For me, watching football is like going to church. I do it once a year and I don’t pay attention.
It’s kind of hard for me not to get wrapped up in the Super Bowl, though. I have a lot of positive memories attached to previous contests. I’ve had a lot of fun hanging out with people who genuinely care about the game and watching them was almost as much fun as watching the game – if not more so. Since then, I’ve just kind of added it to the “tradition” file.
It was funny reading everyone’s tweets and status updates on Twitter and Facebook yesterday. Almost everyone I know said something to the effect of “Today is the Super Bowl. I don’t care.”
Now, I’ve certainly been guilty of this from time to time. A couple of weeks ago when they were playing the AFC and NFC Championship games, I commented to Cami “Aren’t you glad I don’t care about sports? Seriously. Because if I did, you wouldn’t see me on Sundays, ever.” I’ve even posted my own “What’s the big deal?” tweets and status updates in the past to this effect.
But reading the cacophony of disdain from my circle of friends regarding the Super Bowl made me wonder with whom were they trying to earn “Cool Points?”
The posts that kind of made me bristle a little bit were the ones that basically communicated “People who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials are dumb!” Maybe I just took the observation personally since the commercials are my favorite part.
I mean, I realize that it’s sad that I’ve been conditions to eagerly anticipate commercials. It just goes to show how deep marketing executives have their hooks into me. But you know what, tonight I’ll leave the TV off and read a book instead. Karmic balance: ACHIEVED.
(For the curious, I’m currently reading Chuck Klosterman’s “Eating The Dinosaur.”)
I’ve always looked forward to the commercials in part because it was always great one-stop shopping to watch the trailers for all of the upcoming blockbusters. I remember a few years ago when the trailer for Iron Man came out and I basically ordered everyone in the room to shut up before cranking the volume. People actually cheered for that trailer after watching it. Badass.
But this year, it didn’t seem like there were any trailers to get excited about. I saw spots for The Last Airbender, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
I’ll admit to not being as invested in these movies as much as I was for Iron Man (how could I be), but none of these trailers connected for me. I’m not excited about any of these movies!
As I was thinking about this disconnect, it occurred to me that there really is no point in getting excited for these trailers during the Super Bowl because they’ve already been online for months. Oh, internet. Is there nothing you can’t ruin?
I shouldn’t blame the internet. Really, I have only myself to blame. Obviously I’m more connected to what’s happening online than most people. So if a new trailer hits, I’m probably watching it the second it comes out. I’m sure for some, the trailers shown during the Super Bowl were phenomenal. But for me, I’ve lost one of the tethers that convinces me to plop down in front of the television for three hours and watch a sporting event I really have no stake in.
That said, it was a good game. I wanted to Colts to win for no other reason than they represented the Midwest. That and also because all of the commentary beforehand led me to believe that Peyton Manning was the most important thing to happen to football since shoulder pads.
Since I have no stake in the outcome of the game, it would have been easy to root for New Orleans after Tracy Porter ran for a 74-yard touchdown after intercepting a pass from Manning. But it’s pretty much been our tradition to pick a team and stick with them, even when you don’t know what’s going on. It creates the illusion of a vested interest in the game.
What about you guys? Did you watch the Big Game last night, or were you too cool for the room? What did you think of the commercials? What did you think of the movie trailers. If you must, tell us what you thought of the game. Leave your comments below!
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I was rather disappointed at the SuperBowl ads this year. Nothing really stand-out funny (well, the Betty Wyte commercial was kind of funny). And not a lot in the way of new movie trailers – nothing that hasn’t already been released before.
Overall, it was worth it for the food and the company – but not the ads.
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I would have seen it except now I watch all my tv online and I was to lazy to go to a bar.
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Some people actually “debuted” their commercials during the week before…which was odd. Why do that? No one will need to watch the game anymore.
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I saw From Paris With Love on Sunday, and it is so far my favorite movie of the year. Funny and full of action. Looking forward to it coming out on DVD so I can see it again.
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I watched the game, rooted for the Saints. The commercials weren’t as good this year though, which is the primary reason I even watch the superbowl. I always like the Budweiser/Bud Light commercials. Most of the Doritios ones were pretty good, and the first dove for men commercial was pretty funny.
