This isn't Super Bowl 2012 Official Blog,This is for Super Bowl Ads and Best Super Bowl Ads,Super Bowl 2012,National Football League,Super Bowl Commercials,Super Bowl Advertising,Super Bowl Information,Super Bowl 2012 Live Stream News
Green Bay Packer fans are ringing the phones of Wisconsin travel agents this morning, seeking the best deals to go to watch the team play against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV in Dallas.
Funjet Vacations in Bayside is offering non-stop flights that depart Milwaukee and Green Bay on Friday, Feb. 4, and return on Monday, Feb. 7, following the game. Pricing for non-stop, round-trip air-only flights from Milwaukee and Green Bay start at $999.99 per person for three-night departures and includes free bags. Optional features including rental cars and hotel accommodations are also available.
Full packages including game tickets, air fare and hotel accommodations reportedly start around $5,000 per person.
Now that football fans know it'll be the Pittsburgh Steelers facing the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl, it's time to gear up for the big game, and that might mean a new HDTV for some of you. "There's usually a crowd throughout the whole week, people waiting to get a good deal for Super Bowl Weekend," said Ryan Keith with Best Buy.
Traditionally, retail managers said there's a spike in TV sales a week or two before Superbowl Sunday and while there are plenty of deals, Best Buy said they want to kick of your search with some good ones. "We've got deals usually every week where you could save from $150 to $1400," Keith said.
Some of the deals include:
- $1,000 off a 60 inch HDTV
- $800 off a 55 inch HDTV
- $1400 off a 55 inch 3D HDTV
"We've actually had more people come in to watch sports in 3D because they're now streaming it in 3D," Keith said. "3D is going to be the new thing."
Whether you go with the HD or 3D, spend more than $999 and they will deliver your TV for free by game day. They'll even recycle your old TV.
If tickets to Super Bowl XLV just aren’t in your budget, you can still feel like a part of all the excitement by shopping at the Super Bowl Fan Stores.
The stores are stocked with Officially Licensed apparel like hats, novelties, footballs, collectibles, memorabilia and home decor. Prices range from a $3 golf ball to a $250 display containing replicas of all 45 Super Bowl tickets.
Super Bowl Fan Stores opened up in DFW malls just before Thanksgiving. Locations include Grapevine Mills Mall, The Parks at Arlington, Hulen Mall and Ridgmar Mall. Outside of Tarrant county you can shop at Stonebriar Centre in Frisco, Town East Mall in Dallas, and The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano.
The Super Bowl Fan Store has the largest selection of Officially Licensed Super Bowl Merchandise in the State of Texas, with over 250 items to choose from featuring the Official Super Bowl XLV logo. One of the best-selling items: a Super Bowl XLV throw priced at $40.
At this time, the stores aren’t selling anything for a specific NFL team because they are still on the road to Super Bowl XLV.
The Super Bowl Fan Store will sell t-shirts and merchandise representing the winning Super Bowl team on February 7, 2011 and remain open until the end of the month.
Portrait of Ed Netzhammer, regional vice president for Omni Hotels. Irving-based Omni scored big in the bid to host next year's Super Bowl. Both the NFC and AFC will be in Omni hotels in DFW - the first time the same chain has hosted both rivals. For fans of the Green Bay Packers and the Steelers looking for a place to bunk during Super Bowl week, the blitz is on.
Though the National Football League and its corporate benefactors locked up the swankiest suites months ago, Dallas-Fort Worth’s supply of about 100,000 hotel rooms means there are still rooms to be had — for a price.
In the past five Super Bowls, hotel rates on average have more than doubled from the same week in the previous year, and generally average more than $300 a night.
Hotel prices here can be expected to see a similar big-game bump.
“With the Super Bowl … wherever you are you’re going to get [on average] a 100 percent bump, maybe more,” said Bobby Bowers, senior vice president of Smith Travel Research. “I would say you’re going to be in that same range.”
Several groups and travel agents still have listings for available rooms. That includes the host city of Arlington (www.arlington.org/super-bowl-xlv/hotels) and the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee (www.northtexassuperbowl.com).
As of Sunday, the host committee website listed 94 hotels in D-FW with available rooms.
Prices ranged from $639 a night at the Embassy Suites Downtown Fort Worth to $140 a night for hotels in Forney, Plano and Denton. The average was $265.
The list did not include any of the major downtown Dallas properties, which typically command higher rates, because those rooms already are spoken for.
The most popular price point on the host committee’s list was $255, with 17 hotels in areas such as Richardson , Duncanville and Grapevine offering last-minute rates at that level.
As with most things, proximity pumps up price.
A Super 8 Motel in Arlington a few miles from the stadium was listed online as charging $699 on game night. But booking a stay Thursday through Sunday brought the average down to $242 a night.
“The hotels, they’re going to make it while they can,” said Jay Smith, president of Hatfield, Mass.-based SportsTravelandTours.com.
“You might get a Holiday Inn trying to get $399 or $499 because they can.”
At the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, the rate listed on the hotel’s site was $419 a night.
But officials in Arlington and Irving said rates below $100 can still be found at budget properties. And even an average of $200 a night, they said, is a pretty good catch.
“A $200-a-night rate for being around the Super Bowl, and being close, is an extremely reasonable rate,” said Diane Brandon, vice president of marketing for Arlington.
Bowers of Smith Travel Research noted that last-minute, sky-high rates will return to earth once the crowds move on.
“The crunch time is usually Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. That’s when you’re going to see the biggest jump,” he said.
“After that you can almost drop it off a cliff,” he said of the average rate. “It’s going to come down really, really fast.”
Not too long ago, companies buying ad time during the Super Bowl -- TV's most expensive commercial venue -- sought to keep their game-day commercials secret until air time. The theory was to wow TV audiences with the element of surprise: a funny punch line, a new spokesperson or a catchy song delivered fresh. The goal was to guarantee that the ads would be the subject of office break-room conversation the next day.
But an increasing number of Super Bowl advertisers are now using a strategy that was once anathema: posting their game-day commercials online, well in advance of the game. Their goal: to get consumers talking about their ads not only after the Super Bowl, but sometimes months before kick-off.
That strategy, however, also begs the question of whether consumers actually watch those ads during the game, or do the commercials become just another opportunity to get a fresh beer from the fridge.
High-Stakes Game, High-Stakes Ads
At risk is a tidy sum. Aside from any production costs for a top-quality ad, a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl is fetching a record $3 million this year, according to a recent report from Kantar Media. For many companies, a Super Bowl commercial will represent their biggest single advertising expense for the year. And according to Kantar, one-third of the advertisers in last year's Super Bowl devoted more than 10% of their full-year media budgets to the game.
Sponsored Links "Over time, the stakes have escalated," says Jon Swallen, Kantar's senior vice president of research. "One way advertisers try to monetize that is with these pre-game, pre-release ads, trying to raise buzz and awareness. It helps to try to cut through the clutter."
