At the risk of sounding like every other bummed out, whiny, frustrated New England Patriots fan, sure, I was disappointed by the outcome of the Super Bowl. I would liked to have seen the Patriots win and bring the Lombardi Trophy back to New England. And I hate the New York Giants almost as much as I hate the New York Yankees.
Still, I can’t deny that the Giants deserve kudos. They won, fair and square. Quite simply, Eli Manning and his guys outplayed Tom Brady and his. The Giants’ receivers made some remarkable clutch catches, while the Pats’ receivers seemed to suffer, particularly during those crucial, late-game drives, from a serious case of the dropsies.
So we need to cut Giselle Bundchen some slack. Brady’s supermodel girlfriend was just standing by her man when she reacted to “Manning rules” taunts by a Giants fan after Sunday’s game. “You have to catch the ball when you’re supposed to catch the ball,” she snapped back at the fan. Adding fuel to the flame, she continued, “My husband cannot fucking throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.”
And while that is so true, Giselle, perhaps next year, when Brady and the Patriots return to the Super Bowl and do win it all, you should try to keep in mind that old adage about how kids...and supermodels...should be seen and not heard, right?
But I digress. Getting back to the game, which was distressful for those of us who are Patriots fans, the real disappointment for me was the mediocrity of this year’s highly anticipated crop of Super Bowl commercials.
Make no mistake. I do enjoy the Super Bowl games, even when one of “my” teams is not playing and I am, therefore, relatively indifferent about the final outcome. As long as it’s not a lopsided blow-out, that is. A close, exciting, well-played football game is great to watch, even when you don’t really care all that much about the teams on the field.
But let’s be honest. When you aren’t really invested in the success of either team, the real attraction is the ads. As the New York Post recently reported, a Nielsen survey found that 51% of those who watch the Super Bowl do so more for the advertisements than for the actual game.
After all, when companies pay an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot and are competing for the hearts, minds, and, most important, wallets of more than 110 million viewers, you expect a lot.
So yes, I look forward to the creative, innovative, and entertaining Super Bowl ads. And no, I didn’t go to the internet to take a sneak peek at the Super Bowl ads released on the web days before the big game. I wanted to be surprised and delighted in “real-time” during the game.
Sadly, this year there were considerably more misses than hits. When you get right down to it, it was pretty much the same old thing. Dogs, polar bears, babies, mostly second-tier celebrities, beer, soda, cars, and, of course, sex. Honestly, I didn’t see much that was genuinely new and exciting...or even very entertaining.
I was really looking forward to this much anticipated rematch between the Patriots and Giants, the grudge game in which the Pats were going to achieve redemption and would show the world that what happened at the Super Bowl four years ago was a fluke. And I was eager to see all of the clever, creative, funny Super Bowl ads.
In the end, both turned out to be a super bust.
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