GREEN AND GOLD: Congratulations to Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Mike McCarthy, the 112,158 owners and millions of fans of the Green Bay Packers. All thoughts on the game and the between-the-game stuff are welcome.
The three ads that I enjoyed most: Eminem/Chrysler; Budweiser/"Wild West" and, of course, Volkswagen. Worst? The other Eminem ad, among others.
added: AdMeter results -- the Bud Light and Doritos dog ads tie for first with Little Lord Vader just behind, and the masses neither like Adrien Brody nor Hyundai.
<span> "What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last reaming." Really, Xtina?</span>
ReplyDeletePepsi Max, the official soft drink of sudden acts of violence.
ReplyDeleteI'm psyched! It was such a good game, and I'm so, so thrilled to see my team win the game. My only disappointment is that my favorite player, Charles Woodson, went out with a broken collarbone in the second quarter. And that second half was a total nailbiter.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I skipped watching the halftime show to make brownies. Zero regrets.
I think the worst ad was Groupon's Tibet ad, with Pepsi Max a close second.
I was going to get into the annual violence against women thing, but I didn't want to think about the Snickers ad again.
ReplyDeleteMissed the Groupon ad after watching in horror as my kids got to see the Pepsi Max ad. Skipped through the rest of the ads til they went to bed.
ReplyDeleteSo who are the pool frontrunners? And can we put to bed any inclination to call the Peas a good live band? Because that was the weakest halftime show in a while.
I guess this year was better than last on the ladyhatin', but it wasn't really a banner year on that front, was it?
ReplyDeleteThe Empire State Building is already lit up in Green and Yellow.
ReplyDeleteFor the commercials--now even more excited for Captain America (though kinda wish it wasn't in 3D) and Super 8, but still not sold on Thor/Pirates 4.
The most fascinating thing to me is how polarized the reaction to the halftime show was--my Twitter feed generally HATED it with the fire of a thousand suns, while the party I was at (heavily 25-35) was pretty into it despite the tech snafus. (As for me, I thought the Black Eyed Peas did what the Black Eyed Peas do.)
Truly remarkable that we had a singer forget the words to the National Anthem and it still wasn't the worst musical performance of the night.
ReplyDeleteThe Groupon Tibet ad made me ill...
ReplyDeleteWhich Snickers ad? Sacking Betty White?
ReplyDeleteI don't care if it means I'm the lamest, but I LOVED the halftime show. I liked that it was one big mashup (even though it meant big trouble for question 4 in the pool). The cameos, even though I was spoiled about them, were really fun, and made me anticipate Justin Timberlake so hard that I think I hallucinated he was there.
ReplyDeletePlus Taboo had a light-up heart on his chest. That right there is enough to make my own heart alight.
I actually rather liked the Groupon ad, as it rather made fun of a certain segment of its audience. "I care deeply about Tibet. So much that I ate some Tibetan food."
ReplyDeleteI just wish someone at one of these events would go for broke and drop the third verse instead.
ReplyDeleteMy part (heavily 30-40) also was pretty impressed with the Peas, despite none of us looking forward to it. The reaction definitely was, "for what the Black Eyed Peas do, that was okay. Ooooo! Lights!"
ReplyDeleteLoved Darth Vadar-Volkswagon. Eminem-Chrylser had the whole party silent, so that was good, too. And we liked Wild West-Budweiser and also Bridgestone-get back the e-mail sent to everyone.
That ad for the Black Eyed Peas sucked.
ReplyDeleteWe had the volume at half-mast at my bar, so maybe that's why, but we (Megan and I) LOVED that halftime show! The dancers were so surreal, the moment where I was like, "Slash is gonna be here? Slash is gonna be here!" And then he was! Then that moment where I was like, "Well, that Slash thing was cool, but they should have put that towards the end, because now they have nowhere to go with the sur-USHER'S HERE!"
ReplyDeleteSeriously, all things aside, spectacle like that takes a LOT of work, and I thought it was pretty awesome. My roommate disagrees, but he's wrong about stuff a lot.
Wasn't thrilled with the halftime show, but I'm not a Black-Eyes Peas fan to begin with, so I'm the wrong person to judge. But I give them extra-credit for the Slash cameo.
ReplyDeleteWorst commercials were easily GoDaddy and Coca Cola. Best commercial? I liked Pepsi Max ("I want to sleep with her, I want to sleep with her, I want to sleep with her ... I wasnt a Pepsi Max, I want a Pepsi Max, I want a Pepsi Max.") My kids were laughing so hard at that one -- even though I'm not sure they really understood it -- that they barely had the breath to laugh again at person getting hit in the groin in the following commercial.
As part of my War of 1812 lecture, I do a whole section on the "Star-Spangled Banner". Last semester, I summed up the sentiment of the third verse as "Suck it, Britain!"
ReplyDeleteI think either Dan Suitor or GoldnI wins the pool; anyone want to weigh in?
ReplyDeleteWell, if it's the Pepsi Max ad I think you're thinking of, it topped off an impressive run of ads stereotyping/demeaning to gays (Doritos), the elderly (some car company), and African-American women.
