By Staff
It's that time of year again.
On Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots will go head-to-head at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. for the Super Bowl XXXIX championship.
The Patriots will be shooting for their third Super Bowl win in four years, while the Eagles are returning to the championship game for the first tim in 24 years.
The Super Bowl is probably the biggest game in sports. It comes but once a year and features the two top teams from the NFC and the AFC divisions. Unlike other sports, this game is a one-and-done matter. Baseball, hockey and basketball play a series of games to determine the top team. Football has only one game that brings out the best in each team.
But there is something the Super Bowl has that the other sports don't. Yes, Janet Jackson's famous half-time show is one thing, but it's not what separates this event from others. It's the commercials.
Every year the Super Bowl of advertising happens to be the advertising of the Super Bowl. The game is the highest rated television program in America and offers the best commercials marketing has to offer.
Face it, they're the ying to the Super Bowl's yang and without them few could imagine the game being as enjoyable. With companies spending as much as $2.5 million dollars on a 30 second ad, we would hope they would be somewhat amusing.
So who will you be rooting for? The Patriots, the Eagles or the commercials?
I do like football, but don't follow it as much as I would like to. I watch highlights on ESPN to find out which teams are doing well.
When it comes to the big game, I do watch it, but pay more attention to the commercials than anything. I think this year may be a little different though. With the Patriots battling for their third win and the Eagles battling for their first, it should be a very good game. I'm actually pretty excited this year and will be cheering for the Eagles.
But on the other hand I am excited to see what those jokers who make these commercials have come up with this year. Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), which bought 10 of the 30 second ads, and Pepsi have made the top spot the past four years in a row and have both bought the most amount of time this year.
But with all of the controversy from the last few years one thing is for sure this year, gas-passing horses, animals biting certain places and accidental bikini wax treatments will be nowhere in sight.
This year the ads will be "well-behaved," or so the executives at Fox say they will. All of the companies who have bought ads are keeping them under lock and key.
Volvo, a first-time Super Bowl advertiser, will only say it put together a spot for its new V-8 sports utility vehicle. And Visa has only said that its ad is "funny."
I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you to tune in on Sunday night for the big game on Fox. So I guess I will end with….Go Eagles!!