Been watching way too much TV lately. A few observations, some old, some new:
BASF - "We don't make the products you buy, we make the products you buy better." So WHY do you advertise??!!!!
College football may be the purer game, but commercialism rules off the field. In my opinion, the only way a sponsor should get their company name into the name of the bowl game is if they had an active role in establishing that bowl game in the first place. If Nokia financed the development of the Sugar Bowl, then we'll call it the "Nokia Sugar Bowl". But if not, it should be the Sugar Bowl sponsored by Nokia.
Same goes for corporations putting their names on the stadiums. Are they financing the construction or maintenance of the building or just paying for the ad space? Large structures like that should still be monuments to the people that made them possible. Name the stadium after the late great founders of the franchise, or the revered coach that brought glory to the team. The company names keep changing so much that they're insignificant.
And why do they have to list the sponsors of a game, college or pro, after the commercials for those very same sponsors? It's not only annoying, it's redundant.
The Westminster Dog Show did one better. After a commercial break, they came back and showed all the logos for the sponsors in a graphic frame which had the main sponsor's logo (Pedigree dog food) in the corner the whole time. And what do you think the last one in the list was? Pedigree! The Westminster dog show sponsored by Pedigree, brought to you by Company A, Company B, and Pedigree!
The other thing about televised sports that causes forehead smacking in my living room (especially since the NFL basically became my religion in the past year or two), is when announcers use the term "nicked up" to describe an injured athlete. Players, especially in football, don't get "nicked" up, they get beat up. The only way to get nicked up is with a lousy razor in the morning. Bad shaving will never make the highlights. (I submitted this to my favorite column on NFL.com ~ Tuesday Morning Quarterback, but wasn't published this time. Watch this space for more references to that column, I'm sure.)
AOL, the exploiters of computer amateurs around the globe (and now in Spanish too), says in their ads, to try their service "for a better Internet". Sorry guys, IT'S THE SAME INTERNET no matter what service you use. Yours just has more extra areas that aren't really internet at all. (Not to mention the extra poppups and junk mail.) AOL, the Wal-Mart of Internet providers.
Super Bowl ads were a little thin this year. But the best one is a series that is still running. The Wuss, Suck-up and Mama's Boy action figures. Took me three viewings to realize they're deodorant ads.
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