And Swallen says Super Bowl ad time is more cluttered than ever. Last year, for instance, the game contained a record 47 minutes and 50 seconds of network ads. In comparison, the 2001 Super Bowl contained just over 40 minutes of commercials.
To be sure, many of the commercials in this year's Super Bowl -- to air on Fox on Feb. 6 -- will be kept secret until they hit the airwaves. But increasingly, the name of the marketing game is to tease viewers ahead of game day -- with clips or even the entire commercial. While some potential Super Bowl ads are already online, such as those from Pepsi MAX and Doritos, other marketers are still deciding whether to post their commercials early.
Go Daddy, for one, says it's likely to pre-release one of its two Super Bowl ads before the game, while a second commercial -- announcing a new celebrity spokesperson -- will be kept under wraps. The domain-name registrar began pre-releasing its Super Bowl ads in 2006 and was one of the few companies at the time that did so without an embargo, notes Marianne Curran, Go Daddy executive vice president of media and communications. "Some people may ask, 'Does it wreck the surprise?' We think it does just the opposite," she says. "It whets viewers' appetites."
Attracting Eyeballs
The viewer data, however, isn't always so clear-cut. Go Daddy's "News" spot last year ranked 12th among Super Bowl viewers, attracting 112.1 million pairs of eyeballs. But according to data from Nielsen, the company's second ad, "Spa," came in at No. 62 with just over 100 million viewers.
And pre-releasing an ad may not necessarily drum up consumer enthusiasm. Last year, the top-rated ad by USA Today's Ad Meter, a focus group that ranks its members' favorite ads, was the Snickers spot featuring Betty White -- an ad that wasn't pre-released. (Snickers says it will again keep its Super Bowl ad secret until the game.) While that ad succeeded by one measure, it was one of the least-watched ads during the game -- drawing 92.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
Some marketers argue that game-day ratings for a specific commercial may be beside the point.
"The biggest thing for us, at least at Pepsico, is about engaging our fans for the prior eight months," says Rudy Wilson, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, a unit of Pepsico (PEP). Wilson pioneered the company's five-year-old "Crash the Super Bowl" program, which began soliciting consumer-created ads for the upcoming Super Bowl last fall. Of the 10 finalist videos posted on the site, six will air during this year's game.
Wilson acknowledges that pre-releasing ads may not give them any edge when it comes to their broadcast performance. But the benefit of engaging consumers months in advance makes the contest worth it. "It allows for our success not to be dictated by 30 seconds," he says.
Pre-Bowl Ad Buzz
The weeks leading up the game are "a unique period in time when audiences around the world are focused on your brand," says Audi chief marketing officer Scott Keogh, via email. "The lead-up to the Super Bowl can be just as important as game day."
Audi's 2010 Super Bowl spot, "Green Police," was teased with a number of pre-game ads, and according to Neilsen the commercial was ranked as the game's second most-watched, drawing 115.6 million viewers.. The top-watched ad last year was a Doritos spot called "Snack Attack Samurai," one of the entries in the "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, with 116.2 million viewers.
This year, Audi debuted what it calls a "prelude" to its Super Bowl spot: a minute-long ad based on the children's book Goodnight Moon. Both the Goodnight ad and the Super Bowl spot feature Audi's A8 sedan.
By pre-releasing Super Bowl ads, marketers are also able to bring in consumers via social-networking such as Facebook or Twitter. Audi's social-media campaign last year helped generate 3.1 million Facebook impressions and 3.1 million YouTube views, according to Keogh. And this year, Audi plans to host sponsored messages on Twitter leading up to the game -- and to "take over" YouTube's home page on Super Bowl Sunday, Keogh writes.
Risks and Advantages
More consumers are seeking out Super Bowl ads before the game, says Lucy Farey-Jones, partner and head of strategy at the San Francisco-based ad agency Venables Bell & Partners. Her firm's second annual Super Bowl survey found that 14% of consumers plan to look for Super Bowl commercials a week before the game. And younger viewers -- including 20% of young adults -- were more likely to watch the ads in advance.
"A lot of marketers are just doing a tease or allowing the audience to vote," she says. "It used to be that people kept it all wrapped up, and there's still some of that." Both approaches have their advantages, she notes, although there's the risk that by pre-releasing an Super Bowl spot, a company may "peak too early."
Referring to Apple's (AAPL) ground-breaking 1984 Super Bowl ad for the Macintosh, Farey-Jones asks, "I wonder if '1984' was leaked beforehand if it still would have had the same impact that it did?"
Super Bowl XLV date and time won't start until early in February, but advertisers are getting their commercials started early for the 2011 campaign. Commercials ranging from 30 seconds to a full minute cost millions of dollars, and the advertisers want the attention of those viewing the big game.
As of this report, there are four teams remaining in the hunt for the ultimate NFL trophy: Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, NY Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Super Bowl will officially have its two competitors as of Sunday evening after the NFC and AFC Championship games have been finalized. At least three advertisers will be testing shorter versions of their ads during those particular games though.
According to USA Today, one of these advertisers is Anheuser-Busch. They'll be trying out two 15-second teaser ads featuring the Clydesdale horses in a Wild west environment. Reportedly the beer manufacturing juggernaut will air five commercials of varying lengths for different products during Super Bowl XLV. However, these early ads will help them test the waters ahead of the big game.
Other advertisers included in this strategic move will be Audi and Hyundai-Sonata. They'll all be airing commercials early in an attempt to get a head start on the competition. In the past years, some of the tops ads have come from Coca-Cola, Doritos, Snickers, and Anheuser-Busch.
The question with this latest strategy, is will it help or hurt the advertisers? They're spending more money on early marketing, instead of saving their ammo for the real battle, Super Bowl Sunday. There's more viewers involved then, so the stakes are higher. Nonetheless, if this sort of strategy continues to evolve, it could leave many viewers less interested in the advertisements during the game, as they've seen them before.
Do you feel it makes sense for advertisers to start trying out their Super Bowl commercials early, or is it best to save them for the big game?
PEOPLE who plan to watch Super Bowl XLV on Fox on Feb. 6 are likely to be, to borrow a word from the gossipmonger Walter Winchell, infanticipating. When Winchell coined the word, he meant that a couple was expecting a baby. In 2011, it means that potential Super Bowl viewers are expecting to see — in addition to a football game — a batch of busy, glossy new commercials infused with time-tested entertainment elements like celebrities, animals, attractive young women and yes, babies.
Critics deride such content as corny or predictable. AdAge.com, the Web site of the trade publication Advertising Age, mocked conventions of Super Bowl advertising on Thursday by asking readers to “vote for your favorite Super Bowl simian spot” among eight choices.
But commercials that are replete with mainstays or memes are meant to appeal to the mass audience that tunes in each year for the Super Bowl. Last year, 106.5 million people watched the game, according to Nielsen, setting a record for viewership for an American television program.
“I’ve seen the estimates” for Super Bowl XLV, said Nick Utton, chief marketing officer at the New York office of the E*Trade Financial Group, “and 110 million is very definitely within reach.”
