Slashdot Mirror
Interesting Commercials
So, I'm sitting here half-watching the Super Bowl and admiring some of the new commericials. So far, I think that the E*trade Monkey with Horse ad has been really good, as has the Kasparov vs. The Machines - the accenture and cingular ads have been, IMHO, as bland as Wonder bread. That, and the Cingular icon looks like a bold color version of the X icon, or something. The E*Trade Matrix rip-off ad was good as well - but with one quarter left, I'm not as impressed as in past years. What do you folks think?Update: 01/29 06:29 PM by H :Check out AdCritic's Superbowl site.
Than what the best commercials are, is just how much the halftime show cost... EEP!
I knew there was something I forgot about
the pets.com puppet had a killer cameo, it's good to see he is still getting work.
...coz I'm in Canada and my bloody cable company replaces all the ads with crummy random boring local ads!! grr! I'm missing half the show! At least I got to see a Powerbook G4 add that I hadn't seen yet, but still!
Yeah, the eTrade on was nicely done.
Kez
The Budweiser Wazzuuup commercial with the aliens had me laughing the most. The e*Trade one with the monkey and the horse was another good one. Otherwise I've been unimpressed.
The following statement is true. The preceding statement is false.
the best comercial was the pepsi one with bob dole. hilarious.
-----
so i says to mable, i says
the E*Trade commercial as well. I also enjoyed the pepsi one with the prison.
Ryan "the Moped" Runge
Haven't had any TV since last sunday when Dave ECM'd us--oh well, good ol' emulator should be here Wednesday/Thursday. Anyone know any good books?
Since when did the Stupor Bowl have anything to do with "news for nerds"?
After the "We spent 200000 in this add", etrade monkey ad from last year, Adding the monkey with the sock puppet was great. Other ads aren't very good. Didn't find the kasparov add that funny, but I'm biased against all soft drink ads. The squirrel ad was pretty funny when compared the cat hearders from last year.
-Moondog
You know if you are rating commercials... well, how low can you get?
Super Bowl watching is for suckers. I like football, but not this commercial atrofy.
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
Id have to say its a tie so far between Pepsi's Kasparov commercial, and the return of Ali Landry for Doritos. You just dont expect that outcome there
The ivory tower has never had to reach so h
The Bud commercials have been pretty good, esp the one with "What are you doing?," "Just watching the market, drinkin' an import" and "Hey Jimmy, pick up the cordless." Just shows that you have a sense of humor when you can make fun of yourself. BTW--anyone else notice that it is no longer the Budwieser blimp, it's the Budwieser.com blimp. I think they missed that bandwagon by a year.
I don't think the commercials are as good this year as they were in past years... I have always liked the bud ads in the past but there just kind of boring this year. No Frogs. The snickers ones are alright though. You would think that for what an ad spot costs they would be more entertaining.
Ben
Not as good as the previous Super Bowls, I'm disappointed.
May your life be like toiler paper.... Long and useful.
I was watching Futurama (sorry) since I had not seen it in a long time and there was no game on that channel :) when I saw a (bah!) M$ commercial.
New one, about how _reliable_ thier servers are.
It showed an empty office with servers in it and
spoke of how everyone was home enjoying milk and
cookies with no worries because Redmond was
running the show.
I wonder if this is just to tout the "new" OS,
or M$ standard campaign to make you forget about
all of those outages last week at thier server
farm...
like i'm going to waste 4 hours sitting around watching a bunch of overpaid, overweight, sweaty smelly guys run up and down a field after a dead pig.
the pets.com puppet had a killer cameo
Yeah, he looked great on Brittney Spears' arm during the halftime show.
The ivory tower has never had to reach so h
CueCat's colons were lame. accenture's ">" in the middle of nowhere is LAME. Is ASCII the newest trend du jour with marketroids or what? Maybe in a few years we'll start seeing IPOs with names in pure l33t5p34|
Oh wait. mind[avg_marketroid]==mind[avg_script_kiddie]. Mystery solved.
// zyqqh
That E*Trade commercial really took a shot at pets.com! Not that it wasn't funny, but OUCH! Overall, the commercials have been OK. I think everyone expects way too much in recent years.
