Super Bowl ads and halftime show score with all types of viewers

    Last Sunday, millions of people tuned in to watch the year's most anticipated game of football, an all-American game celebrated in a truly all-American way. But even viewers for whom the term "down" signifies no more than direction, and who only came for the excuse to drink beer and eat junk food, this Super Bowl was truly entertaining.
    For some people, the only reason to watch the Super Bowl is to see the new high-budget advertisements. This year, companies shelled out big bucks to reach the nearly 98.7 million Americans who watched Super Bowl XLIII. Estimates put the cost of each 30 second advertisement at about $30 million, and companies did their best to make the cost worthwhile.
    "Advertisers are struggling to come to terms with new technologies, [such as] Tivo and other devices, [which] allow us to circumvent advertising," Sarah Sobieraj, an assistant professor of sociology at Tufts, said in an e-mail to the Daily. "The Super Bowl is one of those rare remaining moments when advertisers know they will have one, large audience, so they pull out all the stops."
    Most Super Bowl ads cater to a football audience. Not surprisingly, some of the this year's best, most numerous ads promoted chips and beer.
    Early on, Doritos claimed the prize for the most entertaining commercial with their ad, "Crystal Ball." It features a man holding a "crystal ball" (which is really a snow globe) who, when a co-worker doubts its powers, wishes for free Doritos at the office. Disappointed that his wish doesn't come true, he throws the snow globe at a vending machine, shattering the glass and giving him access to his coveted snack. Contrary to popular belief, this ad was not created by some suit-wearing genius in a marketing office. Dave and Joe Herbert from Indiana made the ad for under $2000, winning the 2009 Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" contest after narrowly missing the win last year.
    Budweiser returned with some of its classic ads and its more modern spots for Bud Light. Clydesdale horses and Dalmatians were out in full force, but the spark that once made the brewer's ads special was missing. One Budweiser ad featured a dog fetching a stick and a jealous Clydesdale one-upping the dog by fetching an entire tree branch. While this may be amusing, it cannot compete with similar past clips that included a horse football game refereed by a zebra.
    Another Budweiser ad focused on a Scottish Clydes-dale immigrating to America. However heartwarming the story was, it probably didn't resonate with Budweiser's target audience. Luckily, the Bud Light commercials easily made up for the mistakes of the Budweiser ads.
    It should be noted that many Super Bowl ads tried to use star power to attract customers. A Bud Light advertisement featured Conan O'Brien in an outrageously over-produced, Swedish-themed spectacle, and Alec Baldwin starred in an ad for Hulu.com, the popular video streaming website that is sponsored by NBC. In the ad Baldwin exposed Hulu's "true" motive: turning human brains to mush so that he and other celebrities can eat them.
    But the most ridiculous use of celebrity endorsement came from the gold-melting-scheme Web-site cash4gold.com. It features Ed McMahon and MC Hammer showing off all the gold things they can trade in for cash. The sad part is that both of these men fell into financial trouble recently, and they might actually need to start selling off their gold-plated giraffes and golden hammer pants once they burn through the money they earned making these ads.
    Another amusing, celebrity-studded ad was a spin-off of Saturday Night Live's digital short MacGruber (a parody of MacGyver). The short guest-stars the actual MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson, as MacGruber sells out to provide product placement to Pepsi by changing his name to Pepsuber.
    Super Bowl ad space was also filled with tons of movie trailers for anticipated releases. The trailer for "Year One" (2009), starring Jack Black and Michael Cera, did not show much promise. Going off of what the ad portrays, Black will act like a goofball (surprise) and Cera will play every character he's ever played since George-Michael Bluth. Big name action flicks also made an appearance: "Transformers 2" (2009) and "Star Trek" (2009) both featured clips of explosions and mayhem to excite fans and other viewers. Animated films such as "Aliens vs. Monsters" (2009) and "Up" (2009) were also previewed, although most of the target audience for these movies probably didn't get a chance to see the ads.
    The most disappointing and over-rated ads of the evening were those by Vizio, Miller High Life and, once again, Godaddy.com. Vizio, the TV maker, made an almost minimalist ad, with just text and a voiceover. For $3 million, it seemed like a waste of time and money. Miller High Life ran a one-second ad that could be interpreted as a subliminal message. While the ad only cost them about $150,000, it's safe to assume that most people missed it since it was so short.
    Godaddy.com, an online webhosting service, is known for its shamelessly eye-catching ads in past years. Usually, they end with a message advising the viewer to visit their website to see the shocking conclusions that could not air on television. These ads are merely suggestive at best, since the extra material is never what viewers are led to expect.
    But the cutting-edge ads are not the only Super Bowl entertainment for viewers indifferent to pigskin. The halftime show (conspicuously performed by old, uncontroversial artists since the "wardrobe malfunction" of 2004) is a long-celebrated event. Hundreds of music fans wait outside the stadium for hours, flooding onto the field at halftime for a free, 12-minute concert.
    When Bruce Springsteen took the stage for the Super Bowl halftime show this year, expectations were, quite naturally, through the roof. This was, after all, "The Boss," a classic rocker who is no stranger to stadium-sized venues. With a super-sized version of the E Street Band backing him, Springsteen warmed up the crowd with an introductory peptalk that segued smoothly into "10th Avenue Freeze-Out," a classic but lesser-known track from the Boss's 1975 break-through album, "Born To Run" (1975).
    Springsteen engaged the crowd from the get-go, lending the chorus to the crowd of fans to sing, and even attempting one of the most extreme stage-moves in the stadium-rock repertoire: the power-slide. For those unfamiliar with this classy maneuver, it involves getting a running start from one side of the stage and then dropping to one's knees and sliding, preferably while hitting an impressively high note or during the climax of a song. Springsteen might have been a bit overzealous with his lead-up run, however, and most viewers were fairly certain that Springsteen's crotch actually collided with the camera filming his power-slide.
    Wasting none of their precious 12 minutes of Super Bowl fame, Springsteen and the E Street Band launched into the more famous classic "Born to Run." Bruce demonstrated that despite being on the brink of 60 years old, he can still hit even the highest notes. The number ended with an extended vamp and an impressive pyrotechnics display.
    Springsteen then covered newer ground, singing the title track of his recent album, "Working On A Dream." For this number, the E Street Band received some vocal reinforcement from the same gospel choir that assisted Faith Hill earlier during her performance of "America the Beautiful" prior to the start of the game. Finally, Springsteen wrapped things up with "Glory Days," off of his massively successful 1984 album, "Born in the U.S.A." Despite a kitschy, mid-song joke about "delay of game," Springsteen and the E Street Band wrapped up their short set with a rousing finale.
    Overall, the performance was on par with recent Super Bowl halftime shows, which have been much more classic rock-oriented since the famous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction in 2004. Despite Springsteen's reputation for supporting grassroots movements and progressive politics, he avoided political themes with his song choices. The point of the evening's entertainment was to celebrate all things American rather than initiate any sort of rallying cry or call to arms.
    The Super Bowl is a slice of true American entertainment. From creative advertising to the frenzied concert to the uniquely American game itself, millions of dollars worth of effort is brought to the most ordinary television sets across the country. As a result, all kinds of viewers got a kick out of last Sunday's game.