So it is not surprising that E*Trade, which has featured “talking” babies in its Super Bowl spots for the last three years, will bring the characters back again.
“We don’t presuppose each year we’ll be in the following year’s Super Bowl,” Mr. Utton said, because the expense and scrutiny mean “it’s not for the faint of heart.”
Still, the game is “the only event of the year where advertising is not the uninvited guest,” he added, and when “commercials come on, people stop talking.”
E*Trade intends to run one commercial in the third quarter of the game and another immediately after the game ends. Plans also call for a baby to “talk” with Fox Sports during a segment of the pregame show.
The commercials are part of an elaborate campaign that also includes social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; commercials in movie theaters; and a redesigned version of BabyMail, an e-mail service introduced last year.
E*Trade and its agency, Grey New York, are deciding between two commercials for the two slots. One spot features a baby who does well enough investing through Etrade.com that he can afford a tailor — and the tailor is not doing too badly, either.
The other spot presents “a very educated baby,” Mr. Utton said, “discussing the merits of E*Trade” with a character that he declined to identify until next week, when the cat may be let out of the bag.
The baby was introduced for the 2008 Super Bowl to illustrate that using Etrade.com is “so easy, a baby can do it,” Mr. Utton said, and for Year Four the message is “that we empower investors through technology, so they can take control.”
Mr. Utton acknowledged “there are skeptics out there” who question the value of commercials with familiar elements like babies, animals or scantily-clad celebrities.
As a result, “we want our baby to grow,” he added, “not physically, but metaphorically.”
Tor Myhren, president and chief creative officer at Grey New York, said he, too, has “heard the argument” against the tried and true in Super Bowl advertising.
“With the baby, we created a celebrity,” Mr. Myhren said, rather than borrowing the fame “from someone else.”
“As long as everyone says ‘the E*Trade baby,’ I know we’re doing our job,” he added. Grey New York is part of the Grey unit of the Grey Group, owned by WPP.
Fox, part of the News Corporation, has sold all the available commercial time during Super Bowl XLV for an estimated $2.8 million to $3 million for each 30 seconds.
Demand was stronger than usual, reflecting the recovery of the ad market along with the record ratings last year.
Among the brands and companies to appear in the game, in addition to E*Trade, are Anheuser-Busch InBev, Audi, Best Buy, BMW, Bridgestone, CareerBuilder, CarMax, Chrysler, Coca-Cola, General Motors, GoDaddy.com, HomeAway, Hyundai, Kia, Mars, Mercedes-Benz, PepsiCo, Pizza Hut, Skechers, Teleflora and Volkswagen.
Several advertisers are buying more than one spot. BMW, for instance, will run two, for models that include the new X3 compact sport utility.
The Anheuser-Busch division of Anheuser-Busch InBev will run five spots for three beer brands: Bud Light, Budweiser and a Super Bowl rookie, Stella Artois.
Two agencies — DDB Worldwide, which is part of the Omnicom Group, and Cannonball in St. Louis — are creating three 30-second commercials for Bud Light.
A 60-second spot for Budweiser, part of a new campaign that carries the theme “Grab some Buds,” is being created by a New York agency named Anomaly.
And a 60-second spot for Stella Artois is being created by the London and New York offices of Mother.
Anheuser-Busch is well-known for Super Bowl commercials that use mainstay creative content like animals and celebrities.
This time around, the commercial for the Budweiser brand “may be doing things a little bit of a different way,” said David Peacock, president at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, because the “Grab some Buds” campaign is “driving reappraisal” — that is, it seeks to get consumers who do not usually drink Budweiser to reconsider the brand.
Steelers stop Jets to claim third Super Bowl berth in six seasons
Mercedes-Benz, attempting to grab an edge in the race to topple Lexus, enlisted tennis star Serena Williams and a tweeting mom from suburban Chicago to add online buzz to its first appearance at the Super Bowl.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Volkswagen AG’s Audi will also air ads during the Feb. 6 broadcast of the American football championship, marking the first time all three German luxury brands are advertising at the biggest U.S. television event. At last year’s game, advertisers paid $3 million for a 30-second slot, according to The Nielsen Co.
“The Germans are seeing Lexus as vulnerable, so they’re pulling out all the stops,” said Bill Visnic, an analyst at U.S. auto website Edmunds.com. The failure to beat Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus has been “a burr under the saddle” of the German automakers in the 11 years since Lexus snatched the top spot.
BMW, Daimler AG’s Mercedes and Audi, the top-three luxury brands, dominate sales everywhere except the U.S., where Lexus gained popularity with its sport-utility vehicles and hybrids. The Super Bowl campaigns underscore their growth ambitions in the world’s biggest luxury-car market, as Lexus seeks to shake off the effects of Toyota’s recalls last year.
Close Race
Lexus sold 229,329 vehicles in the U.S. in 2010, compared with BMW’s 220,113 and Mercedes 216,448. Audi delivered 101,629 cars and SUVs in the country in the 2010, the first time its U.S. sales topped 100,000. Globally, all three German carmakers each sell more than 1 million cars annually, compared with about 400,000 at Lexus.
Aside from television commercials, Mercedes is spending $290 million on its factory in Alabama and will assemble the C- Class sedan there from 2014. BMW completed a $750 million expansion of its South Carolina plant late last year, while Audi has vowed to double U.S. sales to 200,000 by 2018.
Lexus won’t follow its German rivals to the Super Bowl, which will be held near Dallas this year. The Toyota unit, which saw its U.S. lead over BMW shrink by more than half in 2010, won’t air any spots or sponsor game-related events, said Allison Takahashi, a Lexus spokeswoman in Torrance, California.
The 2010 game, won by the New Orleans Saints, was watched by 106.5 million people, making it the most popular American TV program ever, according to TV audience rater Nielsen. The popularity of the broadcast, which is watched as much for the commercials as the sports, makes it a sought-after platform.
‘Getting Bolder’
“This is us stepping up on the biggest stage and saying we belong there,” said Steve Cannon, vice president of marketing for Mercedes’ U.S. unit. “We’re getting bolder.”
The intensity of the competition is evident in a new Audi ad, which features a Mercedes S-Class. In the 60-second spot, which began airing Jan. 13 as a run-up to Audi’s fourth straight Super Bowl campaign, the lights in the Mercedes sedan turn off as the narrator says, “Goodnight old luxury.” The ad then promotes Audi’s A8 flagship as the face of “new” luxury.
The marketing battle could spill over into better deals as manufacturers vie for market share even with many buyers still scarred by the recession.
“When you look at Audi’s ambitions and the size of the Toyota war chest backing Lexus, it seems that you’ll see increased incentives,” said Edmunds.com’s Visnic. “It’s still a little bit not cool to park a big new BMW in your driveway. They still have to tease buyers out of their bunkers.”
Facebook Contest
BMW bought two 30-second spots as it advertises at the Super Bowl for the first time in 10 years, Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW’s U.S. unit, told reporters at the Detroit auto show.
