277 Super Bowl Ads vs. Puppy Bowl

 

Super Bowl Ads vs. Puppy Bowl

As I compose this blog, the Super Bowl is days away. I half-heartedly follow pro football but rooted for other teams in the playoffs so I don't care that much about this game.

However, I would like Bruce Arians, the Tampa Bay Bucs head coach, to win. Arians played

quarterback for Virginia Tech in 1974; his first coaching job was as a graduate assistant at Tech; and he seems to be a nice person when not coaching!

I would be happy to read after the game that he had won. But there are those commercials. I generally read a book during the games and look up to see replays of exciting moments. For this game, I will have to interrupt my book for commercials too.

There are many lists of the best game advertisements. I like the Budweiser frogs and the Clydesdales. The 1984 Apple commercial was just weird--to me. I liked Mean Joe Greene too.

This year a 30-second Super Bowl commercial will cost at least $5.5 million or so. The research says that these ads do result in increased sales. Some companies are skipping this year--Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Budweiser--to give funds to more needy causes. But Anheuser-Busch commercials (Bud's parent company) will air, and Pepsi is sponsoring the halftime show. Also sitting out sponsorship are Audi, Avocados from Mexico, and Hyundai.

The Puppy Bowl is an attractive alternative. I wonder how those $5.5-million sponsors feel when a game gets boring, and we lackluster fans switch to the Animal Planet.

This will be the 17th year of the Puppy Bowl. The concept started out as a joke at Animal Planet but grew into a real program. Now it draws about 10 million viewers over its 12-hour block--110 million for the Super Bowl. What is great is that all 90 participating pups are from rescues, and all get adopted! The Puppy Bowl is filmed over two days with seventeen cameras.

The plan is to watch the Puppy Bowl after the game since the pupper show is repeated several times--I don't want to miss those commercials. Unless the game goes south, then I will join the 10 million at Animal Planet!

Not-Super-Bowl-Savvy Trish