As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of good advertising. Ironically, the “Super Bowl of Advertising” is…um…the Super Bowl itself. In fact, there are quite a number of people who watch the game, not for the game, but for the ads. This year, I have to admit, I’m kinda torn. While I’m a die-hard Cowboys fan (in spite of players like T.O. and other crybabies, and the embarrassment that is Jerry Jones), I’ve loved the Steelers since I was a kid. I grew up in Shreveport, the home town of Terry Bradshaw. While Terry is almost a decade older than I am, we both had the same high school history teacher (and consider this a grok shout-out to Martha Watson, wherever you are). Terry used to show up several times a year, to visit Ms. Watson, which, for a high school kid, was like having royalty descend on your school. By that time, he’d been with the Steelers for a few years. (I actually got to see him play an exhibition game at the start of his rookie year, in Shreveport, against the then-Boston Patriots.) At the time, he was still a couple of years away from the first of his two Super Bowl rings. So, for no better reason than I like my fellow Shreveporter Bradshaw, I have to pull for the Steelers. On the other hand, I’ve always felt sorry for the Cardinals. From the time when they used to be a part of the Cowboy’s division, the NFC East, the Cardinals have, historically, been a league joke/doormat/afterthought. Not today. With the “on any given Sunday” axiom in the NFL, it’s possible – although not likely – that the league’s perennial patsies Could Go All The Way. Stay tuned.
So much for the game. What REALLY matters to us advertising types is the quality of the ads. This will be an interesting year for Super Bowl ads, given the current state of the economy. The last time we had a significant downturn in the economy (when the Internet bubble burst just before the turn of the millennium), we had a crop of crapalicious ads. Some were funny/memorable – like the eTrade.com ad that had their chimp riding a horse through the dot-bomb carnage. (I still remember “pimentoloaf.com” and the battered Pets.com sock puppet landing at the Chimp’s feet. Classic.) However most of the ads were…um…forgettable, at best, truly awful, at worst. (A side note – the last time Arizona Cardinals QB Kurt Warner was in the Big Show, it was 2000 – the year of some of the most memorable spots, in what became known as the Dot-Com Bowl. ) 2001 was the year that EDS followed up their immortal “Herding Cats” ad with the disastrous “Running of the Squirrels” spot. Bob Dole parodied his creepy Viagra ad with an even creepier ad for Pepsi. And what passed for the “Best of Show” was the first late, lamented Cedric the Entertainer ad for Bud. Want more proof, or you’d like to see for yourself? Try the USA Ad Meter, and take a look.
What will happen tonight? Well…we’ll see, starting in about 5 minutes. See you after the game.
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