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Home » Okay, Superbowl thread!

Okay, Superbowl thread!

The New Neo Posted on by

I don’t care about football. But I’ve got the TV on as I work, and if I’m rooting for anyone, it’s for the Saints, because I like underdogs.

But it’s the ads that interest me. The theme: manhood, with a few subthemes. It seems men need to assert themselves against the crush of domesticity—with special soaps made just for them, and special cars, too. And don’t forget the underwear! Lots of underwear!

So, you football fans—and you know who you are—here’s your thread.

Comments

Okay, Superbowl thread! — 77 Comments

  1. I skipped the stuff before the game…dare I ask how the Katrina stuff was covered?

  3. I hate to be a party-pooper, but on my list of “Top 1000 things I like to do,” watching pro sports is near the bottom, just below “cleaning toilets.” At least cleaning toilets serves a useful purpose.

    Don’t get me started on the ads.

    This afternoon I spent a half-hour teaching my younger daughter (7) to play the melody of a song on piano, while I played a rhythm part lower down, with both of us singing along. There’s not much that’s more rewarding than seeing your child’s eyes light up in pride as they learn.

  4. ANd I’m in N.O. environs listening to American Routes. But N. O. is ahead for the moment. I’ll stick my head in the sand and hope it sticks.

  5. Well I can’t help it, I love sports (even, and sometimes especially, NASCAR), I love football, and I love the Super Bowl. And as if that weren’t enough, I love Peyton. Tennessee fans love him already, his having been a Vol and all. Well the truth is I’m for Mr. Goodgame–and that’s what it looks like so far–rare enough for a Super Bowl! But the truth also is that I love the Colts. An old friend from my Pennsylvania hometown is a Colts trainer, and you know what I love Peyton. I’m pretty sure we’re good friends, I know him from watching his commercials and he knows me from seeing me watching them, and if I saw him in the Kroger some Saturday he’d for sure recognize me and we’d have a nice old buddies’ chat!

  6. Funny how the state of the art football offense has evolved to look strikingly similar to how we used to play in the street as kids. Pass..pass…pass…

  7. Steve H,

    I remember Super Bowl III, 1969, when the Colts (the Baltimore species) were so heavily favored because they had the best running game ever in the world, and Joe Willie Namath came out and passed them off the field. No one believed it, there were rumblings that Bubba Smith and his guys had maybe thrown the game, but that was the beginning of the ascendancy of the pass. So–it moved up from the streets to the pros. The game was improved from the bottom, up. That’s the best way. That’s the way we like it!

  9. Superbowl Sunday is also Guacamole Appreciation Day!

    Americans eat more guacamole today than any other day by a factor of ten. 3% of the avocados consumed in the US are eaten today. Just thought you’d like to know.

    Me, I’m finishing a plate of red beans and rice in solidarity with New Orleans.

    In a couple of hours a musician friend I met in New Orleans is coming over and we are going to listen to jazz.

  11. I spent the day defrosting the freezer, and now I have the smoker loaded with a dozen racks of ribs.

    And I used to be a huge football fan.

  12. I watched. What I, now, think about while watching football is the recent WSJ story that actual playing time in football game averages at only eleven of the game’s sixty minutes. All those video replays make it seem longer.

  13. Wow! Saints! Good game. I’m not a sports fan, but I do enjoy a common cultural experience….

    Ads: WTF was that Audi ad? Fear the Eco Police! Knuckle-under to them and buy an Audi. WTF?

  14. Gray: Yes, that was an awfully strange ad. But I think it was meant to be satiric.

    Hard to tell these days.

  16. Wait a minute…. The Eco Police arresting a guy for using an incandscent light bulb and beating hot-tubbers for having too-hot water are supposed to be the good guys? WTF?!

