Super Bowl XLV

Last night (February 6th) was Super Bowl XLV (45) between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, in North Texas. As always, I stayed up late to watch the game, but this year was more special, because the team I support (Green Bay) had made the Super Bowl for the first time since 1998 and went on to win the Vince Lombardi trophy (pictured below, left-right, are Clay Matthews with Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rogers) by beating the Steelers 31-25 in what proved to be another close Super Bowl, which went right down to the wire.























The Super Bowl has always been essential watching in America (and increasingly so worldwide) so companies spend an incredible amount of money on adverts during the broadcast (a 30 second commercial could have cost up to $3million this year). Because of the high financial cost of advertising, there is immense pressure for ads to be memorable and I’ll reveal some of my favourites from this year’s batch later on.

Each year the NFL asks a popular musician or band to perform a 12-13 minute set during half time of the game, this year is the turn of American pop group The Black Eyed Peas. Here’s a handy YouTube video of their performance, followed by some opinions (mine) of their set.



Some notes from the Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show:

1. As halftime shows go, it wasn’t the best, but did have some good bits. As a tele-visual performance, it was well run and no wardrobe malfunctions (deliberate or otherwise) were had.

2. Some questionable costumes were featured in this performance. Examples being Will.I.Am’s whole ensemble (plastic haircut included in this) and his colleague’s glow-in-the-dark jacket were the worst offences, as well as all those who were forced to wear either a neon gimp suit or an Ikea box on their head (or in some cases, both).

3. The guest spots from Slash and Usher were a bit contrived, both were seemingly only there to pick up a hefty cheque / publicity for a short appearance. To his credit, Usher did dance, and jumped 6ft into the air and landed in a splits position, but Slash just stood there being stroked by singer Fergie like he was in a lap dance club.

4. The Black Eyed Peas do have some good ‘pop’ songs, which should have been sung in their original form, not altered to generate further publicity by having a cheeky dig (see 09:34 in the video) at Barack Obama’s plans for education in the United States. If you are going to change the lyrics to any song during a Super Bowl performance, then Christina Aguilera's lead should be followed (by changing / forgetting the words of the national anthem).

5. As point 1 states, this was not the best Super Bowl Half Time show, and next year I would like to see something totally different (Muse / Lady Gaga) or something out-and-out controversial (Kanye West).

Here are some of my favourite commercials featured in the Super Bowl broadcast. Feel free to watch these adverts, as I spent a good hour trawling through YouTube for them! My top 5 is as follows:

5. Doritos: House Sitting



4. Coca Cola: Border



3. Bud Light: Product Placement



2. Bridgestone: Carma



1. Volkswagen: The Force



I hope you enjoyed this blog post as much as I enjoyed Super Bowl XLV

Paul