The Munich-based company on Jan. 21 started a Facebook contest around its Super Bowl commercial featuring the revamped X3 SUV, which is built in South Carolina. Contestants try to guess the configuration of the car to be featured to win a two- year lease and a trip to the factory.
Mercedes will push a younger, hipper image by focusing on sporty new models. The spot will feature a roadster version of the $185,750 SLS supercar, the new C-Class coupe as well as the revamped CLS luxury four-door coupe and SLK hard-top roadster, spokeswoman Donna Boland said.
In addition to the spots, Mercedes is sponsoring a tweet race in which teams driving specially-equipped vehicles need to generate traffic on Twitter to win a C-Class coupe. The four two-person teams will have to generate about 10 tweets per mile, or about 15,000 tweets, to reach Cowboys Stadium from respective starting points in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Tampa. The teams also must complete tasks on the way.
Rev Run, Nick Swisher
“That’s a crap load,” said Todd Sanders, a tweeting ice fisherman and Green Bay Packers fan whose team will drive an S- Class with front seats equipped with four-stage massage.
“The last thing you want to do is spam your followers,” said Sanders, 37, a web manager for the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay. “It’s going to be tricky.”
The three-day race, which starts Feb. 2, features hip hop artist Rev Run from the group Run-D.M.C., tennis star Serena Williams, rock musician Pete Wentz and New York Yankees baseball player Nick Swisher as coaches to drum up traffic. The celebrities each have more than 1 million Twitter followers.
The tweet race marks an “aggressive” play by Mercedes for consumers under 40, said Ian Beavis, a Los Angeles-based Nielsen consultant. The average U.S. Mercedes customer is 54, according to San Diego-based researcher Strategic Vision.
“We’re pushing perceptions of the brand,” Mercedes executive Cannon said earlier this month in Detroit. “We’re captivating the imagination of younger drivers.”
Tweeting Race
While there’s a risk Mercedes loses control of the promotion to Twitter users, the costs are relatively low and the automaker has the opportunity to gain a following it can tap into again, said Nielsen’s Beavis, who advises auto companies on brand and media strategy.
“This is a total leap of faith,” said Jennifer Marshall, the Chicago-area mother of seven-year-old twins who tweets and blogs under the tag nuckingfutsmama. “I was totally in shock when I heard we were going.”
Marshall, 38, turned to Twitter as “a way of getting that instant feedback that a stay-at-home mom doesn’t get,” she said. She and teammate Meredith Sinclair, fellow mom tweeter known as Hoo-Dee-Hoo, will drive a diesel-powered GL SUV to the game, while their husbands watch the kids.
CHICAGO -- Over the last five weeks, here is the damage the Green Bay Packers have left in their wake en route to reaching Super Bowl XLV in Dallas:
» They eliminated the Giants from the playoffs by beating them in Week 16, and then defeated Chicago in the regular-season finale. That victory over the Bears allowed the Packers into the playoffs and, as it turns out, made Chicago regretful it didn't close the door on Green Bay when it had the chance.
» As the No. 6 and final seed in the NFC, the Packers went to Philadelphia and knocked off the third-seeded Eagles, winners of the NFC East.
» They next went into Atlanta and hammered the top-seeded Falcons to make Atlanta's NFC-best 13-3 regular season barely seem like a consolation prize.
» Green Bay came to Chicago, the No. 2 seed, and upended its hated division rival Sunday to get to the Super Bowl. In beating Chicago for the second time in three meetings this season, they knocked Bears quarterback Jay Cutler out of the game and made an entire city question Cutler's toughness at gut-check time.
Green Bay's march has been marauding at its most precise. The team many projected in the preseason to be in the Super Bowl will play Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl brimming with confidence that they can't be stopped. Unlike the Steelers, who won two home playoff games, Green Bay has clicked off three straight road victories, matching their regular-season win total away from Lambeau Field.
"We rolled all the way down the road, the good thing about it, we're still on the road. We're going to Dallas," veteran wide receiver Donald Driver, who will be playing in his first Super Bowl in 12 seasons at North Texas' Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 6, said after Green Bay's victory over Chicago on Sunday.
Though Driver was referring to the Packers having to play away from home all postseason, he could have also been talking about the overall road Green Bay traveled this season. It's been a hard road, but it's one of two teams still on it. Players and coaches said it's been a galvanization of an internal fiber that's allowed the Packers not to veer so far outside the lines that they couldn't regain their traction. The only part of the past this team dwelled on was that when it lost, that it lost because of its own failures.
They never got blown out. They were in every game, losing by no more than four points all season. Every team has at least one stink job a season, but the Packers never did. Yet, they lost more games -- six -- than all of the teams they've vanquished except the Giants (10-6 record) during this torrid five-game run they're on.
Those are losses they're hardly regretting now. Had they not had to fight to get into the playoffs and then dig even deeper to win on the road, they might not be where they are, Driver said.
Earlier this week, Driver said this team was better than the 13-3, NFC North championship team in 2007 because it had to fight to survive. That team three years ago was stacked and victory was assumed -- but not like in a way where they felt invincible like they do now.
Instead, that team felt it could roll out the helmets and cleats and win. Some players and coaches said this week that in the 2007 NFC Championship overtime loss to the Giants, Green Bay felt all it had to do was break a sweat and it was on to face the Patriots in the Super Bowl. The Giants, who'd lost to Green Bay already, were hot, working their way from a wild-card spot to get to that conference championship game.
They had no fear because they'd battled and overcome, and had to earn everything they had primarily on the road.
Sound familiar?
Ironically, these Packers took on the persona of those Giants, according to people with the team. Those who were around for that painful loss to New York summoned that experience -- from the other point of view -- to get where that team didn't.
Veterans, like Driver, who sensed this team was more focused, pushed younger players to make plays, mainly through example. Sunday against the Bears, it was second-year nose tackle B.J. Raji who came up with the decisive interception return for a touchdown -- yes, the 340-pound nose tackle who dropped into coverage -- and rookie Sam Shields who sealed the victory with a late interception.
Both of those plays came against Bears quarterback Caleb Hanie, a third-year player who was forced into action because of a knee injury to Cutler and ineffectiveness by his backup Todd Collins. Although Hanie valiantly led Chicago to two touchdowns in the fourth quarter -- something Cutler couldn't even do when he was playing -- he faltered when it mattered most. Green Bay's young guys didn't because they'd already been battle-tested.
The Packers either trusted or were forced to use their young players for much of the season and that experience paid off.
"The more you play, generally, the better you become," Raji said. "I have great guys around me, encouraging me, great coaches. How can I not get better?"
Green Bay has something going, the players know it and so do their coaches. This is where coach Mike McCarthy finally gets his due. He's managed to find his team's identity by sorting through a cornucopia of issues, namely injuries that have landed 15 players on injured reserve, and get players to believe in what and who they are.
