Mensamom’s Musings

One may be familiar with the concept of the armchair quarterback or the Monday morning quarterback, but over the past 45 years, the aftermath of the Super Bowl has changed considerably.  The Monday morning quarterbacks discussing the various aspects of the previous day’s game (and identifying what their particular team could have/should have done differently to bring about a more satisfactory outcome) have been replaced by the Monday morning Ad Executives.

When I went to work this morning, I expected to hear discussions regarding last night’s Super Bowl.  The Steelers fans would be talking about how their team just did not pick up enough steam soon enough, and while they played their hearts out during the second half, if it had only come sooner or lasted longer, they would have won.  The Packer fans would be talking about how amazing it was that they were able to fight off the Steelers in the second half despite a plethora of injuries to key players.  But no.  The vast majority of discussions centered around the Super Bowl commercials.  What was your favorite?  Which ones did you like?  Which ones just did not work?  Everyone seems to know how and why the different ads worked or didn’t work.  Fox Sports has even gone so far as to allow web viewers to vote on the ads, giving a “thumbs up” to the ones they like and the “thumbs down” to the ones that just don’t do it.  And just in case you were lured away from this great American tradition by the likes of the Puppy Bowl, Enchanted, or Netflix (or you were just in a cave somewhere), you can screen the Super Bowl ads here.

Personally, there were a couple that caught my attention.  As a parent, the Volkswagen/Star Wars commercial has to be my favorite.  For pure fun, I like the Bud Light “Product Placement“, Bridgestone Tires, and Doritos “Healing Chips”.  I thought there were a few too many upcoming movie ads.  I can understand the studios wanting to put their new releases into the minds of the public, but it just seemed like a little bit of overkill, considering that these same movie trailer commercials will be airing on every station day and night for the next one-to-six months, depending upon when the movie is released.  There were a few ads that really didn’t work for me.  I could have skipped both of the Eminem ads.  I felt the tea one was lame, and the Chrysler commercial was somewhat ambiguous, in that it was hard to tell if Eminem was endorsing Chrysler or the city of Detroit.  Actually, many of the car commercials were just humdrum – not a lot of entertainment value, just “here’s our new car and this is what makes it special”.  And none of them really seemed that special (aside from the aforementioned VW ad).

Over the past 45 years, Super Bowl ads have evolved from just putting a product in front of one of the annually largest TV viewing audiences to being part of why that audience is so large.  The comment that seemed to be repeated the most this morning was, “I didn’t really have a great interest in the game, I just watched it for the commercials.”  In truth, there was a point during the evening that I was in my son’s room, putting away clean clothes, and racing out to the living room only when the action on the field was coming to a stop.  All of this begs the question: What is the future evolution of the Super Bowl ad?  I foresee a day when a DVD of the ads is available to order as soon as the game is over, with the proceeds going to some charity or cause endorsed by the NFL.  Or, possibly a TV special, airing a week or so after the game, that consists of nothing but Super Bowl TV spots.  Of course, if that ever happens, only the football fans would watch the game.  The rest of us would be free to watch the Puppy Bowl, or whatever else tickled our fancies, and set our TIVO’s up to record the commercials.  Just don’t hit that “skip the ads” button.

When I was a kid, we lived for snow days.  It might be that I am not remembering accurately, but it seems as if we would have several each winter, and they would be two or three days in a row.  The end result was always that we had to go to school longer in the summer, but at the same time, we did not have as many No School Holidays as they do now.  We had Labor Day and Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, President’s Day and Memorial Day, but there was no once-a-month-we-have-Monday-off-for-another-Holiday.  So our snow day make-up days would carry us into the second or third of June, but that was it.

Today is our second snow day in a row, and there are fairly good odds we may not have school again tomorrow.  I know that I am not capable of shoveling all the snow between our house and the road, so until we get someone with a blade over here, we are not going anywhere.  But, rather than look at it as being stuck in the house, I should focus on having this uninterrupted time to catch up on stuff – laundry, dishes, cleaning the hard water marks off the shower walls, all that fun stuff.  Meanwhile, my husband and four-year-old are working on serious stuff like bringing up yet more Legos from the basement . . . I will be out shoveling while they are building the City Center in the living room.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am not being disdainful of my husband.  He cannot shovel due to his physical disabilities, so it must be left to me, but there is only so much I can do.  On the other side is the four-year-old, who wants to know when we are going to be able to go skiing.  The funny part is the only time he has ever been skiing is on Wii Ski and playing the Vancouver Olympics on the XBox.

So, here I sit writing, while the hamper is poised at the top of the basement steps waiting to be taken down and sorted and the new load started.  And those few pesky items that can’t go in the dishwasher are calling my name.  But a snow day is supposed to be a day when you don’t have to do all the things you would normally do, like go to work or school.  Therein lies my dilemma.  Do I use this “free time” to do what I want to do, or what needs to be done?  While I decide, I think I will make a list of the books I would like to read in the near future, and maybe try and get some scrapbook pages done.  There will still be dirty clothes tomorrow.