are the Godaddy.com commercials. These are wrong. They need to find a new way to advertise because they beating this to death. These commercials were o.k. when they first came out, 3 or 4 years ago. But after a while they just get old. But the worst commercial of the game was another Pepsi commercial. Pepsuber. Really? Spoofing a spoof? That is low and its chance of being actually funny is about 1 in a gazillion. I thought MaCgruber was dumb on SNL, but to take it to another level like this was horrendous. That was the dumbest thing I have seen, ever.

To watch all of the Super Bowl commercials, go to NBC.com or Hulu.com.

The Super Bowl

Football is officially over. It’s February and basketball has been in full swing for weeks, and football just got done. I have already said that this is unreasonable, and there is no need to reinforce this. But its football, I can’t not do one final post about it.

I watched the Super Bowl I didn’t really care who won (although it would have been nice to see the “worst playoff team ever” pull this one off). So I was not planning on being very interested in the game. But I must say, that was a fun game to watch. All the ups and downs provided some serious excitement. I was on the edge of my seat for the last three minutes of the game. I was not expecting that.

I have said before that I would rather watch a good defense that a good offence. There was a lot of good defense in this game. To start, the 100-yard interception return by James Harrison to end the first half. Wow. I thought that Arizona was going to get back in the game with the ball on the 3 yd-line. But after that play, I didn’t think Arizona had a chance. A huge play like that turns the momentum in favor of Pittsburgh, and I thought it was going to be a blowout.

Second, it was a blowout because of the Arizona defense. I believe that they outplayed they Steelers defense but it didn’t show in the end. There was something like three red zone stands for Arizona, proving that they believed. Their defense played very well, but you can’t keep an offense led by Ben Roethlisberger from diving down the field in the end. Hats off the Arizona defense for proving people wrong.

I think the officials were being paid off. At one point the penalties were around 9 to 2, killing Arizona. They ended with 11 penalties for 106 yards. There were 3 personal foul, 15-yard penalties on one drive. One drive. You can’t win when you are being called for roughing the passer by knocking him over a split second after he releases the ball. He didn’t spear him, go for his head, drive him to the ground, or hit him late. He just knocked Roethlisberger down. I’m sorry, but it’s football, you need to expect to get hit. I’m not says that the penalties lost the game, but I am saying that they didn’t help the cause. 

Football in January

These past weekends have been very busy for me. They have been full of basketball and homework. There is no time for a good movie, and that makes me mad. I have not had the chance to sit down and watch a movie since the beginning of the year, and I won’t get a chance to until February. This is because Friday and Saturday games every weekend leave little time for anything else. So I’m not going to write about basketball or school. I’ve had enough of those for now. I’m going to write about football.

Football is one of those sports that I get tired of watching after a while. It is exciting and fast paced, and can be very fun to watch if you are rooting for one team. But if you don’t care who wins the game, it can get down right boring. In recent years I have been intrigued by the playoffs because I like the Indianapolis Colts. They have gone far enough for me to watch football into late January, but not this year. This year they lost early, and my favorite team, Da Bears, didn’t even make it. So I was thinking that I would disregard football, and not even watch the Super Bowl, until the new season starts. I found that this was hard to do. I found myself sneaking away from what I was doing on Sunday afternoons to watch football. I would sneak away and watch two teams, the Baltimore Ravens and the Arizona Cardinals.

I watched the Ravens because I like Joe Flacco and I like the way they play defense. I know that sounds clichéd, but it’s true. I would rather watch a team make great plays defensively then watch a team make great plays offensively. It’s more exciting to see Ed Reed get an interception than see Hines Ward make a catch. But as they say, all good things must come to an end (I can’t believe I’m using this many clichés). I watched Joe Flacco’s inexperience catch up to him, and I saw the Ravens lose.

The Arizona Cardinals are still in it. They could possible win the Super Bowl. Amazingly enough, Kurt Warner is still playing. A hometown hero, it’s possible that he just lead a “hall of fame drive” to score the winning touchdown over the Eagles. That drive could have put a defining stamp on his jumbled career. He is a great quarterback, and he is leading a team the “Believes.” Its fun to watch the Cardinals play and I might actually watch the Super Bowl this year, because I now have a team to root for.