Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Commentary

Mansee Muzumdar.png

I hate football. I have never understood the value of watching over-sized men crash into one another over and over and over and over. Throughout my life I have tried to at least understand the game. But, alas, the appeal eludes me.

So, when Super Bowl Sunday comes around, I look forward to the big event for different reasons than most Americans. I love the food, the party and the half time show, but the real reason I watch the Super Bowl is for the commercials. I love knowing that the commercials airing during the Super Bowl are the best of the best. Those concepts have been planned, worked and re-worked all year in preparation for the day when more consumers will be watching TV than during the inauguration (there were no funny commercials during the inauguration).

I can’t help feeling, though, that I am a sucker for being so excited about commercials. On any other day of the year, marketing firms the world over are scheming and contriving ad copy that will, at the very least, hold people’s interest, and at the best, make people want to buy the advertised product. Yet, during the Super Bowl, I, and a couple million of my closest friends are watching our TVs especially for the commercials, hoping for long commercial breaks and giving our utmost attention to the ad copy that we otherwise would despise and mock.

Somehow ad executives have made Super Bowl commercials trendy. They are part of the Super Bowl experience, and not only do we intently watch with anticipation, but we talk about the commercials after the fact. For example, who could forget the Budweiser “Whazzzz up” guys, the singing frogs, and the Clydesdales?

The commercials are all available on YouTube. Plus, a rating of the best and worst commercials is the top story on the MSN home page, and people are posting the marketing madness all over their Facebook pages. Yes, I believe that ad executives have us Americans duped, and we willingly eat it up year after year.

More to Discover