The Game within the Game

Ok, so I am about a day or so behind on everything with my blogging, so I will try to get caught up here today. In case you didn't know it, there is a huge pop culture phenomenon taking place this Sunday in Tampa, Florida. That phenomenon will be called Super Bowl 43 (I can't remember all the letters to do it in the Roman numerals, sorry but not really). I blogged about this early last week about the Cardinals being so unexpected and the Steelers having such tradition, so that is not what this will be about this week.

No I wanted to go with the other part of the Super Bowl: the Commercials. You know that you will watch at least part of the game (ok, the broadcast) for no other reason than to see the commercials that are being aired. And why not? Most times they are the best commercials that we see all year. This is where companies really pull out all the stops and go big or go home. Granted it's not always successful, but hey you might as well give it a shot.

This year the cost for a single :30 second slot in the game is a measly $3 million. Or as Walt Mueller of CPYU put it, "$100,000 per second." That's a lot of money. And the thing is, businesses pay it just to get thier product out there. This is due in large part to the fact that we are so very consumer driven at this time in our culture. These businesses know that if they are willing to dish the cash, people will see their product. And whether the ad is the best or the absolute worst, someone is going to see it and will give theat product some kind of chance thus making the ad a (small, marginal) success.

Now on a lighter note, here is a video of last years top 10 Super Bowl ads. These should be a taste of what we will be seeing again this year during timeouts, between quarters, after punt returns and kick returns, while the teams are in the huddle, and while there is still time left on the play clock...basically every possible chance.



Again, I'm taking the Cardinals 31-24, and a co-MVP of Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald. Peace and Love y'all.