Monkey...on a horse...saying Wasssup!
A speech...
The commercials must be pretty boring if we're all here pushing reload on Slashdot. :)
uh...some of the commercials are funny. i think youre taking this a BIT too seriously...
Damn, I wish I hadnt posted so I could mod this one down as flamebait.
The ivory tower has never had to reach so h
i've always found the commercials of the current year to be "sub-par," or something along those lines. i think things just seem better when you think back to them, rather than when you are actually viewing them.
This is exactly like how the News Agencies called the result of the election before it was truly over. We require, in a proper democracy, that our influential media hold its tongue and refuse to offer influential opinion before the contest is done.
I can only hope that commercials yet to declare will not be disheartened, and will show up to stake their claim despite this knee jerk reaction.
Shame on you Hemos.
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
I think of little else but you.
If you want to look at those comercials, you can always go to adcritic.
(I just want to be helpful, if you think I am a karma whore, mod me down).
Fh
I thought EDS's running with the squirrels was a roit. Made me think of Linux.
I'm surprised no one has commented on the first Pepsi ad. The Kasparov one was funny, but the one with Bob Dole spoofing his role as Viagra spokesman was priceless. (Oops, that was the Mastercard spot...)
Seriously, is that the new Pepsi schtick? Celebrities mocking themselves....At least it's better than the curly-haired kid.
So what do you want better? Hi-quality Quicktime, streaming, butt-ugly realplayer, or craptastic WiMP? Quicktime is great.
the Kasparov ad was hella friggin cool. But it would have killed you to wait until the game was over to post?
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
Is anyone else but me annoyed by the elitist 'I'm too good for the Super Bowl' air around here? :|
BilldaCat
I didn't get a chance to watch the entire Super Bowl, because I was busy doing academic research. However, I did join my friends in the residence hall for about half an hour of the game, leaving shortly after the Raisins scored the first TD (fsck you, Modell!). The one commercial I did enjoy was the Bud Light commercial with the couple seated together on the couch. I'll take that as a lesson to not get my groove thing going while holding one or more bottles of carbonated beverages. I'm sure that can kill a relationship in a nanosecond (unless she's EXTREMELY forgiving).
I was thinking a couple months ago. What would I do if I had as much money as Billy Gates.
Then the answer came to me. I would wait until the superbowl and during the half-time show I would walk out into the middle of the field.
Thier would be thousand dollar bill dropping like rain. The cammera would zoom close to my face and I would say "Because I can" and that would be it.
Also, what did everyone think of the Britany Spears, Nsync, and Nelly singing an AeroSmith song?
Just my 3.14 cents.
I'm pretty grumpy 'cause i don't have good telly anymore. I'd trade my 60 US cable channels for the five I had back in the UK. I thought the license was a rip off. Now I think it's a bargain.
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
Sports and commercials are a waste of time. Instead of wasting my time watching it I'm writing assembly code for my HC12, oh what fun!
If only superbowl.adcritic.com weren't superbowled... oh wait, posting this isn't going to help, is it?
The shareholder is always right.
I think I speak for everyone here when I say the Super Bowl super sucked. Unless youre a retard, in that case, you speak for yourself.
Pick your favorite mocking quote:
"This disturbing commercial was brought to you by...Pepsi!"
"Oh look! Its Sting, and his little portable Pakistani friend!"
"Welcome to Super Bowl 35! Here's Sting Singing A Song About A Prostitute!"
"Our fans might not like that we're on stage with a band like N'Sync...But..its like, we do that all the time."
"Ok, everybody! Lets Punt!"
"Let's kick! And kick some more!! We like kicking!"
"And now, for the useless 3D instant replay."
"New York - We Suck Balls."
"Accenture -- Even We Don't Know What We Make."
"I read PROPAGANDA
Hey Hemos, you can't put a pepsi link here now, it's coke day.
lsmvcprm.com, Tools for geek power
lsmvcprm.com, Tools for geek power
... the wondrous internet brings us all the ads from the superbowl, delivered directly into our homes
I still don't understand what "self expression" has anything to do using a mobile phone...
