As a lead-in to today’s main item, I’ve been a rabid NFL fan for more years than I care to mention. Lets just say that when I began watching the game on TV, the screen was round and about 9” in diameter, delivering a mostly snowy black and white picture.
Professional football's popularity increased over time, and in 1970, ABC TV's executive producer for sports, Roone Arledge, hired a guy named Howard Cosell to be a commentator for Monday Night Football. According to Wikipedia, Cosell “was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality.” Cosell offered his own self-description as "arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff.”
I mention him because, not only was his self-description accurate, in my particular case I felt he knew so little about the game, yet pontificated obnoxiously regardless, he caused me to turn the TV sound off. And I’ve never turned the volume up again when watching sports of any kind to this day.
As a result of my watching sports without sound, I know very little about the commercials broadcast during the games. In fact, most often I simply change the channel for a minute or two when they air or do something else; converse, get some refreshment, visit the lavatory, etc.
Nonetheless, I distinctly remember an ad featuring Pittsburgh Steeler all-pro defensive tackle, Mean Joe Green. Airing in 1979 the ad showed Joe on the way to the locker room after a game being approached by a young boy who offered him a sip of his Coke. After refusing the drink, Joe finally accepts, swallows it all in one gulp, then gives distraught the lad his game jersey in return, overwhelming the youngster with joy.
That ad, due to its poignancy and illustration of the relationship between adoring young fans and idolized superstars not only became legendary, but has to be the best football commercial ever aired.
Then, yesterday, the football channel ran a program "Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2015'' featuring former quarterback Boomer Esiason and Katharine McPhee.
Though not watching myself, I caught the last few minutes as my wife viewed the broadcast upon which I mentioned the Joe Green ad, telling her I was certain it had to be the best commercial of all time, regardless. And then, as I stood there, it was announced that Joe’s ad came in second, losing to one for Budweiser beer.
Scratching my head in confusion, I went to my computer, Googling to find that, according to a Wall Street Journal article by Nathalie Tadena, “Anheuser-Busch has spent more on Super Bowl advertising than any other marketer over the past five years. The parent company of Bud Light, the National Football League’s official beer, spent $152 million on Super Bowl spots from 2010 to 2014, according to Kantar Media.”
The statistic on advertising spending left me hoping that the sport itself isn’t as rigged as the bogus commercials ratings. However, you can judge Mean Joe's ad for yourself at this link: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCMQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxffOCZYX6F8&ei=jjjOVOegMOLgsAS0v4HIAg&usg=AFQjCNHktLc8df1gm9Por3vYQZkMwIqR1w&sig2=EqSBThp3IThrjVNto0OY3Q&bvm=bv.85076809,d.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
No comments:
Post a Comment