    The idea of Eco Police makes me reach for my pistol. They are the good guys?

    http://tinyurl.com/yj725gn

  17. Yeah, the Eco-Police ad gave me a WTF moment, too. It was much too uncomfortably close to reality to be funny.

    I’m not much of a football fan, but I’ll usually watch the playoffs and Super Bowl. This was a pretty good game, with some gutsy plays like going for it on fourth down, the onside kick, and the two-point conversion.

    I wasn’t all that impressed with this year’s crop of commercials. Some of them were kind of amusing, but nothing was really memorable.

  18. The commercials seem over the top. The ad agencies have the same problem Obama does. They got a shot at prime time and can’t help but over do it.

  19. I wasn’t all that impressed with this year’s crop of commercials. Some of them were kind of amusing, but nothing was really memorable.

    The Dorito’s commercial did the trick for me and my family. We lauged our asses off! With the Dorito throwing “star” and all Dorito’s Samurai outfit, that was very, very funny.

    The rest of them, m’eh….

    (Except for the eco-police one that made me want to do the Full-Elvis and shoot my TV. F you, Audi! I will never buy one of your overpriced, unreliable, finicky, crapmobiles no matter how much the eco-police beat me.)

  20. WHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  21. I didn’t see ANY particularly good commercials.

    Thus continues the dry spell of the last couple years for really good commercial themes.

    Not saying none of them were good — the e-trade baby commercials were decent — but there was nothing I actually LOLed at, really.

    And, of course, congrats to the Saints and their fans. They definitely played a perfect game.

  22. Hello, fellow Neocon readers. I, Ben, attending school in Baton Rouge, would like to scream “Who dat” right into everyone’s face then jump around while spilling my beer and howling like a lunatic.

    That is all. You may continue on your life path without further molestation.

  23. > Yeah, the Eco-Police ad gave me a WTF moment, too. It was much too uncomfortably close to reality to be funny.

    Yeah, it had exactly the opposite affect on me that they were after. I’m LESS likely to think well of Audi, now. I don’t see how “getting set up ahead of time for the eco gestapo” is a good thing.

    If course, I was never the target audience for audis — about the only model I’d ever even think of buying is the TT sportscar.

  24. I, Ben, attending school in Baton Rouge, would like to scream “Who dat” right into everyone’s face then jump around while spilling my beer and howling like a lunatic.

    And you deserve to enjoy every bit of that victory.

    They played like they belonged there. It was a great game.

  25. I would hope a guy with the handle “gatorbait” would be a Saint’s fan.

    They ain’t the Ain’ts anymore.

  26. Superbowl Sunday is also Guacamole Appreciation Day!

    I’m more likely to celebrate Guacamole Appreciation Day than the S.B.

    I do have the TV on to it, though.

    Speaking of Guac Appreciation day… how about that musical Taco Bell commercial? Now I feel like getting me a Nachos Bellgrande.

  27. Can’t even begin to tell people how terrific this is for the city of New Orleans and, as Drew Brees said, for all Americans–for their enormous generosity of money and time in coming to the rescue of a dead city that had no one to blame but itself for its demise. And three cheers to Queen Latifah who said in a pregame interview that she’s so incredibly proud to be an American. Jets flying overhead, flares bursting, people cheering. Who Dat say dey gonna beat these States?

  28. Halftime baby boomer nonsense. Pete Townsend is 65. Just make it stop. It’s not new. It’s not fresh. It is older than I am.

    Imagine playing music from 1927 at the 1967 Superbowl I! Yeah the kids sure love that “Me and My Shadow.” by Whispering Jack. It never gets old!

    Just make it stop. It’s old and it sucks. Stop the boomer cultural hegemony, it’s getting ridiculous. I’m sick to death of old men “rocking out”.

  29. At least most of the bands I loved in the 80’s had the good graces to age badly, break up and drop dead.

    However, I would love to see The Pixies as a halftime act.

  30. > The Dorito’s commercial did the trick for me and my family. We lauged our asses off! With the Dorito throwing “star” and all Dorito’s Samurai outfit, that was very, very funny.

