MetaFilter posts tagged with superbowl

No Census, No Feeling

twoleftfeet — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:03:54 -0800

Time was, even the Three Stooges didn't fear the Census. But now, turbulent political and economic times roiling the nation are expected to diminish initial participation by households in next year's Census. To counteract this, the Census will spend an unprecedented $326 million in marketing, including a Super Bowl ad, and will appear in a Spanish-language telenovela. The decennial Census, conducted every ten years since 1790, has always had to explain itself. There were PSAs in 1980, an outreach in 1990, and a whole campaign in 2000 (with its first Super Bowl ad). The 2010 Census has already led to a number of crazy conspiracy theories and possibly the death of a Census worker (previously) so the job may be harder. The Census provides a wealth of data (previously: 1, 2), but can the need for interesting facts keep us from fearing the people who come to our door?

cars Steelers Steelers springsteen SPRINGSTEEN football Cardinals

jokeefe — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:12:35 -0800

Twitter Chatter During the Super Bowl An interactive link from the New York Times.

Bomb, Blitz, Fumble, or Pass - Super Bowl Ads Go Long

taz — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:11:35 -0800

It's time to get ready for the Super Bowl... Ads! Adland has freely available archives of 37 years of commercials from the big game, over 2,800 ads - from 1969, when Winston, Salem, Camel, Tareyton, Pall Mall, and Silva Thins smoked up the Bowl *cough-cough*, all the way to 2008, when the best-liked ad was Bud's dalmation inspiration (how do we know it was best liked? SCIENCE!). Some highlights of the collection include: 1969 - Shall we take bets on the least expensively produced Super Bowl ad ever? I'll put my money on Gillette's Techmatic razor ad, but it's also cute and clever, and a great example of vintage animation of the period. 1973 - In what was probably the first Super Bowl "superstar" ad, "Broadway" Joe Namath is so excited because he's "gonna get creamed" by Farrah Fawcett. This is a landmark ad, and the only pre-'90s entry to appear on MSNBC's list of Sleaziest Super Bowl Ads of all time. 1980 - Scary-scary Mean Joe Green melted hearts with his "Hey Kid" Coca Cola ad, which weighs in at #1 on Gawker's list of most memorable Super Bowl ads, though ESPN claims it never debuted during a Super Bowl (see bottom note). This ad was such a winner that Coca Cola hopes to recreate the magic this year with a remake, featuring Coke Zero and Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu. 1984 - Apple's 1984 ad is certainly one of the most famous Super Bowl ads ever - and also one of the most expensive advertisements in television history, with with a budget of $900,000. It clocks in at #1 on a bevy of lists of best Super Bowl ads. 1994 - With his Wavy Lays ad poor Dan Quayle proved no more exciting in marketing than he was in politics, showing up on this list of television's most forgettable Super Bowl ads. zzzzzzzz. 1999 - A former Miss USA heats up the game with Ali Landry's 1999 Doritos ad, voted by Spike as number one in its list of Sexiest Super Bowl ads. This year also featured the offensive Kenyan Runner ad, called "the ad from hell" by Salon, and voted by Adland as number one on their list of the worst Super Bowl ads ever. 2007 - CGI wins the day with Coca Cola's Happiness Factory ad, chosen by DVICE as number one in its top 10 list of Super Bowl commercials featuring technology. 2008 - While now-President Barack Obama's regional campaign ad made history, Audi's Godfather ad got a heads-up on a lot of lists as #1 for the year, and Tide cleaned up with a (previously) Cannes award-winning spot. So... with the economic situation looking fairly desperate, can we expect 2009 Super Bowl ads to be fewer and less dazzling? Well... apparently, no? BloggingStocks says 2009 Bowl ad sales are strong (or are they?), and MSNBC reports that at $3 million, Super Bowl ad time is ... cheap? Either way, the Wall Street Journal advises Super Bowl ad-watching as stock strategy, and all we know for sure is that we won't be seeing PETA's Vegetarians Have Better Sex ad.