ReplyDeleteI found the "Imported from Detroit" ad a little long and unfocused. The Chevy Volt ad was more effective, in my opinion, in that it had a direct story to tell, linking electricity with innovation. (Did it seem like there were way more car ads than ususual -- making up for lost time?)
The Bud Light "product placement" ad was cute.
The game itself was close and exciting at the end, but overall, I thought the play was sloppy. The Pack secondary really won that game though, not just with turnovers, but with a lot of quick tackles.
Just here to give some love to the Kia Optima "one epic ride" ad.
ReplyDeleteI found the Tibet ad funny. When it first started, I thought, "Oh, no, a celebrity is going to educate me about world issues during the Super Bowl. Blech." Then when it turned, I liked it. Especially because I thinkTimothy Hutton is a perfect choice for that - you could buy him as smart enough to care about world issues, but I also think he's sarcastic enough to make fun of that type of celebrity appeal.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm still trying to figure out the Sam Elliott introductions. I mean, it's always cool to see Sam Elliott, but it seemed kind of random. You couldn't get Tony Shaloub to introduce the Packers?
ReplyDeleteMy husband spent the entire halftime show turning to me and saying, "Wait, they sing that song too?" Yes, the Black-Eyed Peas, source of every song that you know but wish you didn't from the last 8 years.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Chrysler commercial.
Tough call. Dan was closer on the score, but both picked the Packers. GoldNI had the correct Ad Meter winner. GoldNI also might have gotten some sort of bonus on the fourth question if you consider flubbing the lyrics to the national anthem a "technical problem," though he also included a song that I don't think the Black Eyed Peas performed (Just Can't Get Enough) last night. Both got their tiebreaker question correct.
ReplyDeleteNo bonus points for calling Liverpool's win at Stamford Bridge? You made the ghost of Bill Shankly cry.
ReplyDeleteWent two for two on the games and, as a Detroiter, got win #3 from the Eminem ad. Holy crap was that good. And I was able to go, "Know that, been there, DIA Rivera mural, the Fist, know that, Keep Detroit Beautiful, nice, worked there..."
I'm happy.
Keep Detroit Beautiful has been around in one form or another for over forty years.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120404684672546 (Expand the page)
Current Incarnation:
http://keepdetroitbeautiful.com/
--bd
Most of the guests at the party I attended did not know that the "Dirty Bit/I Had the Time of My Life" travesty was BEP. One person actually said, "wait, that's a real song?"
ReplyDeleteOnce I saw Sam, I was hoping for at least one tumbleweed.
ReplyDeletegretchen, my 9-year old daughter said the same thing, for every song except "I've Gotta Feeling" (which she knew was the Peas) and "Sweet Child O'Mine" (which she'd never heard before, and still has never heard sung well).
ReplyDeleteConfession: I myself probably wouldn't have known half of the Peas' setlist were Peas' songs but for the impromptu YouTube research I did to enter the ALOTT5MA pool. And also but for the autotuning.
It was a weird year for the pool, between the halftime act inserting a cover into their show and the Ad Meter ending up in a tie.
ReplyDeleteWhomever you say wins is good with me, Adam. I am just sitting here, hoping that Brett Favre woke up with a hangover induced from watching his former team win the Super Bowl, weeping copious tears, drinking cheap beer, and smearing the orange goop from cheese puffs all over his furniture.
Which one had a tiebreaker question with greater odds? I remember that being a pool factor, that harder questions would get more credit.
ReplyDeleteThe kiddo was so happy to get the prediction of first TD right.
Does Suitor's prop bet at +300 have tougher odds than Goldnl's at +145? (I just read FO's explanation three times and I didn't quite grok it. I may be a rambling man, but I am no gambling man.)
ReplyDeleteI thought I was all clever with my Cliff Claven-esque non-pick pick of the Peas' halftime set to be "four songs that have never been played in my kitchen" and then they had to go and ruin that with a cover of Sweet Child of Mine.
<span>I was sad to be on the road and unable to submit an entry in an attempt to three-peat, but looking at the results I'm kinda glad -- I would have had no chance at this one.</span>
ReplyDeleteThat's correct: +300 means "If you wager $100, you net $300 if you win." Minus bets are the opposite. A -300 line means "You have to wager $300 to win $100."
ReplyDeleteI'd like to make my case for winning the pool:
ReplyDelete1. I got the prop bet right in predicting there would be a defensive TD.
2. I correctly predicted the MVP
3. I took the over on Christina going longer than 1:52
4. I thought there would be some sort of technical problem with the National Anthem, and Christina did TECHNICALLY get the lyrics wrong.
5. Anheuser-Busch did top the ad charts.
6. I'm a soon-to-be unemployed 3L and I could really use some sort of win in life right now :p
Whats blows my mind is that what is basically a cover band headlines the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
ReplyDeleteDid Fergie have to guarantee that those puppies wouldn't get loose?
Yeah, but his prop bet was harder. It's a close call. The Xtina "technical glitch" may win this for you. The Council will meet.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping for any kind of Roadhouse reference. "And Troy Polamalua? I've heard he can rip a guy's throat out with his hair!"
ReplyDelete