Super Bowl – You Talking To Me?
It has come and gone. 60 minutes of football with loads of pre-game hype, a half-time show, and TV advertisements that seem to equal the duration of the game. The Super Bowl – 22 men on a field fighting over possession of a leather ball while 100 million viewers watch remotely, many of them heavily invested in the game’s outcome.
This year, the game happened to be devoid of any excitement or suspense. It was a great day if you are a Seattle Seahawks fan, but no more than a yawn if you were a casual observer, and a nightmare if you were rooting for the Broncos. Still, the Super Bowl is good business. In fact, in terms of TV revenue, it’s a crazy business. Consider, for example, the fact that Fox charged $4M for TV spots; consider, too, that nobody among us is all that surprised by the $4M figure.
For a moment, though, ignore the spectacle, ignore the wild costs, and simply focus on the question of who is being targeted by the Superbowl. Ask yourself, Who are they trying to talk to?
Here are some observations that might help:
1) Football must be aspiring to become a classy sport and they used National Anthem singing opera star Renee Fleming to underscore the point. Chevy has been a long-time sponsor, but next year – Bentley? Rolls Royce?
2) 28-year old Bruno Mars belted the half-time entertainment, but if the economy doesn’t improve for unemployed twenty-somethings, the advertisers will soon have us back to the 70-year-old aging rockers (Paul McCartney, The Who, The Rolling Stones). Could it be another encore of Roger Daltrey singing My Generation?
3) Anheuser-Busch, the one-time king of beers, seems to have officially left the liquor business in favor of the pet (dog and horse) business;
4) Go Daddy must have signed up every last male customer because after years of alienating the 51% demographic they’ve finally decided to add females to their target audience.
5) It’s official that your blood thins as you get old. Leave it to Broadway Joe Namath to prove the point wearing a fur coat in 45 degree weather.
Sure, the game stunk, but it was never really about the game, was it.
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