Tight on the Spiral

Horace Rumpole — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:39:27 -0800

Now that Super Bowl XLII is over, all that remains is for NFL Flims to tell the tale. Documenting the greatest moments of the game since 1962, NFL Films is known for its distinctive style, its stirring music, and, until his death in 1983, the "Voice of God" narration of John Facenda.

This one might suck too.

c:\awesome — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:42:37 -0800

Think this year's Super Bowl commercials sucked? MyBowlAd.com thinks so too. Three guys set up the website to raise $3 million for a 30 second Super Bowl 2008 commercial spot featuring the companies who purchase air time (in seconds). Oh yeah, it'll star "Internet celebrities," with the One Red Paperclip guy and Scotty and Fiddy on board. Could we have another Million Dollar Homepage on our hands?

Francis Scott Off-Key

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:14:13 -0800

Oh say can you see... (YT) the sound of Auto-Tune gone berserk?

Be Sure... To Drink... Your Ovaltine?

notmydesk — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:15:40 -0800

Hacking The Superbowl. John Hargrave spends $40,000 for an elaborate Superbowl prank -- duping the feds, cops, and stadium security in order to pass out thousands of lights to fans, who were told they would spell out "Prince" during the halftime show. Instead, they spell out, uh... well, something. Just what they spell is unclear (though some are having fun "guessing") and Hargrave hasn't said yet (his write-up is up to part 5, hopefully of 6). Can you tell? And was it worth the effort, or is this just an expensive dud?

Superbowl in three minutes

thirteenkiller — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 05:56:36 -0800

Superbowl in three minutes. (I love you Dallas Clark and Bobby Sanders.)

2007 Super Bowl ads

JPowers — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 20:14:39 -0800

2007 Super Bowl ads (note the multiple pages). And be sure to post your fav (mine = the Coke GTA spot).

She said yes!! That's a automatic first down.

dov3 — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:15:21 -0800

Would you marry me? A man wants to buy an ad during the Super Bowl to pop the question.

Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing

caddis — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 20:08:14 -0800

Motown history traded for Super Bowl parking. (mostly audio) The Motown Center in Detroit was torn down a few weeks ago and turned into Super Bowl parking. Although not the main recording studios, and long abandoned, it still contained many Motown documents and memorabilia, most of which were lost in the razing. Covered by local bloggers: dETROITfUNK (1, 2) , Detroit Blog (1, 2, 3, 4), and Kempa, plus local tv.

Bettis, Saddam share key to Detroit

b_thinky — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 05:04:02 -0800

Jerome Bettis is a hometown hero. After "leading" (OK, he doesn't play much anymore) his Pittsburgh Steelers to Super Bowl XL in his native Detroit, the locals came out to celebrate the future Hall of Famer. Last week was declared "Jerome Bettis Week" in Detroit and Bettis was awarded the key to the city. The last person to receive such an honor from the city? Saddam Hussein in 1980.

Steelers Win

allkindsoftime — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:44:58 -0800

The Steelers were 7-5, then won their final four regular-season games to secure the AFC's last playoff spot. They went to Cincinnati and won a wild-card game. They won at Indianapolis, which had the league's best record. And then they handed Denver its first home loss in the AFC championship game. And now they're the first 6th seed playoff team ever to win the Super Bowl. History made.

Superbowl Ad Roundup 2006

FeldBum — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:17:22 -0800

Is is just me, or have Superbowl ads gotten way too predictable. Here's hoping this year offers something new. 2006 brings Fabio sinking a gondola, an approved(!) GoDaddy ad, the first ever bilingual ad, and the commercials being offered on DVD and PodCast. Also keep an eye out for muppets, macgyver and machetes.

I hate linking to heavy, but they have all the banned ads, some of which are funny (especially the anti-mac one) and some were just made to be banned. You can see previous years' ads at iFilm.

