Monday 8 February 2010

Superbowl Sunday!


This is just a quick post to let you know how my first ever Superbowl Sunday went...

For those of you who don't know, the Superbowl is the biggest trophy in American Football, and is decided through a playoff tournament between the top sides of the 8 regional divisions, plus some wild card entries, culminating in the great American tradition of Superbowl Sunday.

Superbowl Sunday is when the whole of America stops - more food is consumed than any other day bar thanksgiving (even beating Christmas), fewer marriage ceremonies take place that Sunday than any other in the year, and 151.6million people will watch at least part of the 4 hour extravaganza on TV. This results in many Superbowl Parties - like the one I went to - and that involves a lot of preparation. To put it in perspective, the number of total man hours spent making food for Superbowl parties across America is the same as the number of total man hours spent making the recent blockbuster Avatar - a whopping 10 million. The food consumed is very 'American': 28 million pounds of potato chips (crisps to us Brits), 325.5 million gallons of beer and an amazing 1 billion chicken wings.

The party I went to was a very low-key affair, in fact there was only 4 of us! Workload has been pretty intense this weekend so in fact we had a superbowl/homework party - and it was only a matter of minutes before I was thoroughly confused by both. To be honest though, it wasn't long before we abandoned the homework idea and got engrossed in the game.

American football is a typical American sport - and hence has lots of time-outs, many obscure rules no-one quite knows properly (think very much like cricket) and a huge following. The Superbowl this year was being contested between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints - with the Colts as the favorites and the Saints as the well-supported underdogs (bouncing back from the hurricane and making their first ever Superbowl final).

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOLER ALERT!

Needless to say, being a Brit I had to support the underdogs and so was very pleased when the Saints started taking control of the game in the 2nd quarter. They carried on with their momentum and finished the game with a great score of 31-17 (matching the record of greatest Superbowl final comeback after being 0-10 down in the first quarter).

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOLER ALERT!

Now one of the other Superbowl traditions is advertising - and it is rightfully called the biggest day in advertising in the world. Adverts are at a high premium costing a shocking $2.8million for a 30s segment, equalling nearly $100,000 per second! Because of their massive viewing audience, and the fact they can make or break a company/product, a lot of thought and effort goes into these, making them often like miniature movies. My highlight this year though has to be the simplistic and rather sweet Google ad I've embedded below - although why on earth Google needs to advertise is beyond me...

All in all, my Superbowl experience was great fun. I was confused for most of the game but still managed to enjoy it, got to appreciate some great plays on the field (including a great 80-yd interception run), got to say "What?!?" many times during some truly incomprehensible adverts, got to see The Who perform their halftime show, and most importantly got to enjoy all this with some friends - bring on Super Bowl XLV!

Oh and thanks to http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/super-bowl-by-the-numbers.php for all the facts and figures!