Monday, February 08, 2010

Lightning Round - Super Bowl Sunday

Gotta go fast.
  • The game itself was satisfying, especially since the Saints played very well at the end and perhaps gave the rest of the world the formula for slowing down Peyton Manning. Sean Payton is one gutsy coach; the onside kick to start the 2nd half was perhaps the biggest roll of the dice I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. And Drew Brees was magnificent.
  • I've already seen some speculation that Manning's costly interception might hurt his overall legacy as a quarterback. I don't see it. He's done way too many good things in his career and he'll have a decent shot at getting back to the Super Bowl in the next year or two. Most people will tell you that the gold standard for quarterbacking in the modern era is Joe Montana. The league is different now; there are a lot of of really good quarterbacks playing right now and Peyton Manning is still the guy you'd want to have in the clutch.
  • Probably should say a few things about the ads. The Focus on the Family/Tim Tebow ad was pretty innocuous and it's amusing in retrospect to see how much fuss it created, although the fuss was awfully revealing. The most interesting ad by a long shot, at least from a political perspective, was the Audi "Green Police" ad. Audi seems to figure that it will sell cars by getting people ahead of the curve, but I think a lot of people won't see that sort of behavior as amusing. We are hectored all the time about our environmental sins and this is just a reminder of why the backlash against the greener than thou is coming.
  • Also, if I never see dudes in underwear again, or screaming chickens, that would be a good thing, too.

6 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

I thought the Audi ad was a public service. As I was watching I started asking myself, "Is someone clever enough to do satire this good?"

So here's the question I've got. What does Audi have against environmentalism? Many thanks to them whatever their answer is.

my name is Amanda said...

Also, if I never see dudes in underwear again, or screaming chickens, that would be a good thing, too..

Heh. Same here.

The Focus on the Family commercial was underwhelming, but I think the dialogue it generated was great.

The misogyny of other commercials bothered me much more. Yeah, women are constantly trying to emasculate men, but it's nice when the skinny ones wear bikinis, right? *sigh*

The hyperbole of the Audi commercial is what made it clever/funny, I thought. But I have a deep personal love of Audis and a desire to drive one regardless of the environmental impact. I would PREFER to feel better about driving one.

I am skeptical about a possible green backlash. There are backlashes everyday; I don't see some big movement in the future.

Mr. D said...

The misogyny of other commercials bothered me much more. Yeah, women are constantly trying to emasculate men, but it's nice when the skinny ones wear bikinis, right? *sigh*

Not gonna argue with you on that, Amanda. Emasculation was a running theme and I'm not sure what brought that on.

I've never driven an Audi, so I'll take your word for it. I like my Santa Fe just fine.

I am skeptical about a possible green backlash. There are backlashes everyday; I don't see some big movement in the future.

Watch and see. There's a lot of rumbling going on right now, and the "green police" is just part of it. The larger issue is coercion.

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed at how much money Budweiser Spent on their bud light brand. It seems that CBS spent much time hyping their shows, which would seem to mean that perhaps they didn't sell out all of the ad space. There have most certainly been better years for commecials. The Green Police commerial was rather Orwellian.

Steve Taylor said...

Amanda has obviously not attended a Kate Knuth town hall meeting...

Mr. D said...

Amanda has obviously not attended a Kate Knuth town hall meeting...

True, Steve. She's fortunate that way.