Grid Effect

Sorry for the delay. I guess that’s the consequence of The Superbowl: late blog entries. Anyways, I am sure you are all thrilled to be back at work, currently I barely have the mental capacity to write anything at all, so writing something of substance is totally out of the question. Luckily for me every network bows down to the magnificent ratings power that is the NFL title game, and I have yet to watch last night’s Extras, so there is nothing new to discuss.

So let’s talk about Superbowl ads. My memory is a little foggy, but the people I was watching the game with clearly enjoyed the one where the two were playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for the last Bud Light. In yet another play on the inanity that is the paper beating rock, the guy who picked rock whipped one out at chucked at the guy’s forehead, probably killing him. Until he protests the result, “I threw paper”; without skipping a beat, his potential murderer retorts, “I threw a rock”. The second commercial than had some fanfare was the one witht he four women sitting in the car, and dozens of men begin to remove their clothes and molest the car, while the four women look on in horror, at the end a caption reads, “Guys just can’t seem to keep their hands off it.” Little can be derived from this other than the people I watched the game with are idiots.

But on a larger scale, I can’t recall enjoying a single commercial and I haven’t for at least ten years. One, because they’re commercials. Two, there is so much expectation for them that they often fall flat. As little as ten years ago, Superbowl commercials were regarded as secondary. A reason you could feed to your disinterested significant other who may want to engage in some other activity when the game is on, “You can watch the commercials” was always a great persuader. Any other day, such a suggestion might be misconstrued, as it sounds more like a chore than entertainment. But before the internet over-saturated superbowl commercial hype, they were worthwhile. Now we have anticipatory articles, review articles, contests, debates, news segments, and a million different people interpreting dozens of commercials a million different ways. I can’t think of any other faction of a media event that is blown out of proportion like this. Now the significant other prepares for the commercials more so than you do the game (which admittedly, can have it’s positives alongside its negatives).

And not to completely kill everyones buzz, but ultimately they are trying too push a product, when that is the main objective the room for creativity is marginalized (such is the problem with the majority of studio films nowadays. They are more interested in extracting the money out of your pocket than telling a great story). I just have a difficult time getting all in a huff over a few predictable quips conjured up in some ad execs office that are meant to brainwash me into buying a razor, a soda (At some point it can’t be worth the investment for Coca-Cola to keep pumping these out) or a car.

Again, I wasn’t exactly the bastion of sobreity last night and I didn’t make a point to watch all of the commercials (I missed the heralded K-Fed ad), but therein lies the problem: I didn’t really feel a need to. There is some backlash worth noting, it appears Superbowl commercial hype is now counter-productive. At least with me… and that doesn’t really matter because I do not have any money to buy shit with anyways. So just disregard all of this.