    I’ll grant those were ok, I put those in the same arena as the e-trade baby stuff. It was cute, but it says a lot that I’d already forgotten it.

    I dunno, commercials in general have suffered. Where are the Budweiser frogs of today? The “Power of Cheese”? “Lite Beer Full Contact Golf”? Levis 501?

    Probably the only ones that still have that kind of real amusing charm is the AFLAC commercials. (The old Alltel commercials were equally good until Verizon ate them)

    Most commercials these days just really don’t stand out all that much.

  32. > I would hope a guy with the handle “gatorbait” would be a Saint’s fan.

    LOL, they COULD be University of Florida fans, you know. Though, “if you’re not a Gator, you’re gatorbait” does fit to fans of LSU, sure

    :oD

  33. The Budweiser Clydesdale commercial was okay, but not nearly as good as the ones they used to run. I liked the Google ad. Hated all the rest of them, especially the Doritos ads. And I can’t stand the talking baby ones. And the eco-police–distinctly not funny.

    What is happening to ad agencies’ creativity? I used to watch the Super Bowl just to see the commercials, but these were lame, lame, lame. Or is it just the terrible economic times that makes everything seem lame?

    Anyway, I’m glad the Saints could win and New Orleans has something to celebrate.

  35. I’m from New Orleans, .. a transplant , but New Orleanian to my core.. I even rode Katrina out in my living room ,hell ,I had tools and beer;what more did i need?

    GEAUX SAINTS!!! No more global warming because hell done froze over !!!!!

  36. Y’know, come to think of it, Janet Jackson’s tit ruined Superbowl Halftime Shows. Since that horrible incident, it’s been all Paul McCartney, The Who, Strolling Bones….

    Dammit.

  37. http://www.audiusa.com/us/brand/en/models/a3_tdi/green_police.html

    Coincidentally, there are numerous real Green Police units globally that are furthering green practices and environmental issues. For example, Israel’s main arm of the Ministry of Environmental ProtectionEnvironmental ProtectionAudi strives to help protect the environment in all aspects of our vehicle manufacturing.
    Environmental Protection in the area of enforcement and deterrence is called; you guessed it, the Green Police. New York has officers within the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation that are fondly called the “Green Police”. The Green Police is also the popular name for Vietnam’s Environmental Police Department and the UK has a group who dresses in green as part of the Environment Agency’s squad to monitor excessive CO2 emissions.

    Are you f’ing kidding me? I don’t even know what to say. It’s not satire. They think this is a good thing.

    This can’t be for real. I gotta be missing something. What’s the real joke here? What am I missing? No advertiser/company can be this tone deaf…. It’s gotta be satire, right? Right?

  38. While the Audi Green Police will be reaching over 100 million on Super Bowl Sunday, we hope that their efforts provide even a fraction of the benefits that the everyday official green police units in the United States, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Israel are having in educating their populace and enforcing environmental protection laws within their own countries.

    Oh, no….

  39. I don’t know if I should ‘never’ buy an Audi after that commercial or run and by one right away.

    One thing is for sure – they did appeal to MOST americans who don’t want people coming over and checking our hot tubs for the temperature, making sure we aren’t heating our home more than 68 degrees, not using incandescents

    But I’m not sure how sincere they really were as they weren’t pushing a Dodge Charger – but an Audi TDI.

    It was mixed as messages go. Mixed greens makes a salad. I want more meat. 🙂

  42. As a 39 year old who had a father with “The Who” records – I was left scratching my head.

    Nobody up and coming or current that can play the guitar and sing?

    Sheesh.

  43. Let’s see . . . if the Saints won the Superbowl and the Cowboys soundly defeated the Saints in the wild card playoff, then shouldn’t the Cowboys rightfully be the winners of the Superbowl? Just saying . . .. It was a pretty good game with the exception that Peyton Manning was not at his best and nor were those receivers who dropped passes. But, I love the cinderella stories of the city of NO and the story that Sean Peyton was the only coach who believed in Drew Brees after his shoulder surgery. Very good human interest stories.