Game? What game?

rooftop secrets — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 19:22:10 -0800

Some people said they sucked, but either way they're all here: the 2005 Super Bowl Commercials courtesey iFilm. Meanwhile ESPN dished up an all-time top ten list for Super Bowl commercials and had the readers do the same. (previous posting attempt credit to Doohickie)

3 Hour Puppy Bowl

schambers — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 12:29:56 -0800

It's All About the Puppy Bowl. To compete with yesterday's SuperBowl, the Animal Planet Channel aired three hours of puppies wrestling on a football field mat. There was no commentary and very little sound. 'Brilliant' does not begin to describe the result.

Was there a game on yesterday too?

braun_richard — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:40:50 -0800

Everything about the Super Bowl ads is here. You can vote on your favorites and least favorites, see what the experts picked, see the controversial spots that didn't make the cut, and more. (There are also links to info about some game that was played yesterday). My favorites? The Ameriquest ads: the one where the cat knocks over the sauce and it looks to the girlfriend like the guy is killing the cat, and the ad where the guy at the convenience store is mistaken for a robber.

Too tame to be fun

narebuc — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 13:23:26 -0800

Budweiser is pulling their "wardrobe malfunction" ad from the Super Bowl because they think someone might be offended by it. But, you can see the ad here: -- after going through their tough "age filter" and then clicking to the commercial. When you can't even make fun of stuff begging to made fun of anymore, that will be a sad day.

Nippallujah

CrazyJub — Sat, 03 Apr 2004 08:36:30 -0800

Start saving for your childrens future therapy. What they learned this month is dead bodies being burnt and strung up on a bridge is ok to print on the front page of a newspaper, and watch on the news at dinner time; but you better not see any nipple, even for a half a second.

The breasts of freedom

mathowie — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 14:33:58 -0800

If you like breasts and freedom, you might want to check out a new movement to Boycott the Grammys. The site links to various essays in support of Janet and opposition to the FCC and corporate reactions to the event. I suppose they want to send a message to advertisers by skipping it but it'll probably be about as effective as the class-action suit at accomplishing anything.

More Boobies

MintSauce — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 04:57:21 -0800

Janet Jackson's breast has become the most searched-for image in (Lycos) net history, even beating searches for 11 September. Nice to see everyone has their priorities straight.

bleh

delmoi — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 23:01:32 -0800

Superbowl ad, online at ifilm Is it just me, or did the ads seriously suck this time?

We are a part of a Bosom Nation...

Down10 — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 20:22:01 -0800

Janet Jackson pops out of dress at Super Bowl; CBS Apologizes. Note that this happened during Justin Timberlake's lyric of "I'm gonna get you naked by the end of this song." ..."It was not intentional and is regrettable," said Timberlake. Please direct all complaints to Viacom (owners of CBS, which aired the Super Bowl, and MTV, which produced the half-time show), if you felt offended. Me? I was pleased — it was one of the more entertaining half-time shows I've seen. Who needed the Lingerie Bowl?

CBS adds secret performer for Super Bowl halftime show

johnnydark — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 12:14:00 -0800

CBS adds secret performer for Super Bowl halftime show. "[A]bout 2,500 youngsters from area schools will pour onto the field to create a festival concert atmosphere..." Let me guess... Michael freakin' Jackson?

Latest media stunt: hot girl-on-girl gridiron action!

mathowie — Wed, 03 Dec 2003 10:48:36 -0800

This Super Bowl halftime, make it to the Lingere Bowl. American TV hits a new low by inventing another sport along the lines of Foxy Boxing and Hot Oil Wrestling. The gridiron action features Team Dream vs. Team Euphoria (featuring washed-up former NFL players as coaches) in full contact football while wearing skimpy clothing. Even weirder, but there will be cheerleaders to cheerlead the players that are already dolled up to look like cheerleaders in some sort of subtle hot lesbian action. It's all pay-per-view, but this "Girls Gone Football" seems more like a new low than a step forward for real women's sports.