Ok, Budweiser is parodying their own commercials. Pepsi is parodying Viagra commercials. This is pathetic. Sure, some of them are a little amusing, but amusing is all over the place. Some are even hilarious, but come on. How about product information? Oh, wait, people don't really care about that, do they?
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Hell, my little brother just switched over to the movie "Little Giants" on NBC. This isn't going to bode well for Survivor, either, with their pilot going on tonight. I could care less about the show (I was one of the few and the proud that didn't watch any of it last season), but if I were CBS I'd be shitting in my pants right now. Most people have probably switched channels.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
That's been my fave so far. Made me laugh and it had a good point.
:) *drool*
I liked the silicon ad...oh wait, that was Ms. Spears at half time.
Well, the most poignant one was the American Legacy Foundation's assault on the Philip Morris positive smear campaign. I think that's the one that's going to stand out in people's minds... I wish they'd show that one a little bit more throughout the year.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
...they have been SuperBowled.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
When Aerosmith was actually a cool rock band? I was never a big fan, but Jesus, dancing with some fucking teen band and Britany "one set of implants away from being a hairdresser or a cashier" Spheres... umm Spears.
Reading in the local paper, the big draw of this super bowl were, as the paper put it, Matrix like replays. After having watching 3 quarters, I must say that it is a big let down. I guess a brief look at the technology is waranted:
They have setup thirty-some cameras around the stadium that allow a continuous feed of imagery to computer located in the bowels of the programming center. This is all done via fiber, and is supposed to create that cool camera panning effect where the camera stops, swings around, and you are behind the play.
That is a simple overview, but it gets the idea across. My take is that it is a little early to be seeing this. First off, only a select few plays even need this type of replay feature, and I believe the viewer only saw it two times before the half-time show. When it was used, it was jerky, and very, VERY pixelated. I don't see why they didn't just switch camera angles. This is specially true after hearing how much they spent to do something they hardly do. Maybe in a few years, computers can do interpolation, make it smoother, all that stuff, but for right now, leave it out of the game.
As for best commercial, I would have to vote for the new "Wassup" with the Wall Street guys. Too much fun!
Bryan R.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
Lame. I'm sorry old guy in the bed with a destroyed trachea, but Phillip Morris wont change their product until idiots like you decide to stop putting a roll of burning tobacco between your lips. Quit bitching and accept responsibility for what you have done to yourself.
As for your foundation and that damn Truth campaign, take your frikking money and shove it somewhere where the sun _does_ shine. I'd rather see those billions of dollars go to finding cures for muscular distrophy or cancers that AREN'T self inflicted.
I hadn't even heard of Cingular since like last week, where did they come from? And that ad where they had that retarded gimp artist, I was intrigued and like "that guy's pretty cool" and then I saw it was an ad for cingular and I was left to wonder how the hell a gimp artist who can't even speak intelligently can promote cell phones . . oh well
"If IE is 'just a web browser' then emacs is 'just a text editor'."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I really liked the fedex ad at the very beginning.. with the high power springs and the last line where the guy says he'll really miss the dog.
The only thing I liked about halftime was Britney in her tight pants. The rest sucked. My mother says that was because I am getting older and that the show didn't belong to my generation. Not that any superbowl halftime has been "good", just that this one was not as well done as previous superbowl halftimes.
So who is right??
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
You mean 2 days ago? Seems a little late to be posting that, doens't it?
Well. Cingluar ads did their jobs. I came back from the game after giving up all hope of a Giant win, and went to the Cingular website...
baa baa baaaa
Amen. Why the hell would geeks be watching a football game? I can safely say I have never watched a football game on TV or in real life. I mean...what gives?
This whole Super Bowl was relatively uneventful. A guy got his helmet knocked off but that it's. I guess it's not what it used to be. As for the commercials, well, you're right. There weren't many. Of course I'd like to know where they got the panning cameras they used to shift views during game play? E*Trade may have ripped off the Matrix but didn't the Super Bowl camera men do that too? Only, it made sense when they did it.
