Let’s talk the Super Bowl.
This has been an exciting NFL play-off season, and it all culminates in the Feb. 13 Super Bowl between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams. Often, the Super Bowl is not as great a game as the fierce play-offs that precede it, and this year, the Big Game has big shoes to fill. In the playoffs, the Chiefs blew a big lead, then tied the game as regulation time ran out, won the OT coin toss, but then lost by a field goal in OT. A bit later that day, the Rams stopped the 49ers on their last two drives to win by three.
A week earlier, the Chiefs won in OT after tying it as regulation expired on a drive that took 13 seconds. The Rams also beat the Buccaneers by 3 in a last-minute comeback. That same weekend, the ’Niners came from behind to beat the Packers by 3 at the end of regulation and the Bengals beat the Titans by 3 at the end. Whew. Good thing we get a week off until Super Bowl Sunday.
I have been a Super Bowl fan since the first “AFL–NFL Championship Game,” as it was called, in 1967, when the Packers dominated the Chiefs. When it first became “The Super Bowl,” most fans thought it was a really dumb name. But after 55 games (this will be Super Bowl LVI, or 56), Super Bowl Month and Super Bowl Week, most of us are fully on board with this super event, which this year, is back in Los Angeles, where it all started.
Everything about it is super. I was covering the Rams when they played Pittsburgh in the 1980 game (Super Bowl XIV) and went to the press party put on by the NFL and I can tell you it is super … the food, the entertainment, the surroundings, the swag, all to excess. Super. And away from the event, many of you out there have made the day an event. It is party day in America, with friends, family, food and fun being the main course, and the football game almost the excuse to party. But there IS a game. A game that results in a crowned champion, and the media covers it, covers it and covers it.
But is the coverage super or over-kill? The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC, but the pre-game starts with “Road to the Super Bowl” at noon, then five-and-a-half hours of pregame coverage before the game. Wow. I don’t watch all of that, do you? Man, give me an hour pregame and even that is too much. Play the game. Enough with the commentary, insights, frivolity, infographics, animations, camera angles, joking among the TV stars and celebrity drop-ins, opinion to excess and commentators talking, talking, talking. Give me the game.
OK, I am a sports guy, but I admit that I watch the game for the competition, the history AND the commercials. OK, give me the commercials. Hey, I like the commercials. The price of a 30-second Super Bowl Commercial this year is $6.5 million. In 1967, the cost was $42,500, and the commercials have become a part of the Super Bowl experience.
I have enjoyed many of them. Some of the most memorable were the 1984 Apple McIntosh Commercial, hammer throw breaking the “1984”-style screen; the “Mean Joe” Green, “Hey, kid, catch,” throwing of his jersey to a young fan after the boy gave Joe his Coca-Cola; The VW GTI “knock the car out of a tree with his sneaker” commercial – how many of you have thrown things including your tennies up a tree to get something down? I have. I enjoy the Coke polar bear commercials and the Budweiser Clydesdales. I love the Clydesdales playing football, the young Clydesdale getting big enough to join the big boys and the Clydesdales and the lost dog, as well as many other heart-string-tugging commercials for Bud. And there was the Betty White Snickers commercial, the Doritos time machine spot and every year there are one or two that stand out.
My all-time fave was called “Toys” from 1997. It was a thinly veiled Ken and Barbie parody in which G.I. Joe took Barbie away in his 1997 Nissan 300ZX, while Van Halen sang “You Really Got Me.” Actually, Mattel Toys sued Nissan citing “irreparable damage.” Nissan countered with the fact that the G.I. Joe lookalike was named “Nick” and Barbie was “Roxanne” in the spot. Ken was “Tad.” The spot ended with the tagline: “Enjoy the Ride.” The case was settled out of court. I love the commercial, but marketing figures showed that the spot did not increase Nissan’s sales.
Even when the game is a run-away, many of us watch the commercials. So enjoy the game, the guests, the food, the fun of the day, and the national holiday aspect to the festivities, but stay for the commercials.
Can you think of any commercials that stand out or do you watch the game and only the game? Is six-and-a-half hours of pregame enough or not enough for you? Let me know at mike.blake@mountvernonnews.com
See you, next time.