  44. Gray: you might enjoy this thread about The Who’s performance.

    Yes, thanks. I did enjoy it. It was a pretty good discussion of the endless boomer cultural hegemony, and I was well pleased to see that Sra Althouse used my 1927-1967 example. (It’s a convenient comparison, low-hanging fruit, really….)

    I’m starting to think that Janet Jackson’s pierced nipple wif a metal corona around it ruined Superbowl halftime shows.

    But it is pretty funny that the countercultural “rebels” of 60’s lore are now the “safe” prime-time family entertainment. Hahahahaha!

  45. *sigh* I like the underdog story too and I can’t complain about the Saints winning – there are many things nice about it.

    But as someone from Tennessee I have to say it is disappointing to see Manning win on every front imaginable *except* the big one.

    In this case there is nothing to be bitter about – the saints simply out played the colts. It’s not like the Heisman where “it was time for a defensive player to win”, uh huh. Indeed – there is much to happy about for a team that has never been there to win.

    I guess this is what it was like to be a Buffalo Bills fan in the 90’s – everything but the super bowl. Then again I spent all afternoon in Star Trek Online so I can’t say I’m a big fan anyway – so win for me (now if only I had made Commander instead of a lousy LC8 tonight)!

  46. Gray:

    At least most of the bands I loved in the 80’s had the good graces to age badly, break up and drop dead.

    Good one! Actually, a number of the prominent Boomer musicians died young: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, James Morrison. John Lennon: not so young, but definitely early.

    While I am a Boomer, I don’t listen to that much Boomer music these days: classic choral music, Louis Armstrong, some doo-wop in recent days. I recently revisited Dylan’s Bringing it All Back Home , and remain impressed with his lyrics.

    I can understand why someone is tired of Bomer music. OTOH, that many teens and twenty-somethings like the Beatles attests to their openess and to the quality of the Beatles’ musicianship. I similarly got attached to the jazz and western swing of my parents’ generation. I consider myself fortunate to know a septuagenarian sax player — still playing in band dates- who in previous decades played in a band with one of the piano pounders from Bob Will’s Texas Playboys.

    For the first time with the exception of being overseas, I didn’t watch the Superbowl. . Didn’t miss it. Worked on the data farm instead.

  47. Stop the boomer cultural hegemony, it’s getting ridiculous. I’m sick to death of old men “rocking out”.

    Gray: Get used to it. Like it or not, kids in 1967 weren’t listening to music from forty years previous, but kids in 2010 are.

    And what’s wrong with old men rocking out? B. B. King is still bluesing out and the world is a richer place for it.

    As long as the Who, the Stones etc have huge audiences across all age groups you are going to hear that music.

  48. Anyone so inclined might check out the Stones concert film from a few years ago, “Shine a Light.”

    The Stones, Scorcese, and Buddy Guy are all downright wizened, gnarly old guys, but you get used to that and damn it’s still a hell of a rock film. Yet Christina Aguilera has no trouble fitting in.

    Any younger group wants to try to vault that bar is welcome, but it’s a pretty high bar.

  49. The last super bowl I watched was 1977. Minnesota vs. Pittsburgh. Actually, and for reasons I can’t get my hands around, it was the last football game I’ve ever watched. I was a fan of Fran. I have never owned a Who album. So there was nothing for me to see last night.

  50. “”What is happening to ad agencies’ creativity?””

    Same thing happening to most creators of movies and television. Their multicultural openmindedness pablum doesn’t dawn on them as the closed minded fundamentalist ideology that it is.

  51. re: the halftime show…

    Two words. Marching. Band.

    Remember those? Show up at the Orange Blossom Classic in Orlando between FAMU and BC some year. Catch the halftime.