... there is nothing that has not already been thought
I think the best commercial was the Snickers commercial when this guy was on the side of the street selling talking dolls, and some guy came up and asked him for the 'wazzzzzup' guy, and he smashed him! At last! Victory! That has been the most obnoxious series of commercials I have seen in years. There is nothing more annoying than hearing that phrase being repeated 50 times a day, so needless to say when the guy stomped that 'wazzzzzup' doll, I was cheering myself. In fact, I think there is a hunger inside me right now. ;)
so with a lot of the companies that had the big adds last year gone (ie. they are on f$!@dcompany.com) this year, you think this was a concern to HotJobs.com ? I mean Etrade actually has some money that comes in from its users... Hmm. lets see if we lose any from this year!
Game got boring, but the three fg's in 40 some seconds was worth the time!
Non-Deterministic Finite Automata
One of the reasons for the jerkyness was that they were only using 33 video cameras, as compared to 100+ still cameras in The Matrix. The video was a bit grainy (I'm a video network engineer, so that's striking me as a bit curious.), but I agree; for a first time thing, this was good. A few years will see some remarkable improvements. I think, that www.superbowl.com is going to have EyeVision snippets online.
---------------------------------
Only in America will someone order a
Big Mac, large fries, and a Diet Coke.
The half time show was great... of course, what guy wouldnt like britney in that shit. Oh man! the only thing that sucked was that none of them did their own songs... i'm not a really big fan of aerosmith, but i didnt mind it... Is anyone else sick of N'SYNC? For the most part i just put it on mute and watched britney shake what shes got. I hope she never grows old. I also felt that the little rap by Nelly was out of place, but thats ok. Behind all the complaints i still feel it was a good performance.... hell with the game.... BORING!
I got this sig off of KaZaA this morning
it seems mildly disturbing that the major focus these days is not necessarily on the super bowl football game, but instead the advertising/media coverage. it makes you wonder if one day, the football game will be phased out entirely. while i'm not a fan of football, i'd much rather watch football than ads...
just my $0.02.
eudas
Blessed is he who expects the worst, for he shall not be disappointed.
Isn't ironic that same people who yelled about the dirty tactics and half-truths of tobacco advertising are the ones who sponser and run 'The Truth.' It too is half-truths and blame shifting, just now its coming from another source.
If you're too dumn to realise that sucking the smoke from fire into your body is bad, well, thats what natural selection is for.
FunOne
FunOne
I know I'm going to get ripped on cause my favorite commercial wasn't for a .com (although the etrade with the monkey/cowboy was excelent), but I really enjoyed the VW GTI comercial. I laughed my ass off when the GTI fell out of the tree... Plus, I'm a big VW/Audi fan, so there ya go. Yeah, 1.8T.
Eric
Make it idiot-proof and someone will build a better idiot.
WTF was up w/ the 3d shit going on there.
"You can punt the ball, and stay in wonderland."
"Or...you can run the kickoff back for a touchdown and i'll show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes"
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
I was like "WTF a smaller IMac?" and then they showed some food in it.
The new IMac - it cooks, it multitasks, it still has no floppy.
Someone tell me, were these Cingular commercials supposed to be funny? I don't know if i'm supposed to feel bad about laughing at that gimp artist commercial, but me and everyone I was watching it with were rolling. I feel kinda bad about it, but what does cingular expect when they air a commercial like that to 1 billion people, half of them being drunk.
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." --Saul Belloe
I kid you not. Before 6pm on Super Bowl Sunday there were ticket "STUBS"(!!!) for this game for sale on ebay. The sellers are saying I'm going to the game and you can buy my authentic stub from me tomorrow (nyah nyah). What a great country we live in.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
What about the squirrel add with the spoof about the bull run in Spain? I thought that was hilarious... Besides the ones everyone else mentioned, everything else has been pretty blah... Not as good as previous years.
-bennybobw
--we mock what we do not understand--
There are a few that haven't been converted, though. I spent most of today in front of this computer, reading /. and playing some cool old games from when graphics sucked so much that games couldn't get by on looks alone. Background music was provided by several artists, mostly Arlo Guthrie, MC Hawking, and Purple Motion. My roommate was down the hall, watching the game with somebody who actually has a TV in their room. In short, all those companies paying millions for commercial time can have their TV-addicted zombies. I'm going back to my game of Master of Orion.
Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!
