Super Ads

Sunday, February 5th, was "Super Bowl Sunday", of course so like other devout followers of the religion of football I attended a party in my housing association's club house. Let me begin by congratulating the Pittsburgh Steelers on their victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

What I most noticed -- beyond the poor quality of the NFL referees -- was that the party attendees were very talkative during the game but became quiet when the advertisements were running. Based on the post-Super Bowl news articles I read it appears that at least 8 to 10% of game watchers tune in JUST to watch the commercials.

My second observation on the game is a question to the NFL -- what demographic group are you trying to focus on? One year you have Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake as the half-time performers and another year you give us the Rolling Stones. Perhaps there are a lot of cross-over fans for these artists but I doubt it. Since most Super Bowl-related newspaper articles cite that a growing segment of NFL fans are women perhaps Mick and the Boys are considered sexual icons despite Keith Richards' corpse-like appearance.

Overall my love of American football continues despite all the sideshows such as -- half time performers and TV commercials -- but would love to see the NFL focus Super Bowl 2007 on FOOTBALL so here are some suggestions (DISCLAIMER -- granted these might have been tried already and I missed them but then again I am not sending an invoice to the NFL for the ideas, I am just a football purist trying to promote the game.):

• Punt, Pass, and Kick -- showcase the PPK champions at the beginning of the game to help reach the youth market by creating some "youth rock stars" in football to counter the gains made by soccer.
• Arena Football -- the NFL signed a deal with the AFL years ago but do you ever see Arena Football highlighted during the Super Bowl?
• High Schools -- I always see the Top 25 high school football team rankings in USA Today but why not give the top team at the end of the season some recognition at the Super Bowl?

Ready................break,

Todd