    Then – tell me that’s not a skillion times better than watching Pete creak around and get that windmill to not “quite” synch up with the music. I’m a member of “my generation”, and it’s time to give it a rest, mates. When John E. passed on, that was a sign.

  52. The theme: manhood, with a few subthemes. It seems men need to assert themselves against the crush of domesticity…

    Indeed! My husband and the other man in the room thought the best commercial was the house made of beer cans. When the guys learn the cans are not empty but FULL OF BEER, they begin drinking the house apart, to the distress of the wife. Ha. Ha.

    Sadly, that pretty much sums up football season for me.

    This year’s commercials seemed tired, formulaic, cheap, immature, slightly desperate… and many were take-offs, or referred to, popular YouTube videos!

  53. I was struck by all the commercials about emasculated men who let women tell them how to live and what to do (don’t watch the game, put the seat down, come help with the scrapbooking!) It struck me funny that the way to find one’s Inner He-Man, according to these ads, is for the man to stop letting those pesky women order him around — and to do what the advertisers tell him too, instead!

  54. ARRRRRRRRRRRGGHGHGHG — “to” not “too.” Oh, for an editing feature — or at least the ability to delete one’s own semi-literate comment.

  55. Gray Says:


    At least most of the bands I loved in the 80’s had the good graces to age badly, break up and drop dead.

    Actually, I seem to remember that last year they had as their halftime show: Prince! and U-2 was on a few years ago.

    In any case, I’m a major fan of music, with the exception of rap music. I say long live Rock N’ Roll. That interests me much more than the S.B. itself.

    The Who were the best part of the evening for me.
    (They may even have helped the Saints win… isn’t that what they mean when they say WHO-dat?????)

  56. JohnC

    As usual Cowboy fans are delusional. The cowboys lost in the playoffs. The Saints won every game in the playoffs.

    If it’s any consolation – I’m a Redskins fan. It’s been awhile since 1991.

  58. I noticed there were a bunch of CBS adds. Guess they couldn’t sell all the time? Leno pitching Letterman?
    I agree with time for The Who to give it up. I say that all the time to my teen that likes The Who and all. I wouldn’t be cauch dead listening to the ’40’s Big Band music back in the ’70’s. (Even though I liked it 🙂

  59. I want the house made of bud light.

    No, you’re invited over. Get your own bud light.

  62. I made my 9-year old son get his shower at half time. He complained that he wanted to watch the half-time show. I told him it was just a bunch of guys as old as Grandma singing rock and roll. He said, “Well then forget it.”

  63. Cowboys Fan: Dude, the playoffs are single elimination.

    About the Who (or what’s left of the Who): I moved recently and the college-aged crew doing the packing and moving were listening to the Beatles. I got to explain to one of them why George and Ringo were better musicians than John and Paul. That was sweet. And heck yeah, I watched the halftime show and knew every note. The Superbowl organizers know that if they want to present a halftime of interest to the most fans, it’s got to be classic rock ‘n roll. And not only because the new generation has no manners. Janet and Justin, I’m looking at you.

    And what was really sweet: I had to explain to Mr. Bother why the Saints needed that two-point conversion! That’s a first.

    No more ain’ts! Next up: the Titans (former Oilers)!

  64. Does the next generation even play instruments??? 😉

    I took my daughters to see Raven in concert and there was music playing from somewhere – don’t know where – and Raven and her dancers were on stage dancing the whole show.

    Sure there was talent – but it was my VERY first concert without instruments.

  66. Baklava Says:

    “As usual Cowboy fans are delusional. The cowboys lost in the playoffs.”

    Delusion huh? HA HA! You might want to check your facts – – Cowboys won the wild card qualifying playoff game against the Eagles and they beat the Saints in the latter part of the regular season handily. So, by moral right they should be celebrated as the real winners of the SB.

