Oh, The Superbowl
Last night was the first football game, the first sporting event, really the first TV I had watched in a long time. It was powerful.
The ads were the first thing that caught my eye. Some of them were so engaging, funny, quirky, interesting, and there was even a good selection of them that was socially conscious!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/02/super-bowl-commercials-causes_n_6595518.html
There was a commercial drawing awareness to and aggressively attacking drinking and driving...this commercial was run by a beer company...
There was a commercial from Colgate (shout out!) about water conservation.
There was a car commercial about defying labels that I thought was pretty powerful. "This isn't a Man's car, or a Girl's car, etc. This is the people's car!!
There were also ads discussing domestic violence and disability!!
Of course not all the ads were socially conscious or even interesting. And I know cynically that even the ads that were socially conscious were not there because these companies were willing to spend lots of money on good causes; any ad is an investment, a calculated bet that getting the name out there on such a venue will overall improve sales to overcome the cost of the ad and profit.
Capitalism is just everywhere in the Superbowl. One of the Bud Light ads actually seemed to symbolize perfectly the role of corporations in politics. In this ad, the beer company claimed to be creating their own party, citing beer drinking as one of the grand unifiers or an otherwise disparate US... With ~10mil Bud Light was able to buy some air time on one of the biggest stages in the US. More people probably watch the SuperBowl than any political debate!
http://heavy.com/social/2016/02/amy-schumer-seth-rogen-bud-light-super-bowl-commercial-2016-watch-ad-beer-ronda-rousey/
One other thing that scared me/wierded-me-out was the cameras. I think atheletes in the Superbowl probably have more higher quality cameras and attentive camera men trained on their every move than prizoners, people in game shows, or anyone else in the world!
As the final misfortunes befell the Panthers, as their hopes and dreams of victory were danced on by the Broncos, we all (the viewers) got to watch Cam Newton's just-holding-back-tears face and all the sadness, hurt, and pain of defeat in HighDefinition. It would be weird to know that millions of people could be watching your every reaction, and even some of the dialogue you have on the sideline.
And the post-game!? Manning had to wade through the sea of cameras to meet with the opposing coach, only to share a few close words, yelled each others ears to be heard over the snap-snap-snap of the cameras and the hurried words of reporters. Then Manning met with maybe his coach and they had a more extended conversation/awkward photoshoot. During these few minutes, the two stood surrounded by walls of cameras stacked on top of one another, snapping and flashing wildly. I wouldn't be surprised if such an environment could cause PTSD.
And in Manning's final interview he name dropped Budweiser...how much money for one word? Surprisingly I just read an article that said Manning was not paid for this and actually did plan on drinking a lot of Budweiser that night. In fact, in other post-game interviews he has mentioned the urge to go drink some shitty American beer.
...oh I guess there was a football game to...
