The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is an iconic American institution. By far, the largest watched TV show of the year, every year. It’s a cultural phenomenon that we all watch the Super Bowl, even if it’s not our favorite team. However, I take the Super Bowl and rate it as three separate silos.
1. Was it a good competitive football game, where it came down to the last minute, in some cases, the final play of the game to determine the winner?
2. Was the halftime show entertaining?
3. Were the Super Bowl commercials great, funny and memorable? The worst thing to say about a commercial is, “Oh yeah, I remember that commercial, I just don’t know what the product or service was.” That would be a waste of $7 million for a 30-second spot.
This year, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35, winning on a field goal with eight seconds to go.
Yes, the New England Patriots have won six Super Bowls since the 2001 season, however, they won four of the six in the last 30 seconds of the Super Bowl.
Who can forget the Seattle Seahawks on the half-yard line against the New England Patriots in 2015, and they throw a pass with 0:22 seconds left that got intercepted by Malcolm Butler?
The 2017 Super Bowl, where the Atlanta Falcons were up 28-3 over the New England Patriots in the third quarter. Game over. There’s no way you come back from a 25-point deficit. Yet somehow New England clawed, kicked and scratched their way back into a 28-28 tie, going into overtime and winning the game. Unheard of!
The 1991 Super Bowl where Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood lines up for a field goal on the last play to win the game over the New York Giants and his kick goes wide right and the Giants win 20-19 and the Buffalo Bills go on to lose four consecutive Super Bowls.
Thank God the Super Bowl halftime show has morphed from 1967’s University of Arizona Marching Band, to Judy Garland in 1968, to Up With People in 1971, 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1986, to the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Team in 1972 and Disney’s “It’s a Small World” in 1977. It wasn’t until 1991 that they figured out rock stars create a buzz and had New Kids On the Block. This led to Michael Jackson in 1993, Diana Ross in 1996, Blues Brothers with ZZ Top (the worst lip-synced Super Bowl performance ever!) in 1997, Stevie Wonder in 1999, Phil Collins in 2000, Aerosmith and NSYNC in 2001, leading to U2, the best ever Super Bowl halftime performance ever in 2002. From there we had Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty and Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, The Who, Madonna, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, leading us to Rihanna.
Now comes the Super Bowl ads. It started off with Wendy’s 1984 “Where’s the Beef” ad with the little old ladies pointing at burgers where you can barely see any meat. For me, the greatest ad ever was the 1984 Apple Macintosh, spoofing the Orwell novel “1984.” A blue background (think IBM) as the clones with shaved heads silently watched the screen as the authoritarian ruler told them what to think. Along comes a female Olympic athlete with a hammer that she throws into the screen, shattering it and then the superimposed: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh and you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like “1984.” It was a rip on the IBM PC clones that Apple Computer was going to be a new freestyle form of computing. It worked.
The year’s most memorable Super Bowl ads were Breaking Bad’s spoof on PopCorners snacks, which brought back the classic characters, Walter White and Jessie Pinkman. The Workday ad, featuring aging rock stars Billy Idol, Ozzy Osborne, Joan Jett and Kiss’ Paul Stanley. Finally, Ben Affleck Dunk’ Donuts ad, which closes with J-Lo (his actual wife) pulling up to the drivethrough and saying to him, “Is this what you do when you say you’re going to work all day? Get me a glazed!” I would have had the next car be Jennifer Garner (his former wife) pulling up.