Super Bowl Is State Of The Art Packaging Anti-Super Bowl Super Hype, Boring Game
A few people watch the Super Bowl for the game. More of us watch it for the commercials. Tune in Sunday, for the answer to the question all America is asking: What will O.J. do this year, now that he’s too busy to help with the coverage? Race through the airport on his way to the getaway car?
Anything could happen. If American business invested as much ingenuity in products and services as it invests in Super Bowl commercials, Japan’s economy would wither overnight.
You have to admit it: The Super Bowl represents the ultimate achievement of the hype industry. This is much, much more than an unusually boring football game. It’s the biggest exercise in makebelieve since Bill Clinton’s State of the Union address.
Two overpaid gangs of heavily padded steroid junkies pretend it’s an act of world-class athleticism to rupture each other’s kneecaps. Breathless sportscasters pretend to ask probing questions: What were your innermost feelings, Dirk, when you realized you’d lose? The commercials pretend we’ll all have a sizzling sex life if we drink (buuuuurp!) the right beer. Spouses pretend interest while the family football fanatics leap screaming from their Barcaloungers, spilling dip on the family dog. Football recruiters pretend this - this! - is a pot of gold worthy of a young man’s ambition.
Just when it dawns on a viewer that this is really, really dumb, Madison Avenue races to the rescue, making the whole experience memorable with a positively brilliant commercial. Eureka! We WILL have a sizzling sex life! If we buy a computer!
It even beats a good, dirty election campaign. For journalists and other connoisseurs of fraudulent packaging, the Super Bowl is the state of the art.
On the other hand, if you want breathtaking athletic suspense, you’ll have to wait for collegiate football to establish a national championship playoff game. School spirit injects more excitement into both players and fans than a pro’s paycheck ever did. College football, while it suffers its share of corruption and pretense, still seems almost like a sport.
Assuming, of course, that a sport is something you watch. If you’re one of those intellectual elites who believe a sport is something you do, then you LOVE Super Bowl Sunday. The ski trails aren’t so crowded.
xxxx “Super Bowl is more than just a game Pro-Super Bowl It’s the first sign of Spring.”
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