Some teams, like the Steelers, are a rugged defensive team with a tough, clutch quarterback. The identity has been defined for years. Green Bay is a team of will. They have the hottest quarterback in the NFL and a punishing defense of their own, but McCarthy got them to believe that no element was more important than desire.
It's hard to fully capture what that means unless you are around it, but it's amassed into a feeling where one coach told me before Sunday's victory over Chicago that the Bears would have to come up with an "extraordinary effort," to win. Not because the Packers were better or had some magic scheme, but because extraordinary effort is what they've learned on this recent run.
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That effort was best exemplified by Rodgers against the Bears, and not by what he did with his arm or legs but with his touchdown-saving tackle of Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher in the third quarter. Urlacher picked Rodgers off at the Bears' six on a pass attempt that could have put Green Bay up 21-0. Urlacher only had Rodgers to beat to turn the tide of the game, but Rodgers stopped him on Chicago's 45.
The Packers forced Chicago to punt on the ensuing series and stemmed the potential swing.
"Adverse situations were a major emphasis for our football team," McCarthy said. "Time and time again we've been stepping it up throughout the season. It definitely happened here today and that's why we're moving on to Dallas."
Added Rodgers: "I don't get paid to tackle but that was probably one of my better plays of the day."
The next challenge Green Bay will face might sound simple -- keeping up that momentum with the extra week off before Super Bowl XLV -- but it's something to consider: Since their bye week on Nov. 14, the Packers have played 10 consecutive games, going 7-3, including their current five-game winning streak. Driver briefly processed that, then reflected on the dozens of more pressing things the team has worked through and dismissed that scenario as an obstacle.
"We believe, we all believe in something," he said. "We're hot and when you're hot it's hard to stop this team. We got four more quarters to put that ring on our finger and we're ready to do it."
Okay, so it's not mixed martial arts, but if there's one thing MMA Maniacs love to discuss as much as their beloved sport, it's definitely the NFL playoffs.
Now that the Green Bay Packers have defeated the Chicago Bears in "The Windy City," it's time to see who will join them in Arlington for Super Bowl XLV.
So here it is Maniacs, an open thread and discussion to keep your fellow gridiron guys and gals abreast of the Jets vs. Steelers score as well as a sounding board for any and all football trash talk. Pics, videos, links -- it's all fair game today.
The New York Jets have made a mark on the scoreboard, and Phil Simms just cracked up a portion of America by marveling at the silenced and stunned Heinz Field crowd. Somebody get Wiz Khalifa back out here!
Getting the ball back after a Pittsburgh Steelers fumble return touchdown, the Jets hurried down the field in about a minute. Nick Folk made the 42-yard field goal to put the Jets back within three scores. New York does get the ball back to start the second half, so all isn’t yet lost for Jets fans.
Something’s gonna have to change, though, as Pittsburgh has outgained New York 231 yards to 50. QB Ben Roethlisberger and RB Rashard Mendenhall have both put up more than twice the yardage of the entire Jets attack. The Steelers have scored more points than the Jets have run offensive plays.
The New York Jets faced a huge mountain to climb in the second half of Sunday's AFC Championship game. The game was 24-3 at the half and the Jets had only managed one cumulative yard running the ball.
But the Jets made the game interesting anyway.They chipped away at the lead but were still behind 24-10 in the third. Mark Sanchez drove the ball to the Steelers one-yard line to start the fourth but came up empty and turned the ball over on downs.
That is when the Jets took advantage of a Ben Roethlisberger mishandled snap. Jets players dove over the quarterback for a safety.
The Jets ended up making the score 24-19 with minutes left in the game. The only problem is they allowed the Steelers to effectively run the ball, something they had done all day. One too many first downs iced the game and sent the Jets packing.
If you can't afford the thousands of dollars and a flight to land you at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, you can still enjoy all of the play-by-play action at one of Orange County's sports bars.
Check out our sampling of some of the best bets on where to see the game, participate in raffles to win various sports-themed prizes and get deals on game day food and drinks.
Big's Bar & Grill, 323 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton – Enjoy watching the game on one of the flat screens at this family-owned sports grill. Big's has 30 brews on tap and the full menu, including: Big's chili fries, nachos, hot wings, sliders, loaded potato skins, burgers, sandwiches and more will be available during Super Bowl. 714-526-4950.
Hurricanes Bar & Grill, 200 Main St., Huntington Beach – Catch the big game at Hurricanes with a special tailgate party kicking off at 9 a.m. Enjoy the venue's Endless Summer brunch plus its famous tailgate brats and wings during Super Bowl. Watch the event on 15 plasma TVs and a 110-inch screen. The 36-foot long bar has 22 cold taps and thousands of cocktail options. 714-374-0500.
Buffalo Wild Wings, 14110 Culver Drive, Irvine – Watch the game on one of this bar/restaurant's big-screen TVs and indulge in tailgate specials including Buffalo Wild Wings' signature stacked burgers, appetizers and, of course, the eatery's signature wings – traditional or boneless – with choice of wing sauce. Full bar is also available. 949-872-2999. Locations also in Buena Park: 8301, Suite B, On the Mall, 714-538-9464 and Mission Viejo: 27741 Crown Valley Parkway, 949-582-2660. Specials may vary by location.
OC Tavern, 2369 S. El Camino Real, San Clemente – Celebrate Super Bowl Sunday with fellow football fanatics at OC Tavern and view all of the action on one of the 24 flat screen TVs. Various drink and food specials available. (949) 542-8877.
Boscoe's Sports Grill, 23364 El Toro Road, Lake Forest – Get game day started early with Boscoe's $6 breakfast buffet with $2.75 bloody Mary's and screwdrivers from 9-11:30 a.m. Watch Super Bowl on one of the venues HD TVs, participate in various raffles to win sports-themed prizes and if you wear a jersey or T-shirt supporting your favorite team, you'll receive $1 off regular priced beers during the game. 949-859-9351.
Centerfield Sports Bar & Grill, 17296 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach – Experience Super Bowl XLV on more than 45 TVs and purchase a $25 advance ticket to have a reserved seat available 20 minutes before kickoff and receive a gift bag with a T-shirt, football food like chili dogs and fries or pork sliders and two drinks – domestic, imported or well. Full menu available as well as $1.50 tacos served throughout the game. 714-848-0113.
Newport Beach Brewing Co., 2920 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach – Enjoy a Sunday filled with a great game-viewing experience and various food and drink specials available throughout the game. Full menu featuring burgers, sandwiches, ribs and more will also be available. 949-675-8449.
Silky Sullivan's Restaurant & Irish Pub, 10201 Slater Ave., Fountain Valley – Enjoy Irish cheer, food and beer at Silky Sullivan's on Super Bowl Sunday with various raffles and prizes as well as food and drinks specials. 714-963-2718.
BeachFire Bar & Grill, 204 Avenida Del Mar, San Clemente – Watch the game and nosh on BeachFire's 1st Down Menu during the game including: Kobe sliders, BeachFire's macho nachos or signature cheeseburger and order-up hot wings by the pound. Enjoy a special happy hour with discounts on various drinks from kick-off to the last play. 949-366-3232. Located also in Ladera Ranch, 25682 Crown Valley Parkway, 949-542-7700. Specials may vary by location.
