On Sunday evening, February 7th, my husband and I got ready for the annual ritual of the American Super Bowl—the one football game each year that most Americans never miss. Tom was bemoaning the fact that we had neglected to invite friends over. I said, “We’ll have our own Super Bowl party,” as I got out the beer and the chips. But that’s not exactly what happened. I settled down to watch the game and the ads, with my laptop in front of me, fired up TweetDeck and began tweeting my take on both. I quickly noticed that most of the people I follow on Twitter were doing exactly the same thing. So I enjoyed myself immensely, sharing the experience with several hundred people.
One of the times that Twitter really excels is when there’s something happening in the world that draws peoples’ attention. Last month, I wrote about the way Twitter was being used to help rescue and relief efforts in Haiti. The earthquake in Haiti, an important Congressional hearing, the confab at Davos, the winter Olympics, an announcement by Apple or Google—these are all times when I head for Twitter to follow what’s going on (setting up a search to filter the topic I’m following) and to lend my voice. Humans are social animals. We want to share our celebrations, our passions, and our front row seats with other friends and fans.
I enjoyed the Super Bowl immensely, in part because I was able to hang out with lots of other people doing the same thing—many were friends and family members. Others were people I’ve “met” via Twitter. The game was thrilling. The Colts’ Peyton Manning is the best quarterback I’ve ever seen in action. Yet the underdogs won—the New Orleans Saints persevered in much the way that the people of New Orleans have persevered after the destruction of their beloved city by Hurricane Katrina. It was heartwarming.
The ads were disappointing. (For those of you who live outside the U.S., you may not be aware that the annual Super Bowl is also the biggest TV advertising competition. Audience reaction can make or break an ad agency.) Many of this year’s ads shared a common, bizarre, and belittling theme of emasculated, frustrated men breaking free. (Clearly uninspired group think on the part of the advertising community.)
The worst ads, in my opinion were from Careerbuilder.com (unattractive people in their underwear), Dockers, Dove, Kia, Denny’s chickens, Intel. A lot of people liked the eTrade ads, with the babies talking in grown-up voices, but I found that too derivative of Citibank’s identity theft ads which do it better. My votes for the best ads go to Doritos, in particular, the “house rules” ad: The kid saying to the new boyfriend, “Keep your hands off my Mama; Keep your hands off my Doritos.” Google’s Parisian romance ad, the Audi green police ad, the Cars.com amazing kid growing up ad, and the HomeAway.com (terrible hotel experience) ad. To pick your own faves, go to NFL Fanhouse to view and vote on this year’s Super Bowl ads.