    Actually, I had no problem with either the Saints or the Colts winning, as long as it wasn’t the Redskins nor the Eagles nor the Patriots got anywhere near the game (what a corrupt team the latter is). But the Saints was the ‘heart’ favorite and that tipped my support a little in their favor. I’m glad they won.

    My favorite ad was the one shown twice about the Obamites mortgaging our future. It wasn’t funny, It was sad. I saw the WHO once in an outdoor festival a longtime ago. Never one of my favorite 60s bands, but it amusing to see Pete and Roger up there again and I liked Pete’s windmill on the guitar. I noticed though that he didn’t do any of the the old high jumping; you know where he pulls his long legs up to his butt while he’s in the air. I bet Neo can still do some of her better ballet routines. Why not Pete Townsend doing some of his key stage routines?

  68. And therefore since the Vikings beat the Cowboys the Vikings should be champs ! 😉

    …using your Cowboy’s (reverse) logic. He he

  69. Baklava, for one thing, Pete is 64 years old. Also, you may have noticed there’s a little more of Pete than there used to be. Fond as I am of the band, I’m glad he wasn’t wearing the old white jumpsuit!

  70. the eminence of the rock and rollers is a testimoney to how we have stagnated.

    that since then, we havent really created better

    for if we have, we would ahve replaced those old timers a long time ago, aling with the big band era, etc.

    stagnation is the realm of dynasties.

  71. Artfldgr: thank you for your brevity.

    I admit I can’t get very serious about the larger implications of the WHO’s performance. It was just plain old fun to watch to me, although I confess another thing — I could’ve used some soaring guitar licks from Pete, although he’s not particularly gifted in that way. He didn’t do much of anything along that line last night and that’s too bad. An invitation to Eric Clapton as a guest musician might have helped or maybe he could have evoked the ghost of Jimi H.

  72. I admit I was concerned whether Roger would be able to scream the right note at the end of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” That could have been painful but fortunately for all, he was warmed up by then. How odd to hear Pete take the high vocal line over Roger.

    At least we had some soaring? bass licks. I haven’t been able to find the bass player’s name, but he understood what he was there to do and had the musical skill to do it.

    Artfldgr, does it bother you to be in a restaurant or other place piping in the satellite contemporary music channel, and at least 20% of the songs are covers of classic rock? I always believed the decadent art of a stagnant society would be fine arts (check) or architecture (check) or literature (dunno, I can avoid contemporary literature). But popular art such as pop music? I guess I didn’t think it would count. Whence all the covers? Can’t they write decent music? No, I don’t believe so….

  73. As a long time Saints fan I am incredulous.

    As a long time reader of this blog I hope that the wtf
    and the effing contraction are a result of Superbowl
    fervor, there is no need to lower the standard here in
    this day and time.

  74. I’d heard rumor that Obama was skydiving in with The Golden Knights and performing the half-time show, but Fellinini’s 8 1/2 was on another channel and I had a tough time staying focused on the hype…oh well, it’s February, Pitchers and Catchers report in a few days.

  75. It almost seemed like a memo went out to take the pants off men. Kind of odd to have more than one ad do that. I wonder if, on a subconscious level, it has anything to do with the fact that the unemployment rate for men is so much worse than for women. Men feel like they’re being stripped of their place in society.

  76. The no-pants thing was WEIRD. And the only ad that really made me laugh out loud – for real, not virtually LOL – was the Men’s Dove ad: “At last, there’s Dove for men!” I cracked up, hooted, “Yes, at last!” and that was it for me.

    (I’ve always hated the eTrade babies. I don’t get the point. Or, rather, I think the point’s LONG gone.)

    Favorite SB ad ever: back in, oh, 2000 or so: “Herding cats.” Man, that one was great. Beautiful, internally utterly consistent, and ohmygosh, SO funny.

  77. I forgot: the sheer ironic beauty of Daltry singing “Teenage Wasteland.” That was something.

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