The "So Why Did You Watch The Superbowl Game? Story

It was an ordinary day.  Superbowl Sunday!  For most I realize it isn't an ordinary day, but since my Eagles aren't playing in the game, it is just an ordinary day.  For those who don't follow football or have that sport in your country, the Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League, the highest level of professional football in the world. The type of football that isn't played with a round ball and players tackle one another.   

The Superbowl officially began in 1970 and was meant to be the champion- ship between the National Football League and the American Football League.  The winner was to be declared the World Champion.  Even though the game isn't listed as a national holiday, many believe it should be.  I must say I'm not one of them.  Super Bowl Sunday is the 2nd largest day in the year for food consumption in the USA; Thanksgiving being the largest.  The game itself is said to be the most-watched American television broadcast in history with an average annual audience of about 114 million viewers.  The show that held the record before the Superbowl gained the top spot in 2010 was the final episode of M*A*S*H which was an American television series developed in the late 1960s to the early 1970s and was based on the 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors.  Since most everyone in the world seems to be tuned to the Superbowl, commercial time is extremely expensive, costing in the millions for a 30-second commercial.

I find I enjoy the commer- cials some years more than I enjoy the football game.  I wrote a story a few years ago about my favorites which include the Budweiser Beer commercial that features the Clydesdale horses being my favorites. Back in 2010 a survey was conducted and it was found that more people tune in to see the commercials than to watch the game.  Perhaps one of the best commercials was the 1984 Macintosh computer commercial.  It was said it changed the way that Super Bowl commercials were made.  That one-minute movie commercial promised that  the new Apple Macintosh would put an end to conformity and spark innovation and individuality.  The epic commercial was based on George Orwell's 1949 book "1984".  I guess you have to decide for yourself how iconic that ad was.  Another iconic Super Bowl commercial was the 1984 Wendy's "Where's The Beef?" commercial where three older woman examine a rather large hamburger bun and find a small beef pattie and one cries out, "Where's The Beef?"  Still funny after all these years.  Then there was the 1993 McDonald's ad which featured basketball stars Larry Bird and Michael Jordan who tired to outshoot each other in a game of HORSE for a Big Mac.  I think the earliest Super Bowl commercial was the 1976 ad which featured a monk using a Xerox 9200 copier to make 500 copies of an old manuscript.  This ad set the standard for all Super Bowl ads that followed.  Well, there you have it.  Any idea who might be playing in the game this year?  All I know it isn't the Philadelphia Eagles, my favorite.  One thing I can tell you though, there's bound to be a Budwiser commercial which features the Clydesdale horses.  If not, I'll have to watch reruns of House Hunters International next year ... unless the Eagles are in the game.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

PS - Well the game is over and my team lost.  And ... the advertisements were boring.  I really don't remember any of them they were that bad. Oh yeah, I did see the Clydesdales ... for maybe 3 seconds in one commercial.  If I had blinked, I would have missed them.  You know, maybe I just imagined I saw them.  

PSS - check out some of the older commercials ... commercials that you will certainly remember.