and they also played football

[jlh]

I love how one of the first things we saw after the Superbowl itself was Sue Sylvester talking about how bored she was.

I decided that since I wasn't going to a Superbowl party this year I'd just get some dips and have an at-home shindig for me and the roommate; Ali showed up later. I think our conversation was far more interesting than most of what was happening on screen. The game was good--interceptions turned into touchdowns are always exciting, and the Steelers kept up the pressure right until the end--but man, Joe Buck is just terrible. (Also Terry Bradshaw needs to cut his goddamned hair and Fox needs to lose the football-player-as-transformer mascot.) The BEP's were as dull, pointless and obvious as I thought they would be, given that will.i.am has ground any original thought out of his brain (he makes more money that way so I can't really blame him). Slash was just sad, and Usher's two minutes of dancing was more interesting than anything else that happened during that mess of a halftime show.

The ads were, I dunno, mixed? I don't have the distance on it all that I usually do, because I'm temporarily back in the business, and while I understand why PepsiMax decided they had to out-annoy all the annoying Bud Light ads, I'm still annoyed that they did it. There was so little that was new this year, really. I hate it when I can almost read the brief as I watch the ad. The X-Factor promos were ridiculous and over-the-top, which is usual for Mr. Cowell; I just found them hilarious. Anyone have ads they really enjoyed?

My local PBS station counterprogrammed with Jane Austen, which I thought was a pretty good idea. Tonight I will have another dinner of dip, which might be unwise but hey, at least I'll be dipping some broccoli into that leftover queso!

Comments

[stinaleigh]

What did you think about the Detroit ad? or rather the Chrysler 200 ad? That is all anyone from around here is talking about.

[jlh]

I liked it, but it's too bad for them that they placed after the Eminem Brisk ad, because I was like, why is there another Eminem ad?

[elements]

Oh so ditto. I was very WTF about the Brisk ad, which mindyfromohio noted made it hard to even tell what it was for, if you weren't already familiar with Brisk. It seemed like it was targeted to college/early-20s guys who are also in the 4Loco demographic, and we really don't buy that they're suddenly going to think iced tea is all that just because of an Eminem voiceover.

The Detroit ad was *awesome* and IMHO the best ad of the night, and if I were Chrysler I would have been seriously pissed at Eminem for diluting his impact by doing the Brisk ad. OTOH, it's their fault for not making it part of his contract not to do another Superbowl ad. Or at least not to do one that sucked so hard.

[jlh]

I liked the Brisk ad, but I really loved that campaign when it was first out. I agree that it didn't have a clearly defined strategy going on, but then again, nearly everything advertised during the superbowl is targeted toward men, young or middle-aged.

But I agree that Pepsi and Chrysler should have made that a watch-out, as the Brisk ad kind of diminised the Chrysler one a little.

[alwayswondered]

Was the Motorola Xoom ad on during the Superbowl? The girl in that one was a friend-of-a-friend's girlfriend. That is unfortunately all I have to contribute to discussion of the Superbowl, but it amused me (and made me weirdly jealous).

[jlh]

Yes, it was, though I wasn't paying super close attention I must admit. It flew past me a little bit.

[elements]

Did you see the #JaneAustenattheSuperbowl Twitter hashtag? Not all that, but some cute/clever.

I didn't understand why the BEPs had guest stars who were more awesome than them (or at least used to be). Usher was totally wasted; he could have held down the whole show on his own no prob. I appreciated not having it just be the BEPs and Fergie with her blah singing and will.i.am who could have a decent voice when he's not running it through a synthesizer all the time. (His commercialization only really bugs me because he really hit something with his Obama video, and I was sad to realize that was kind of it from him.)

[jlh]

I think they did it to make the show seem bigger? But there weren't enough of them and they weren't well used, and when you have those people you should have a final number where everyone is up on the stage together. Like, that's the whole point.