Hooters, 2438 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim – Have a delightfully tacky, yet unrefined Super Bowl celebration at Hooters and enter for a chance to win a 42-inch LCD HDTV that will be given away during the game on Sunday. Various drink and food specials will also be available including plates of the venues signature hot wings, onion rings, quesadillas, tots and cheese sticks as well as hearty cheeseburgers and Philly cheese steak, pulled BBQ pork or buffalo chicken sandwiches. 714-634-9464. Location also in Costa Mesa: 1507 S. Coast Dr., 714-427-0755. Specials may vary by location.
Yard House, 160 S. Brea Blvd., Brea – Thirsty? Check out one of the selections in the Yard House's wide arsenal of brews including craft beers, blonde ales, honey ales, white ales, American strong ales, stouts, amber and red ales, brown ales, and much more. Catch the game on one of the multiple TV screens in the bar and enjoy various specials on appetizers and meals in the restaurant. The restaurant has a center island bar, great for watching the game, or if you prefer to dine while watching, TVs hang all around the restaurant as well. 714-529-9273. Locations also in Newport Beach: 849 Newport Center Dr., 949-640-9273; Irvine: 71 Fortune Dr., 949-753-9373; Costa Mesa: 1875 Newport Blvd., 949-642-0090. Specials may vary by location.
ESPN Zone, 1545 Disneyland Dr., Anaheim – Watch the Super Bowl at the best sports bar in Orange County according to the 17th Annual Best of Orange Count guide. The venue features more than 120 HD TVs, a 16-foot-by-9-foot big screen, leather recliners, and a sports arena upstairs filled with games for all ages. The menu includes; starters: boneless wings, sliders, and a creamy spinach & artichoke dip. Entrees: Baby back ribs, Angus New York strip, BBQ ribs and chicken, grilled salmon and Angus top sirloin. Various drink and food specials available during the game. 714-300-3776.
Beachfront 301, 301 Main St., Huntington Beach – Enjoy Sunday Funday specials including $3 burritos all day, $2 Bud drafts, $5 24 oz domestic beers and $7 24 oz imports. Special menu also includes: calamari, buffalo wings, quesadillas, chicken tenders, nachos, jalapeno poppers, and mozzarella sticks appetizers and entrée specials including: fish and chips, Mahi-Mahi, New York steak, south of the boarder chicken and fish tacos, salmon enchiladas, carne asada and chicken burritos, sandwiches, burgers and more. 714-374-3399.
Clancy's Clubhouse, 2191 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim – Party it up Super Bowl Sunday with game day specials at Clancy's including $2.50 drafts and $5 munchies. Clancy's has over 30 flat screens Plasma TVs for a great view of the action from any spot in the place. 714-750-7500.
On Feb. 6, either the Chicago Bears or the Green Bay Packers will be playing in Super Bowl XLV in Dallas. But for several area families, the bigger game is Sunday, when the two longtime football rivals square off against each other in the post-season for only the second time in history. Not only that, the families will square off against each other, too. Except without the violence. We hope.
It’s like Cubs-Cardinals, or even worse, Cubs-White Sox, but with a pigskin instead of a baseball. A Bear and a Packer in 1924 were the first NFL players ever ejected for fighting during a game. “It will be the worst loss in franchise history, in my opinion,” if the Packers lose to the Bears, said Jacob Klug, who was born in Milwaukee and has decorated his basement in green-and-gold Packer regalia. “This is more important than the Super Bowl.”
Sheila Weed and her husband, Ron, both grew up as Bears fans. They raised four boys, all of whom played football at Lanphier High School, and one daughter. Three are Bears fans, one is a St. Louis Rams fan but has an excuse, and son Elton, who is graduating from McKendree University this year, is a Packers fan. “We had season tickets to the Rams and went to home and some away games,” Sheila said. “With some boys in high school and others playing in college, it got harder and harder to go to NFL games, so we gave them up. George stayed a Rams fan, but the rest slowly reverted back to the Bears. “Except for Elton,” she said. “I tell people I must have dropped him on his head when he was a baby.”
Season tickets
Jennifer Madiar of Springfield was raised in Wisconsin. Her grandfather had had two season tickets to Packers games since the 1960s, and she and her brother took turns going to games with him. “I have a lot of memories going to the game with him,” she said. Her brother and father inherited the tickets — the only way you can get them, by the way — and now her brother takes turns with her to attend home games in Green Bay.
She went to a Bears-Packers game in 2007 with her husband, Eric, a lifelong Bears fan born and raised in the Windy City. It was his first Packers-Bears game. “They passed out these red Santa hats with the Packer logo on them at the game,” she said. Eric got so cold — because he wasn’t properly dressed for a game in Green Bay — that he had to wear the hat.
She has pictures, of course. Eric has already razzed her about the game, and Jennifer said they definitely will watch. She’s also going to surprise her husband by dressing their two kids, Jack and Audrey, in Packers gear when they go to church.
Girls vs. guys
Elaine Menzel (Bears) and her husband, Matt (Packers), were both raised in Lincoln and are raising their two children, Zachary, 7, and Emma Jae, 3, there. “In my house, if you weren’t a Bears fan, you weren’t allowed to talk about it,” she said. Her father still wears a Bears T-shirt or sweatshirt every Sunday during the winter, win or lose.
Zachary takes after his father and roots for the Packers and the baseball Cardinals, so Elaine is “trying to teach Emma Jae right” to be a Bears fan. “Hopefully it will be girls against guys in our house when the kids get older,” she said. The Menzels have invited friends and family to watch the game Sunday on their new big-screen TV. “We’ll all be glued to the TV, screaming and clapping, maybe crying when the clock runs out in the fourth (quarter),” she said. “Some of us will be doing our victory dances, and others will leave the room in silence and make excuses for our team for the next two weeks.
“My husband has his own little man-cave with a TV in the garage. I’m sure he’ll be out there with his Packer friends if it gets too bad.” The Weed family will gather along with some other college kids at Packer fan Elton’s house in Lebanon to watch. “He’s been a Packer fan since he was 4 or 5,” Sheila Weed said of her son. “Reggie White (the late Hall of Fame Packer defensive end) clicked with him. He’s got a cheesehead firefighter hat, and his room is all green and yellow.”
“It’s going to be hard Sunday,” said Sheila, who admits to sometimes siding with Elton when the Packers play somebody other than the Bears. “Just so he doesn’t feel lonely,” she said. “There has been a lot of talk amongst the brothers.”
‘Old football’
Klug, the man with the Packer-themed basement, said one of the reasons he and his wife, Susan, were attracted to their current house was because the house was set up for watching football on Sundays. “We have a lot more room in the basement, and it’s set up for enjoying it,” he said. Of course, a bigger basement meant more room for Packers stuff, too.
Susan grew up in Girard in a Bears family.