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Watched the game as an excuse to throw a party. Fun was had by all & agree with everyone else that the commercials were pretty lame for the most part (liked the Dorito & E-Trade Milkaholic which poked fun at LiLo). Glad Saints won because New Orleans needs good things to celebrate whenever they can.
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there was also an ad for Robin Hood (ie Gladiator 2?)
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I thought it was odd, having an ad for the Toyota Prius (or any Toyota right now since they stopped all sales until they get the problems fixed). However what struck me as funny is the advertising slogan “Going Forward” (due to a stuck accelerator and non-working brakes?)
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I can’t remember where I saw it (probably on Twitter), but I read a riff on Toyota’s current slogan:
“Going Forward – At an unstoppable rate of speed”
Something to that effect.
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You aren’t alone Tom. I couldn’t care less about football or watching any other sport. So many better things to do to take up my time.
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Yeah I used the superbowl to get free beer. A good home theatre setup is always a good thing to have.
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I pretty much never watch TV and the Superbowl was no exception. Granted I’m in a different time zone and Monday morning isn’t nearly as appealing as Sunday night, but still TV just doesn’t do it for me anymore, I’d rather catch the highlights on the net and save an hour and a half.
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Call me weird, but the reason I get wrapped up into sports games sometimes is because it’s a story in its own way. It’s a vicarious thrill to watch your team fight and compete, with some drama going on. There’s a storyline in there if you know where to look. “A bold and fearless leader turns the tables on the reportedly superior foe with a surprise. But despite their comeback, the enemy looks to quell the counterattack in its tracks. Can our heroes summon the strength to pull out victory? Stay tuned…”
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Yeah weird… I never like football but this year no one else seemed to either. I’ve heard less about it than any other year, and what I did hear everyone was like ‘who cares?’
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Pheh. Couldn’t care less about the Superbowl. As for the ads, the ones I’ve seen online just haven’t struck me as particularly clever or creative.
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Well, for the record, I like football (and movies!), so I watched the Super Bowl, and I thought it was an excellent game. In the past, the Super Bowl has tended to be an embarrassing blowout, but there have been several great games in the past five years or so, and this years may have been the best. It was exciting, it was fast, the quality of play was top-notch, and it was close right up until the last few minutes. I loved it!
Commercials? Were there commercials this year? I remember something about guys in their underwear, but then my brain shut down in self-defense.
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My girlfriend and I used the Super Bowl as an excuse to steal free pizza and wings from a party downstairs in our res hall’s lobby and then vanish into the night. It was good times.
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My wife and my in-laws were all born and raised in New Orleans – aunts, uncles, cousins, every last one of them – so I have had a very different Superbowl experience than you. My wife doesn’t like football much at all, but this season she has been obsessed with watching the Saints, even going so far as to get tickets to see them play when they played the Redskins in DC (we met, married, and live in Baltimore.) She was bouncing off the walls throughout the whole playoffs and is still over the moon about how the Superbowl turned out. So much so, that she was considering ditching me and the kid and heading down to New Orleans to see Drew Brees lead the Bacchus parade at Mardi Gras.
This has been a welcome change from the uncontrolled sobbing into my shoulder as we watched the Katrina coverage on CNN four and a half years ago. I live in a world where Superbowl XLIV was much, much more than just a football game. It was a team bringing someone good to a broken city, led by a quarterback that joined the team for that exact purpose.
Not to put a guilt trip on anybody who didn’t care about the Superbowl. Just saying my perspective has been a bit different.
In an alternate timeline where I’m not married to a New Orleanian, I still would have been cheering for the Saints, because I’m always a sucker for the underdog. And there’s still that whole Colts thing here in Baltimore.
And the commercials… yeah, it’s been downhill for a few years now. Pepsi had the right idea bailing out and focusing their marketing elsewhere.
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I, for one, can’t wait for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie but I’ve always been a fan of the cartoon. (Interesting sidenote, do you remember the comic you did a looooong time ago about the kid from the movie Hook? The one where you and Cami are looking up at clouds and she asks you what you’re thinking? And you say you’re wondering what happened to that kid? Well… Avatar: The Last Airbender did. He plays the voice for Zuko, the cartoon’s resident emo kid/ badass. I was really hoping he’d be in the movie. :[ )