Monday, February 4, 2008

Superbowl Sunday

Yesterday was the big day. The day where major corporations spend ridiculously huge amounts of money for 30 seconds of advertising. The day when most people in North America are watching the same thing. The Superbowl. Despite the incredible action on the field (Woo Giants!) there was also some incredible action off the field. In fact that action happens to be unavailable to those present at the actual game. This action I'm referring to is advertising. Advertising has always been a big part of the Superbowl. Beer companies work hard to write some of the funniest commercials of the year so that their pride about their "Fresh Taste" can be heard by the masses. This is not something new to me, however this year soemthing very interesting piqued my curiosity. During the game we were reminded by the commentators and analysts (whose jobs also now include explaining to the viewer what is on after the supebowl) that if you missed any of the commercials during the superbowl go to myspace.com/superbowl to watch all your favourites. For some reason that shocked me. Media really is dying. Apparently people don't like missing commercials these days? This just goes to show how a huge aspect of watching tv is watching commercials, and those commercials seem as important as the programming itself, especially since there is a way that you can watch them at will at a human networking site. Not only are these advertisements being advertised, but a website as well. Maybe Myspace is trying to fight back against the Facebook community. It makes me wonder how much Myspace paid to get advertised during the Superbowl.
Another interesting thing. Halftime reports are nothing out of the ordinary for football games. But last night it was the "SOBE Life Water Halftime Report". Man was I excited to see this. The name made it sound so different than usual, I thought perhaps there would be some intense action requiring extreme amounts of hydration or maybe a SOBE lizard commenting on the game. Needless to say I was disappointed. The Halftime report was simply the same guys they ALWAYS have, doing a simple rundown on the game so far. I was seriously confused as to how this was the "Sobe Life Water Halftime report" until I saw a sign in the conference room that had that slogan on it. Really? Sobe calls it THEIR halftime report, but really they have nothing to do with it.
Media truly is dying. Advertisers aren't even trying to mask the fact that they're just trying to sell more stuff anymore. They instead make their advertising a form of entertainment in itself, and name events after their products simply because you know they paid a ridiculous sum of money to have their name simply on the screen at the same time.
I'm curious to know when original programming will end, and programs created by the advertisers will air. Imagine instead of the Superbowl, CorporateBowl! The Sports event for advertisers! Who will become the next champ of the TV?

for those interested in seeing an entire Myspace page dedicated to advertising, visit www.myspace.com/superbowl

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