“She’s lenient about the Packer additions,” he said. “But we have a Packer tree down there for Christmas, and she put one Bear ornament at the bottom of it.” The Klugs will have people over Sunday. Jacob says he’ll be outnumbered, although there will be a couple of other Packers fans, including one who was drafted by the Pack out of college in the 1960s but didn’t make the team.
“I’m a yeller and a screamer with the TV,” he said. “I don’t know how I’ll be able to handle it if the Packers lose. I don’t know if I could even watch the Super Bowl.” But Packers fans and Bears fans can agree on one thing that Klug says about Sunday’s game: “It brings back what old football was about.” Chris Dettro can be reached at 788-1510.
Oldest rivalry
The Bears-Packers rivalry began in 1921 and is the league’s longest, with 180 regular-season and one post-season game. Chicago leads the all-time series with 92 wins, 83 losses and 6 ties. The Bears won the only previous playoff meeting between the two teams, which took place a week after Pearl Harbor in 1941. In the one-game playoff to determine the Western Division championship, the Bears defeated the Packers 33-14, then went on to beat the New York Giants the following week for their fourth NFL championship.
For Super Bowl Sunday, think cool but not frigid, with a slight chance of rain, but no snow or ice. Basically, look for a day that by February standards in Green Bay , Chicago , New York or Pittsburgh would be considered pretty darned nice outside the stadium. (There’s no chance of snow inside Cowboys Stadium.)
Of course, the forecast comes with a major disclaimer: By the time Feb. 6 rolls around, there’s a reasonable chance nothing in the preceding sentences will turn out to be true. With the big game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington still more than two weeks off, meteorologists saw the first computer model for Feb. 6 weather conditions on Friday afternoon. And they didn’t feel particularly comfortable using it as the basis for a forecast.
“Anything I tell you is going to be so generic it really will mean nothing,” said Eric Martello, a senior analyst for the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. Brian Edwards, of AccuWeather in State College, Pa., said that the Global Forecast System computer model looks so far forward “that its next run could show something completely different.”
For now, though, based on this most preliminary data, North Texas organizers of Super Bowl XLV have to be smiling. While it’s true the weather inside Cowboys Stadium will be perfect no matter what, the prospect of thousands of football fans slip-sliding along local highways after a freak ice storm during Super Bowl week was certainly a concern.
This first bit of weather data offered at least some assurances. “If this pattern was to hold up, it wouldn’t be overly cold or wet” on Super Bowl Sunday, Martello said. “We could see southerly winds and temperatures well-above freezing. “Right now, if things stay like this, it wouldn’t be a bad day.” The normal daytime high temperature on Feb. 6 is 58, according to the National Weather Service. Edwards said he expects it to be cooler than that this year, maybe 10 or 15 degrees cooler, “but I don’t see it in the 30s,” he said.
“And for anyone coming down from New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago or Green Bay, the 40s will feel pretty good.”
The 193 room Aloft Dallas will become Bud Light Hotel for Super Bowl XLV weekend. The hotel will be home of the Playboy Super Bowl Party, adding a tent to the parking lot to accommodate the concerts and up to 3,500 people.
Tent areas will be transformed into current and future Playboy Club locations Las Vegas, Macau, London, South Beach and Cancun. The Vegas area will showcase a Black Jack casino, South Beach will have lifeguards on duty, dragons and Buddha will highlight Macau, you can take photos in converted traditional London red phone booths, and Mayan dancers will take over the Cancun section.
The concerts and events are split amongst five days, kicking off on Feb 3rd and going strong until the 7th. Days 1, 3-4 feature The Fray, Lifehouse, Ke$ha, Nelly, Pitbull, and Dierks Bentley with Jack Ingram. The main event on Friday, Feb 4th is private/invite only and will include Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Flo Rida. And what’s a Playboy Party without Playmates and Models?! I don’t think you’ll have to look very hard to spot them. Hugh Hefner has to be hanging around as well with fiancée Crystal Harris.
This is going to be one star-studded, super sexy event. No official word on public access to the event, although a sketchy ticket source has been found for the current prices of $1254 – $1313. Any takers?
Aloft Dallas/Bud Light Hotel is located in downtown Dallas, Texas.
* Hyundai will preview its 2011 Super Bowl advertising this Sunday during the AFC Championship game, focusing on the 2011 Hyundai Elantra and 2011 Hyundai Sonata. * Sheep figure prominently in this year's ad campaign, a notable switch from the 2010 Super Bowl, when Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre was the star. * Hyundai says the Super Bowl ad campaign will also feature online short films that discuss the "conspiracy behind compact car hypnosis."
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California — Hyundai said it will preview its 2011 Super Bowl advertising this Sunday during the AFC Championship game, focusing on the 2011 Hyundai Elantra, 2011 Hyundai Sonata, sheep and the "conspiracy" theories behind boring small cars.
The Korean automaker is jumping on the trend of dragging out Super Bowl advertising in a two-week-long run-up to the big game, thus getting more mileage out of its ad dollars. In the past, Super Bowl advertising was a one-day event.
"Over the years the Super Bowl has provided a great avenue for us to reach a significant audience, and this year we are expanding that reach by jump-starting the campaign two weeks early during the AFC Championship game," said John Krafcik, Hyundai Motor America president and CEO in a statement on Thursday.
Hyundai has shifted gears from its approach for the 2010 Super Bowl, which featured Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre as "Father Time."
In the new Elantra ad, a sheep is behind the wheel of a small car as other drivers gasp in astonishment. The ad theme is dubbed "Snap Out of It" and assures buyers that small cars don't have to be dull. A companion ad showing children driving toy cars and outgrowing things like tiny twin beds makes the point that small cars don't have to be cramped.
Hyundai says the Super Bowl ad campaign will also feature online short films that discuss the "conspiracy behind compact car hypnosis." The Korean automaker isn't the only one to feature driving animals in its Super Bowl ads. Subaru has debuted an anti-Super Bowl ad campaign that features a dog driving a Subaru Forester.
With 106.5 million viewers, the Super Bowl championship football game is the most-viewed event on US television. This year's sporting event, Super Bowl XLV, on February 6 at Cowboys Stadium in Texas, features the traditionally custom-made commercials that have become almost as anticipated as the winning score.
The 30-second TV spots for Super Bowl XLV cost about $3 million each and sold out months ago. According to Kantar Media, the cost of Super Bowl ads has risen by 36% in the last ten years, with a 30-second spot costing around $2.2 million a decade ago.
This year's Super Bowl game will include a record number of auto ads, with spots from companies including BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, and General Motors (after a 2-year hiatus) to signal the rebound of the industry,
The biggest advertisers in 2011 include Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser beer), with the largest buy for the game. Dot-com firms also take a sizable portion of commercials from CareerBuilder.com to E*Trade. Film spots will include a preview of the sci-fi western Cowboys and Aliens starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.
First-time buyers include Pizza Hut, Best Buy, and Groupon, the local retail coupon website. Motorola Droid tablet, possibly called Xoom, will debut, and repeat performances will come from Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Doritos, and Bridgestone.
