Super Bowl 2012
The all day commercial with a football game thrown in was exciting even if you weren’t pulling for either team especially. It is no mistake that the commercials get as much attention as the game. The commercials relied more on special effects and coarse sentimentality, or being goofy because goofy is cool, than originality. Three million bucks for a Super Bowl commercial. Good grief.
The narrative of teams that had met before, of a potential record fourth Super Bowl victory for Brady’s Pats, a kid brother Giants’ quarterback who was always in the shadow of his brother, added to the drama.
It was as it should be: Both quarterbacks had a chance at the end, and both had a reputation for comeback drives, but only Manning could pull it off. Both quarterbacks have a shy quality, unlike many of the preening jocks who are stars of their team. They were easy to like. There were few mistakes, few penalties, little distraction from the drama on the field. Great game. If Gronkowski had nabbed that Hail Mary at the end it would have been just as good as the Giants’ winning, from our point of view. It is surprising how little mobility elite quarterbacks seem to have these days — Brady in particular was doing his best to simulate a statue.
The half time show, so hyped because Madonna was the principal, left me wondering what she thought she was doing. The computer voice “enhancement’ usually is a sign a singer has lost their voice. They seemed to throw everything they could think of into the halftime show production but none of it stuck. It was so dead. Tone deaf as well – an 80s celebration of ego and engorged wealth at a time that doesn’t want to hear about such in your face self-involvement.
