Did anyone watch the Superbowl yesterday? I will begin by saying that I think it was a heck of a game (keep reading if your not into sports, the majority of this post does not deal with the game itself). The difference between winning and loosing came down to the first and only turnover in the game. It was also riddled with exciting fourth down conversions and just overall solid football. It was an added bonus that I was able to watch the game without too much riding on the outcome, as I have no strong feelings for either the Saints or the Colts (nonetheless congratulations on the win New Orleans). But I would like to also analyze, as so many (maybe too many) do, the peripherals of the game itself.
I am one to watch the Superbowl for the football, but many watch it for the commercials and the halftime show. In that realm, both were disappointing. At halftime The Who came out and preformed some of their greatest songs including a personal favorite "We Won't Get Fooled Again", but honestly they were really a disappointment. Their performance seemed to lack energy and well, they seemed worn-out. The Superbowl half time show, since the Janet Jackson exposure incident (her boob was on TV), has been dominated by classic bands such as the Rolling Stones and The Who. I don't believe this is right. The Superbowl is an experience highlighting our current culture. This includes the popular sport of football surrounded by adds of peoples favorite products and artists. The halftime show should be preformed by a current pop artist band, despite the fact that the Who is and will always be better than Rihanna.
Finally, the commercials. The commercials were terrible. Sure the Doritos shock collar and the Bud Light plane wreck lacked true creativity, but a good amount of them reinforced misogynistic values that fight against equality for women. The Levi's commercial highlights this by claiming it is time for men to wear the pants again, implying women have taken power and that needs to end. Flo TV also followed stereotypical models of gender roles portraying men as tough guys who always watch sports and women as annoying shoppers who care about nothing more then getting the most beautiful dress on the rack. Go Daddy showed a complete disregard for anything women have to offer outside of a hot body with commercials that had scantily dressed women getting even more scandalous as time went on. My only response to this is...really? Feel free to waste millions of dollars campaigning for your product during the Superbowl with uncreative and lame commercials but do not go on and perpetuate sexist messages that continue to plague our society with a perverse view on what and who women are.
But again, for me it is about the football and I enjoyed that!
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Its weird that in 2010, advertising and marketing hasn't quite caught up with the public's attitudes and expectations. Interesting, particularly given the fact of how these things (commercials and entertainment planning) are focus grouped to death. Maybe everyone involved forgot that women watch the Super Bowl? Or men who respect women watch football, or people born after 1970 listen to music, or a huge percentage of Levi's sales are women who buy jeans.
ReplyDeleteIts strange to actually think of yourself as a member of an audience and ask "is this actually intended for me?" Television advertising targeted to women isn't much better. I have yet to see a creative yogurt commercial. Welcome to the age of the mediocre. The low concept, high budget era. Look at Sarah Palin, look at Avatar, look at Dane Cook. And as long as we are complacent to sit in our easy chairs and keep consuming, all signs point to Idiocracy.
The alternative is we can go and make something ourselves. Start a sketch comedy group. Record your own hip hop track with GarageBand and open source software on your laptop. Make a film because we are all getting HD video on our digital cameras now. The amount of creativity you can find online through YouTube is substantially higher than that of cable television, IMHO. These things indicate that we might actually be headed to a DIY economy, and a few people have alrady figured out a profitable model for distributing their inventions.
I agree with you though. The actual game had some of the best football of any recent Super Bowl.
Here's another take, written by someone who works in advertising
ReplyDeleteHere's a question I posit to both Madison Avenue and Hollywood: How do I reclaim my masculinity in a way that does not involve the purchase of Dockers khakis, a Dodge Charger, or anything to do with Fight Club?
Man, I thought The Who was pretty good -- and I'll say that, as much as classic rock is music for our parents' generation, it's become more than ever music for our generation. While it's true that The Who and the Rolling Stones aren't getting any Top 40 play, they're selling a ton of t-shirts again, and a ton of downloadable tracks on Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Somehow I don't think it's 55-year-olds buying those up.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, and I know I'd be smart to tread lightly here, how big of a draw are sports for most people in our generation? I know a good number of sports fans my age, I suppose, but it seems like people are far more likely to strike up a conversation about movies or TV shows or even internet memes than a favorite football, baseball, or basketball team.
Maybe I'm wrong, though; maybe I'm just living in a weird little cultural bubble, having gone to a college without any serious sports contenders and living in a town without any professional teams.