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Sincerely Super: Taking A National Holiday From â90s Attitude
In a pop culture thatâs geared to cut everything down to size, the Super Bowl thrives as a larger-than-life event. People whoâd sooner spit than watch football the rest of the year are happy to sit through a game whose outcome is often clear by the end of the first quarter. What makes it a unique phenomenon? In todayâs landscape of irony and attitude, itâs a tower of unalloyed sincerity. From players to coaches to die-hard fans, people do care desperately about who wins. The cheers and the locker-room pep talks have no irony to them, and thatâs refreshing these days. Super Sunday is the annual Square Woodstock, commanding attention even among those who arenât squares. For many Americans, itâs the one day they see people wearing crew cuts not as a goof but as a matter of unselfconscious habit. The fact that itâs so overblownâstarting with the word âSuperâ and all those Roman numeralsâunderscores the point that those involved in the game take it 100 percent seriously. The futile attempts to graft hipness onto the halftime show simply demonstrate the eventâs invincible unhipness. Only the commercials seem in dissonance with the tone of the day. For its advertisers, the Super Bowl is often a contest to see who can crack the funniest joke. This has added to the eveningâs entertainment value, but one wonders whether it makes best use of the telecastâs singular context. Instead of playing it for laughs, maybe more advertisers should treat the game as a rare chance to make an emotional connection with viewers.
Block That Putt! Pigskin Predilections
Lest the NBAâs labor troubles suggest pro athletes are just in it for the bucks, note this finding from a poll of NFL players conducted by Sport: Asked whether theyâd still play football if the average salary were just $75,000, 81 percent said yes. On the other hand, 26 percent said the money is the best thing about being an NFL pro, versus 2 percent rating women as the premier benefit. Another question indicated the relative prestige of major sports: âIf you could be a pro athlete in any other league, which would it be?â A majority (57 percent) chose the NBA, while 26 percent picked big-league baseball and 9 percent doffed their golf caps to the PGA. As for grander ambitions, the chart reveals that a typical NFL player would rather be a hero from another planet than a hero from another species.
Those 3 Words: The Love That Dare (Often) Speak Its Name
With Valentineâs Day approaching, it is time to expose an injustice. Men are always accused of being unable to tell the women in their lives, âI love you.â This charge is false, as we learn from a Seventeen survey of guys age 16-23. It turns out that 44 percent of respondents have taken the trouble to say âI love youâ to a girl when it wasnât even true! What more could one ask of them? Queried on whether theyâve âever actually said âI love youâ to a girlâ (truthfully or otherwise), 79 percent said âyes.â Thus, at least 35 percent of the lads have said âI love youâ when that avowal had the virtue of being true. Rah! Elsewhere in the poll, 53 percent said theyâve fallen in love at first sight. What about that sight might have worked the magic? Asked which sort of female attire most turns them on (worn by a girl, that is), 34 percent cited âa pretty dress,â 31 percent said âworn and faded jeansâ and 26 percent picked âan extra-tight sweater.â Asked to single out âthe sexiest thing about the girl youâre crushed out on right now,â 36 percent said itâs âher smile,â 26 percent spoke up for âher bodyâ and 20 percent opted for âher intelligence.â
MIXED BLESSINGS: Forgotten Passwords, Creativesâ Modesty, Devilish Doings, Etc.
Sometimes, computers make the most of human intelligence. Other times, they expose the gaps in it. In an online poll by CNN Interactive, people were asked how often they forget their computer passwords. While one-third âneverâ do so, they are outnumbered by those for whom such lapses are a monthly or even a weekly occurrence (11 percent and 19 percent, respectively). And keep in mind that the pool of respondents could not include anyone whoâd forgotten how to log on while the poll was posted.
Honors for Best Gratuitous Reference to Taxidermy go this week to an ad for CityBeat, an alternative weekly newspaper in Cincinnati. Is the aphoristic headline a bit opaque for your tastes? The ad (via the modestly named local shop Bob, the Agency) arms itself against any such criticism by including the motto, âNot Everyone Gets It.â One comes away fully persuaded by the claim that CityBeat offers an âalternative perspective.â
If consumers think product ads are often in questionable taste, they should see how agency creative people address their peers in the materials for industry award shows. Soliciting entries for the Piedmont Triad Advertising Federationâs Addy competition in North Carolina, the multi-urinal ad (under the headline, âsee how you measure upâ) is typical in its self-consciously wild-and-crazy tone. (The Burris Agency of High Point created the ad.) Why has such over-the-top imagery become a convention of the genre? Detractors of the ad biz will say that agency people are venting their natural immaturity, which is normally kept in check by the adult supervision their paying clients provide. Another theory presents itself, though: The bad-boy outrageousness reflects creativesâ embarrassment at the degree to which they indulge their self-congratulatory impulses. In other words, ads like the one shown here might reflect latent modesty, not rampant immodesty. After all, in few professions do people allot so much of their energies to giving each other awards for doing the jobs theyâre paid to do. Under the circumstances, ribald self-mockery (with or without urinals) could be the best coping device for those who canât stop obsessing about golds, lions, pencils and the like.
Will this be the next phenomenon to bedevil TV viewers? Just in the past few weeks, two spots have come our way in which deviled eggs, of all things, play a conspicuous role. A commercial for MovieFone (by Mad Dogs & Englishmen, New York) harkens back to a fictitious time when deviled eggs were the snack of choice at Americaâs movie theaters. Faux-vintage video shows moviegoers with cartons full of them. But times change, a voiceover tells us, and people moved on to popcornâjust as theyâll move on to MovieFone for all their movie-info needs. The other spot (from BVK/McDonald, Milwaukee) promotes the Milwaukee Admirals, a minor-league hockey team. âYeah, you could say I spend a little time in the penalty box,â confesses one of the teamâs more unruly players. As he steps into the sin bin, we see heâs furnished it with all the comforts of home. His easy chair is there, his TV set is there, his dog is there. And the snack that awaits him? A plateful of deviled eggs, of course. If this does turn into a trend, it will be a challenge to the nationâs food stylists and a boon to the nationâs egg industry.