Super Bowl Madcap Recap

Did someone say commercials? I knew you could. They were a mostly uninspired bunch, though your mileage might differ. Apparently the NYT attempted to discern that the commercials were about the ongoing war in Iraq based on the level of violence seen in the commercials this year.

No commercial that appeared last night during Super Bowl XLI directly addressed Iraq, unlike a patriotic spot for Budweiser beer that ran during the game two years ago. But the ongoing war seemed to linger just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials.

More than a dozen spots celebrated violence in an exaggerated, cartoonlike vein that was intended to be humorous, but often came across as cruel or callous.
For instance, in a commercial for Bud Light beer, sold by Anheuser-Busch, one man beat the other at a game of rock, paper, scissors by throwing a rock at his opponent’s head.

In another Bud Light spot, face-slapping replaced fist-bumping as the cool way for people to show affection for one another. In a FedEx commercial, set on the moon, an astronaut was wiped out by a meteor. In a spot for Snickers candy, sold by Mars, two co-workers sought to prove their masculinity by tearing off patches of chest hair…
Then, too, there was the unfortunate homonym at the heart of a commercial from Prudential Financial, titled “What Can a Rock Do?”

The problem with the spot, created internally at Prudential, was that whenever the announcer said, “a rock” — invoking the Prudential logo, the rock of Gibraltar — it sounded as if he were saying, yes, “Iraq.”

Funny, but there's always cartoonish violence in Super Bowl commercials. But this is the New York Times we're talking about. They see Iraq in their dreams (and nightmares) and can't escape talking about everything in a prism of Iraq.

As for the game itself, congrats to the Colts for getting the job done. I actually did a pretty good job predicting the outcome. I noted that the Colts defense would get the job done - including an interception run back for a TD. I noted that the Bears offense wouldn't show up, and Grossman was awful. I didn't foresee Hester running back the opening kickoff for a 92 yard TD, which was amazing since it was the first time in Super Bowl history that the opening kickoff was taken back for a TD.

That was about the only highlight for the Bears, who never seemed to be able to get out of their own way. Too many fumbles and missed opportunities. The Bears defense couldn't get off the field, which is a credit to the Colts game plan which maximized a ball control offense that spread the ball around and gave Addai many opportunities to catch short yardage passes for good gains. The Colts simply had too much on both sides of the ball, and overwhelmed the Bears in every aspect other than the special teams.

Peyton finally gets the monkey off his back, and has a ring to go with all his achievements during the regular season.