Translate This Blog

Friday, January 31, 2014

The Super Bowl! Time For Commercials

Here in the US one of the biggest TV and sporting events of the year is the Super Bowl, the culmination of American football for the season where the top two teams compete in a single game for the championship.  To most Americans this is a BIG DEAL.  To me?  Not so much.  You see, I'm not a sports person.  I'm a big-time geek and really could care less about the outcome of most sporting events.  I've been to a couple of football games in high school, and a few professional baseball games, but otherwise I haven't had an interest in most sports.  Honestly, I'd have to Google who is even playing in this year's Super Bowl.

But there are a few quirky, interesting things that go along with this game.  First, the NFL (National Football League) is extremely protective of the name "Super Bowl".  No other company or organization can use this in any promotions or descriptions without the risk of a lawsuit.  Only the NFL itself can officially refer to it as The Super Bowl.  Everyone else has to say "the Big Game".  I can see where the NFL wants to protect it's intellectual property, but give me a break.    Even companies advertising during the game have to say "Big Game commercials" rather than "Super Bowl commercials".  Very petty of the NFL as far as I'm concerned.

And that brings us to the other interesting thing about the Super Bowl (sorry, I refuse to bow to the overblown egos at the NFL) is that it is the biggest event of the year for commercials.  Yes, that's right.  For those outside of the US, this one game is where companies spend the most money on commercials and deliberately work to put out the most interesting and catchy advertisements.  It has become as popular to watch just for the commercials as much as for the game itself.  And there really are some great commercials out there!

Thankfully because of the internet many of these are released early and I don't have to sit through boring football to watch the fun stuff.  Here are my favorite ones so far from this year.  The first two aren't necessarily from the Super Bowl, but are fun anyway.



This one is just simply adorable and sweet.

I'm a huge fan of the Muppets, especially Animal, so of course I love this one.

And here is my absolute favorite one!  Anyone who works with animals, especially in the veterinary field, will laugh while they're glad this doesn't actually exist.