This coming Sunday an estimated 200 million Americans will be watching what has been part of our culture for 49 years. The Super Bowl.
Super Bowl XLIX will be held in Arizona, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. NFL.com has named this year’s Super Bowl, “The Desert Duel.”
The Super Bowl is also one of the most well known events in American culture. Countless people host Super Bowl parties, buy all kinds of fan memorabilia, tons of food and get their game day gear ready for this classic American ritual. We [Americans] get excited for this real-life clash of the titans event, even if we do not have a team that we highly favor or not. There is more that is incorporated into the Super Bowl than just a high-stakes game of winner takes all.
Commercials and ads gain tons of interest for the Super Bowl. The commercials are a prime reason why many Americans tune into the game. With commercial segments starting around $4.5 million (said Forbes.com), this year’s commercials should be pretty sensational.
Anheuser-Busch has has pumped plenty of money into advertisements in order to reach their audiences this year. The clydesdales and dalmation puppies will most likely be seen again this year, as well as Budlight having their #UpForWhatever campaign. The introduction for #UpForWhatever has already started airing and showing teasers for Super Bowl XLIX. The airing of their last commercial showed the date for Super bowl within the last few seconds of the ad, showing Feb. 2, 2015.
Cheerios has started a new trend this year by getting away from the idea of the clumsy father, and showing Fathers in a heroic way. #HowToDad is Cheerios’ new way to proactively support the stay-at-home dad. With at least half of the Super Bowl audience being males and many of the female viewers having active husbands, Cheerios is said to support dads all over the U.S. in one of their commercial segments.
Viewers can also expect to see more comedic segments from Doritos and viewers will be able to choose which commercial they want the world to see during the big game. Doritos has started their #CrashTheSuperBowl campaign, which is where consumers may access their website and vote on 10 different user-submitted ads.
Judging from Coca-Cola’s 30-second segment from last year’s Super Bowl, we should see another message from Coke calling for and embracing diversity (said Huffingtonpost.com). Last year’s message of Coke having “America the Beautiful” being sung by people of many different ethnicities, sent many Americans a message to embrace our differences and that no matter where you’re from, happiness can be shared.
For those who will not be around a television or device with cable access, NBC.com will be live streaming the game. Anyone wanting to watch Super Bowl XLIX will be able to stream the game to their laptops or smart TV. NBC will, however, only allow viewers 11 hours of playing time on Super Bowl Sunday. Viewers will not be able to stream from NBC onto their smart phones or tablet devices, unless a Verizon wireless customer. This is due to Verizon (VZ, Tech 30) buying out all mobile streaming rights.
During the Super Bowl there are also some individuals that could care less about the game or the ads. They participate in Super Bowl festivities for the food. If you’re going to entertain, be sure to plan ahead and prepare the food ahead of time. Get your grocery list, know what you’re planning to make and prepare it for cooking the night before game day. This eliminates being stuck cooking the whole day or missing the game.
There are many reasons why we, as Americans, love getting ready for the Super Bowl. Regardless of what those reasons may be, here at The Pacer we wish all of UT Martin a safe and happy Super Bowl XLIX. May the best contender win!
Graphic credit: Nathaniel West