What about ol' George Foreman's Imac themed grills? With the urban/techno/quasi-rapping george?
It was like a half-ass Shatner delivery with bad audio effects...
Do we need a "blue-berry" mean lean grilling machine? Really now??!!!
E.
www.randomdrivel.com -- All that is NOT fit to link to
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
yea I agree..but the bud ad with the white boys doing "what's going on?" was pretty good..the disappointing thing was the game itself...just a shame the Giants couldn't hang in there...
They just (the game has been over for 10 or 15 minutes) replayed the old school Pepsi commercial with Cindy Crawford. Sweet! Forget your cgi Jar-Jar wassup aliens; this is how commercials were meant to be made. Now why couldn't we have had a super slow-mo 280 degree camera pan of her?
Today's sig brought to you by http://www.swankypimp.com
The "Tomb Raider" movie trailer (opening in June) looked intriguing, as did "The Mummy Returns"...
[Princess] Fergie and the bedtime story was pretty funny..
The first E*Trade ad was great: a tie-in to last year's pets.com with the sock-dog, and the chimp with the tear rolling down his cheek *was* cool..
My personal fave: the EDS "Running of the Squirrels" (a take-off on the running of the bulls at Pamplona, Spain) was a great reprise of last year's best, the "Herding Cats" ad..
The second Budweiser ad was great: a preppie take-off on the "Wassup" series with yuppie white guys going "What are you doing" that ends with two black guys watching their tv with uncomprehending looks on their faces..
The Visa ad was cool: chick vaccuming an apartment while her slacker boyfriend watches a cartoon - I saw this as a take-off on the "Waddaya think this is, a Holiday Inn?" guy.. (maybe it *was* that guy..)
Bob Dole and the Pepsi satire of a Viagra ad was good..
Novell's ad sucked and was *not* new - can you say "going down in flames"?
The I-Mac-colored George Forman fat-free grillers were -- ah -- what?
The Budweiser "Wassup" series, with the dog unmasked as an alien aboard the mothership was great..
The cingular ad with the disabled guy, an artist who couldn't really speak and who painted with a brush in a contraption on the top of his head, was best "inclusionary" ad and best "serious" ad..
(What the hell's a cingular? ;-)
monster.com with the corpse in the coffin that wouldn't stop smiling was OK..
All the anti-smoking ads were pretty good; best was the computer-generated voice that turned out to be a guy in a hospital bed with one of those larynx artificial voice-boxes..
The Target ad, ending up all in red, at the end was OK..
And so it goes..
t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
I was disappointed by the Eyevision. I was expecting it to be much higher quality, but it looked like a low quality quicktime VR movie. They could have at least gotten the zooms to be more in sync (no pun intended), so each angle didn't jump back and forth. It is a really great idea, but I hope it improves by next season...the camera's themselves just seemed to produce low quality film, like the lighting was off.
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." --Saul Belloe
You typed this comment out long before the game even started, hoping for a 3-0 final score, did you? Buying into the media hype of no offense? The game was DAMN exciting. Back-to-back kickoff returns for TD. Interceptions are one of the most exiting things that can happen in football, and there were some good ones.
I can forgive you if you are from Cleveland, but thats about it.
Wow, I thought I was the only person left in the world that still listened to S3Ms.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
* the Fedex ad with the chairs. The people shooting out the roof was great.
:)
* both Snickers ads... the first one with the annoying car alarm going off and then the sofa falls on it.. and the second one with the little dolls people were stepping on. "Do you have one for 'your sister is hot?'" *SMASH*
* both Bud commercials... "what are you doing?" "what are YOU doing?" "drinking an import, watching the market close"..... but I liked the dog/alien one better. "what did you learn from Earth?" ".......WAZZUP!!!!!!" sure it's annoying, but it's funny.
* my favorite would have to be the 'running with the squirrels'. I don't even remember what the ad was for, but i thought it was a great commericial.
As for the halftime show... I will never be able to listen to "Walk This Way" again. And if I had a tiny bit of respect for Aerosmith before this, I don't now.
