I watch the Superbowl for the commercials.
Fathers of football families look down and laugh at that sentence when I say it.
Why? I want to dare them to ask and ironically, they never have.
For one, I’ve never been one to play or frankly understand football. Yes, there’s an offense and a defence, that part is clear to me, but the positions and game plan predictions are a blurry mess I’m not exactly motivated to learn. I give props to coaches who dedicate themselves and their entire lives to the sport.
What I do understand, though, is that the Superbowl is heavily watched by those nuclear football families and shoulder-pad enthusiasts. This is an intensely particular time for companies to make their products and services known. They want to take advantage. They have to make the million dollar seconds count.
Sometimes creative although bizarre, those commercials are typically a hard-to-follow sequence of events leading up to a timely prod at the narrator working you to give up your money. Like the Old Spice ad that jumps from being a statement dedicated to earning your attention after a sexy, dark man to a fruit commercial, then to a sports commercial, and then finally back to a deodorant ad. You know which one I’m talking about.
Those awkward advertisement story lines are something that keep us viewers entertained even more so than the (more recently) boring game itself. They appeal to our more emotional side, tying in with family life or informational, about the statistics of readership with the Washington Post.
They keep it interesting, and every year I’ll enjoy what they come up with next.