The Super Bowl has risen to a mystical magnitude; a religious awakening; a cultic experience. Over 100 million will watch this year’s game on broadcast television and countless others on every type of electronic devise imaginable.
Millions will skip bathroom breaks in favor of watching the commercials, and others will skip food breaks to watch the half-time show. For practice, there was a network show earlier this week showing the best commercials from year’s past…and the network sold commercials to that show.
This year the cost of a 30-second commercial is $5.6 million and a minute almost double that. Additionally, the production costs run millions more. Most of the commercials are not even selling anything, they are just brand building or “introducing” their company to the “world.” I heard that Hard Rock is going all in to heighten recognition of their brand on its 50th anniversary. They hired the legendary Michael Bay to direct the one-minute commercial that will tell their story and that of the Seminole Tribe which owns the Hard Rock brand. Gary Vaynerchuk, a lifestyle guru with his own wine brand assisted in the production. [Tip: Follow Vaynerchuk on LinkedIn.]
From what I can see, most people don’t even care who wins, and they will assemble at Super Bowl parties with big wide screens and guests camped out in prime locations afraid to lose it if they get up for any reason including getting something to eat that is out of reaching range, and so they will spend most of the night uncomfortable and miserable camped in the first chair they plopped down in. Of course, those that bet on the game in one of the many permutations have an interest in every play, every score, every penalty, every time-out but half are guaranteed to leave as miserable as those that did not bet at all and who did not want to give up their seat.
A thought is that those that do not want to give up their seats probably will gain about 10 pounds because the only things they will eat are the chips and dip and chicken wings that are within reach and drink from the beer cans that could be brought to them. Probably about 3712 calories very high in fat, salt and possibly sugar. This alone is enough to have you swear off of Super Bowl parties, but these parties are very hard to detox from.
I might root for San Francisco since my wife and I were there in 2014 when they were playing Kansas City in the World Series and we stayed at a hotel some of the players were also at. I even thought of buying a SF hat. If I went to the game, I would have bought it, but not to wear walking around the city. However, last week I got two consecutive calls from accountants in Missouri and they were excited about the Chiefs so I wished them luck. So now I decided I will be rooting for both teams.
Whatever the outcome, I am sure I will have a good time, with adequate bathroom breaks, good food and will hold off on much of the chips (but not the beer) and hope you will also have a good time.
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