Superbowl Suckage
We went to Applebee’s for some food and to watch the game. The place was pretty much a ghost town. We found a table with a nice view of the TV and we were set - or so we thought. Although the game was on, the volume was not. When we asked the waitress to turn the volume up she let us know that management wouldn’t let her turn the sound on.
Apparently the Applebee’s we were at didn’t pay the NFL for the right to show the game (all public establishments have to pay). I guess the manager thought it would be ok for his customers to see the game but not hear it. Not that hearing it is all that important. Who wants to listen to the old ‘n busted commentators any way? But that didn’t stop me. I was quick on the draw. From my jacket pocket I whipped out my scanner and tuned it to the frequency of the TV channel airing the game (FOX). I turned it up just enough for everyone at our table to hear and presto! We now had audio and video. It wasn’t a perfect solution. Since the TV was getting its picture via satellite the scanner’s audio was about 4 seconds ahead of the picture. It was actually kinda cool though. If there was a touchdown we’d know well before the rest of the people watching on TV.
The audio being ahead a few seconds bugged me during the commercials. I was looking forward to a couple of good laughs. But as it turned out the spots this year were stupid. Really stupid. Did you notice that most of the advertisers used cutesy animals—squirrels, horses, camels, pigeons, mice, dogs, pandas, and lizards—to endorse their products. Lame. I honestly couldn’t tell you what two-thirds of the ad’s were even promoting. If I had a company and was going to spend 2.7 million for 30 seconds of airtime I’d at least want to be sure people knew what I was pushing. Even the Victoria’s Secret commercial was a let down compared to the “exposure” that the Godaddy.com ad brought to the table. Even though FOX wouldn’t air the Godaddy ad it still managed a lot of hype. It’s sad really this year the big game drew more viewers than ever before. 97.5 million viewers to be exact. I mean seriously, the one time per year people actually want to watch commercials and the spots were pathetic.
Not being a huge football fan I usually watch for the halftime show and the commercials. FOX most likely chose Tom Petty to perform at half time to ensure there wouldn’t be a repeat of the “wardrobe malfunction” that still plagues CBS.
Tom didn’t have any dancers on stage. Boring.
The whole 2nd and 3rd quarter of the game neither team scored. Boring.
They only panned the camera on the cheerleaders once for a total of 5 seconds. Boring.
Personally I think it’s all backwards. I think the main focus should be on the cheerleaders rather than old guys in spandex. Who wants to see a dude smack another dudes butt when you could watch cheerleaders do that… I’d pay money to see that and I’m sure the price of a 30 second spot would quadruple. Hmmmm half naked girls or dudes in spandex. What you rather see more of? All I’m saying is that the superbowl would suck a lot less if only… 
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