Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Super Bowl XLIV Rundown: Pop Culture Style

Here are my thoughts on this year's extravaganza:

The Super Bowl Ads:

This year's crop of commercials remind me of the ones for 2009. What I mean is that the commercials didn't seem to be trying to overshadow The Super Bowl. I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the economy and the reluctance of companies to shell out insane amounts of money for less than a minute of air time. Even with the seemingly scaled back strategy, there were some funny and memorable ads during the game:

The Cars.com commercial where the ultra knowledgeable Timothy Richman replaces the supremely confident David Abernathy from last year's spot.

The Snickers spot with gridiron greats Betty White & Abe Vigoda

The Doritos ad in which a kid smacks his mother's date

My two favorites were:

Teleflora.com commercial featuring the one and only Don Rickles as the talking flowers.




and

The Megan Fox Motorola commercial:




Daltrey, Townshend, and company rock the Sun Life Stadium


When it was announced last year that The Who (or what's left of them) would be starring in the halftime show for Super Bowl XLIV, I wasn't exactly Happy Jack. It wasn't because I don't like The Who, because I do. However, selecting them was another safe and predictable choice for the halftime performance. Plus, I had read stories about Roger Daltrey's voice losing its edge. I was pleasantly surprised because Roger sounded just fine to me. Plus, it's always cool to see Mr. Townsend give his axe the windmill treatment. As the 65 yr old Roger ripped through such Who classics as Pinball Wizard and Won't Get Fooled Again, I said to myself, "How do you think he does it? (I don't know)". Here is part 2 of the halftime performance:




Oh wait, there was a game...

In the end, the most important thing about Super Bowl Sunday is the game itself and this year's battle between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints went down to the last minute. Because of my affinity for the underdog, I was hoping the Saints would prevail and they did with a 31-17 victory. My favorite moment of the post-game celebration is Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees holding his 1 year old son Baylen. As Capt. Louis Renault would say, I am a rank sentimentalist.


What are your thoughts on the game itself, the commercials, and/or the Who's halftime performance?

4 comments:

Candy Minx said...

Yipppeee Porter was the icing on the cake. When he ran with the ball so unexpectantly, I just couldn't believe it! Turned out to be a very good game.

I thought all of the ads were really dull. The ones you mention were pretty good, but not spectacular. Very few had any challenge to the imagination and felt like rehashed ads. I think it must be the economy. I thought Jay Leno was cute. Nice touch. The halftime show was very good too. I wasn't super excited about the band but they did great. Their best tv performance for me was the night thy stole the stage for Tribute to Heroes. Last night was not bad though.

Janet said...

I liked the Betty White/Abe Vigoda one, too...Abe was so cool in Barney Miller. That face! I feel asleep seconds before half time, so missed the Who. Ahhhhh, me.

The Mistress of the Dark said...

I have my favorite commercials posted on Wenches. Oh and I'm happy with the outcome. Yay Saints!

Malcolm said...

Candy: I was hoping that Peyton Manning would throw an interception that would be returned for a TD. However, because Peyton rarely throws picks, I didn't think there was a chance of it happening.

I'll have to look for the Who performance you mentioned 'cuz I've never seen it.

Janet: Abe V. is one of those people who doesn't seem to age because he looked old 30-plus years ago. I took a nap earlier in the afternoon because I knew if I didn't, I would have been dead tired during the Super Bowl.

Mistress of the D: I was surprised (but happy) that the Saints won. Not only was it a great storyline due to the Saints' history and all that N.O. has gone through, but it was even a sweeter victory because hardly anyone thought they had a chance to beat the Colts.

 
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