In an attempt to reach women, Skechers' shoe spot will feature reality star Kim Kardashian, comedian Roseanne Barr appears for Mars candy, Teleflora will promote country singer Faith Hill's floral collection, and GoDaddy.com includes spokesperson and racecar driver Danica Patrick.
The peak advertising event of the year is joining the digital age by going beyond the 30-second TV spot to include online features, social networks and mobile media. Ad agencies are incorporating Facebook and Twitter as well as contest sites such as http://beonthefield.com.
After last year's successful Old Spice campaign became a viral online phenomenon, this year Mercedes-Benz launches "The World's First Twitter-Fueled Race," which gives cars to a two-person team that gains the most Mercedes-Benz tweets and Facebook "likes."
Audi's spot will include Audi Inner Circle social-media contests. The carmaker's companion ad airs prior to the Super Bowl - called "Goodnight," it is about the trappings of luxury: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJnaOPzZ_pQ
The four teams currently vying for the Super Bowl are the New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears, with the finalists to be determined at games this weekend.
In addition to the entertaining commercials, the halftime show will be performed by the Black Eyed Peas and the national anthem will be sung by Christina Aguilera.
The game airs on Fox-TV in the US, Sky in the UK, ESPN in Brazil and Italy and other local networks around the world.
An online store called Jesus Hates Obama says a television ad it submitted to air during next month's Super Bowl has been rejected by the Fox television network.
“Do I really believe (that) Jesus really hates Obama? No, but I do believe in freedom… as in the freedom to poke fun at the Obama administration when I don’t agree with their policies,” said Richard Belfry, who began selling Jesus Hates Obama merchandise in 2009, in a Thursday press release about the ad’s rejection.
A spokesman for Fox, which will broadcast the Super Bowl on February 6, would not say whether the network rejected the ad.
“If an advertiser wishes to submit an ad for consideration, we will review it and determine if it’s appropriate for air,” said Lou D’Ermilio, a spokesman for Fox Sports Media Group. “However, we do not provide information about the materials that may or may not have been submitted, nor do we discuss our broadcast standard polices.”
The Jesus Hates Obama website said in its release that it had received an e-mail message from Fox’s vice president for broadcast standards and practices that said its commercial was “deemed not acceptable to air on FOX during the 2011 Super Bowl.”
Belfry, who describes himself as a conservative comedian, said in the press release that he won financial backing from private investors to produce and air a commercial during the Super Bowl, when 30-second spots cost upward of $3 million.
Belfry says he has sold over 70,000 Jesus Hates Obama T-shirts out of the back of his van and through word of mouth. In November, he launched JesusHatesObama.com. The website lists a Las Vegas, Nevada, address on its “Contact Us” page.
He said he submitted the no-frills ad, which features bobble-head dolls of Jesus Christ and President Barack Obama, in November and January and was rejected both times.
Ad space for the Super Bowl sold out in November.
The ad encouraged viewers to go to the JesusHatesObama.com site to buy merchandise, mostly T-shirts with messages including, “Jesus Loves You but hates Obama.”
The Black Eyed Peas will perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, and as the frontman ofthe group, you presumably have been asked to choose songs that are relatively wholesome.I assume you’re not playing your salacious hit “My Humps.”
We’re not playing that. It’s a club song. It’s like when I get around my mom, all my cuss words are deleted from my vocabulary. Automatically, they just leave. Super Bowl, yes, the words are not going to exist in my vocabulary.
I trust you’re not planning a “wardrobe malfunction,” to borrow the euphemism for Justin Timberlake’s assault on Janet Jackson’s clothing at the game in 2004.
That wasn’ta malfunction.
What would you call it?
A male function.
You’re known for your political advocacy and helped propel President Obama into the White House with your “Yes We Can” music video. The general consensus seems to be that the Obama hope movement has failed to deliver.
I don’t want to hope anymore. I don’t thinkwe should hope anymore. We hoped enough. Now we have to do. We all have to do now.
Do you feel disappointed in President Obama?
I don’t feel disappointed. I feel like, Argggh! Speak louder! I feel like, Do something! I feel like jumping in.
The Black Eyed Peas’ latest album, “The Beginning,” sheds the political sermonizingof its predecessor, “The E.N.D.,” in favorof a let’s-party hedonism. How would you describe its sound?
It’s electro. Electro is today’s disco — making electronic musicnot for the sake of selling it but for sharingit and touring around the world D.J.-ing.
A friend of mine says that nightlife represents the greatest waste of human energy inthe history of mankind.
Your friend probably doesn’t go to clubs. Right now in the world, clubbing is needed. It’s a time when people want to rub shoulders against people theydon’t know and share, even if the sharing is expressing your like over a beat.
O.K., but clubbing seems to invite a lot of drinking and drug use.
So do restaurants. I could go to a restaurant and get drunk. I could go to a restaurant and eat all the wrong food and get freaking diabetes and high cholesterol.
Do you think rap music glamorizes guns?
Justas much as Hollywood action films do. They glamorize more, because there’s dialogue, there’s emotion to it. There are visuals. Actors went to holding-gun school to learn how tohold an AK-47 right. They glorify guns more than any hip-hop song, because the song just says, “Shoot ’em up, bang, bang.”
So write a song about gun control instead.
Butis gun control the solution? Here’s the problem: Profiteers haunt America, and for everything we try to control, someone’s going to profit from it, more than you control it.
You grew up in the projects of East Los Angeles, and reportedly never met your dad.
I wasraised by my mother and my uncles — my Uncle Donnie, my Uncle Rendal Fay, my Uncle Lynn, my Uncle Roger. Those are my mother’s brothers. Not the Smothers Brothers.
You have since bought your mom a house in the valley and started a foundation to keep families from losing their houses. How does that work?
I say: “Let me pay for that house. It’s yours. You don’t got to pay me back.” It’s that simple.Why am I doing it? Because I said, “Yes we can.”
How did you arrive at the name Will.i.am?
I liked playing with words. I noticed that my name was a sentence, meaning one with will, who is strong-willed. And so I called my mom and said, “Hey, Mom, do you mind if I call myself Will.i.am?” She was like: “Whaaa? You’re crazy.” She was cool with it.
Your name sounds like Sam-I-Am, from Dr. Seuss.
And I eat green eggs and ham! If you would ask my mom what books I liked growing up, I liked Dr. Seuss. I like “emerge” and “see.”
The concerts and events are split amongst five days, kicking off on Feb 3rd and going strong until the 7th. Days 1, 3-4 feature The Fray, Lifehouse, Ke$ha, Nelly, Pitbull, and Dierks Bentley with Jack Ingram. The main event on Friday, Feb 4th is private/invite only and will include Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Flo Rida. And what’s a Playboy Party without Playmates and Models?! I don’t think you’ll have to look very hard to spot them. Hugh Hefner has to be hanging around as well with fiancée Crystal Harris.