Superbowl – Extra Large (Plus 4)

02/08/2010

The Superbowl was last night (duh), and I have to say, I was pretty energized by it.  I didn’t really have a huge stake in the game – other than the $25 worth of squares I bought, and subsequently lost on – and am not a huge football follower so I didn’t have a “team”.  About 20 minutes before game-time, I was going with the rest of the people sitting in the room I was watching it and rooting for the Colts, until a few things happened.  The first thing to set me off was a nice little segment on Drew Brees and his wife.  Good job CBS News, you definitely warmed my heart up and swayed me.  The second was a silly little conversation I got into about the footballers’ famous significant others and who we like (or don’t like) more.  And last – I sort of wanted to be the black sheep of the family (I’m good at that) and go against everyone else.  So, game time started, and I was a Saints backer.

But, let’s be honest – my initial intentions were to tune in for the commercials.  They’re usually what gets me going.  I’ll take my breaks during the game, but am glued to the TV during the time – but I sort of felt the opposite last night.  The commercials bored me; at the end of the day there was only one that I walked away from thinking it was clever.  On the other hand, the game energized me.  I enjoyed watching it, I got into it, and I got that warm and fuzzy feeling at the end of the game when they cut to Drew Brees and his little boy.  Could they warm my romance novel loving heart any more?

I was a Communication major in school, and I like to think I have a discerning eye, catching the tricks that “they” play on us (they being the media).  I know how they sway the public into believing what they want us to believe, or for rooting what they want us to root for (hello, I’m a case right here with my last minute flip flop due to a few minutes of air time on the Brees family).  I know how the news is structured to make us go into the commercial breaks feeling lighter and happier (take heed, they won’t discuss a murder and go straight to commercial – they’ll always have something a bit lighter beforehand, like the weather).  I know all about Mean World Syndrome and how people think New York City is a really bad place because it is the scene of so many crimes on television.  What I’m getting at is that it usually takes a lot to impress me since I’m too worried about hidden meanings and subliminal messages to get to that point.

So it shouldn’t be surprising then that the one thing that impressed me is from the one I never expected to see: Google’s.  It was simple, clean, and fresh.  And, it was from the search giant that really, in my opinion, doesn’t need a commercial to get people to use it.  It stuck with it’s brand; it didn’t try to be anything Google isn’t – and that’s why it worked.  I’m not an expert in advertising, but I like to think that I am a very brand loyal person.  I write SEO guides at work and have to catch myself 800 times when I talk about optimizing for Google (…and Yahoo, and… eh.. Bing), it is part of my lingo.  I go through leaps and bounds of the terrible Internet on my phone to Google something.  Hell – my fantasy dream job is to work for the giant (as if I could EVER pass that test).  I apparently wasn’t up-to-date on my gossip for this one, so I was pleasantly surprised with this ad, and, a day later, it’s the only one I chose to watch more than once.

So if you haven’t watched it, you’ll find it below.  If you have – what did you think of it?  (And is there anyone out there like me who saw this and thought of the place they studied abroad – Australia for me – and started, once again, daydreaming of the days?)

For more “search stories” visit the Search Stories YouTube page.

And oh – the title for this post is for something a friend said that I’ll never forget