And as for the actual game... uh... whatever. I don't care much. I'm from Cleveland, I'm not allowed to like the Ravens, though.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
In past years, I watched to other networks' unofficial halftime shows (usually the Simpsons) because halftime shows are usually very overhyped. That didn't seem to be an option this year (and I don't have cable), so I was forced to watch the official show.
First of all, I thought "Nelly" would be singer Nelly Furtado, not a rapper I've never heard of.
N*Sync and Aerosmith doing their song was fine, but when they threw in Mary J. Blige (who looked like she had just rolled out of bed), Brittany Spears, and Nelly, it became a bad case of "too many cooks".
Put my clarinet beneath your bed 'till I get back in town.
Though the Cingular ad with the disabled gentleman painting was very well done. Too bad he's just whoring himself out for a wireless company. With not even a mention of a charity or support organization for the disabled it was an empty, cheap ploy.
"When you run with the squirrels you have to think like the squirrels." Too funny.
...obviously the winner! I'm not a big fan of pepsi commercials (though I drink their soft drink) but this one's a winner!
Turns out most of the moronic venture capital firms have either given up on retarded online business models or closed their own doors.... Too bad, I was looking forward to watching the commercials and taking bathroom breaks durring the game... oh well.
Actually I thought the cinqular wireless ad with the disabled painter was interesting. Still not clear on why cinqular expects to be associated with creativity. The real question is: If my old cell phone was not "wireless", where were it's wires? Silly name....
I don't.
It's a sad thing to know that a football player makes more than any scientist,
Why is that sad? There are plenty of scientists, but far fewer who can play professional football at the highest level. Supply and demand. Plus, you have to factor in the fact that the average career of a professional football player is 3 years... actually, the compensation differences don't seem that large.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
You mean 2 days ago? Seems a little late to be posting that, doens't it?
/.
some would argue that it is a little early for
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
That one where the guy fed the little dog everything in the fridge to make room for the beer had me howling. Yessir.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
...when superbowl is watched more for the commercials than the game. Are commercials that good? Or is football that bad?
first off, I agree... the game was weak. the so-called "matrix-style" graphics were weaker. however, they were a step... about 70 more cameras, better tracking, and a little bit of tweening, and it'd be much better.
.com's
as far as the commercials were concerned, my favorites:
1. eTrade ghost-town of dead
- the pets.com puppet made me fall off the couch with laughter
2. EDS "running of the squirrels"
- weren't these the same guys who did the cowboy cat round-up a year or two ago?
3. Budweiser's yuppies
- I'll be getting a lot of mileage with "how are you doing!"
4. Volkswagen's car-stuck-in-tree
- it was silly. 'nuff said.
5. Snickers and the satisfyingly crushable "voodoo dolls"
- your sister is pretty. and it happens to lots of guys.
all told, the commercials were decent, but not incredible. someone had better give the guys on madison ave. a good kick in the arse.
And its not all that fun to watch science. Unless the experiment involves toxic chemicals or fire. Reminds me of the "Far Side" cartoon where (IIRC) evil alien overlords force their human prisoner to differentiate equations in a packed stadium for their amusement.
Today's sig brought to you by http://www.swankypimp.com
I think the point is that sports contribute nothing to society, and in fact damage it.
... that you probably really don't. It is one of the most fucked up things about capitalist society, along with lawyers. Don't buy into the hype. Commercials are bad for you. They are attempts to brainwash you. And you think that you like it.
"I like to play with things a while... before annihilation!" Ming the Merciless
What I want to know is how you felt about the Superbowl. :)
Okay, I've said it elsewhere and I'm not trying to spam this topic nor am I from Baltimore but a good football game is a sight to see and the Ravens defense walked in ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum. That was a terrific game, much better Super Bowl than in the last few years.
(Geekgrrls do sports!)
Cheers
LF
âoeChange is caused by lazy, greedy, frightened people looking for easier, more profitable, and safer ways to do t
Man, it was like the ad agencies conspired this year.
Ad: Computer Associates "Roosters on wall street"
Premise: A bunch of roosters mob a big city and then create a shockwave at sunrise
Subtext: You are such an idiot you don't even know you need us until a farm animal tells you.
Ad: Pepsi "prisoners steal our machine"
Premise: A coke and pepsi machine sit next to each other for months/years. Eventually the inmates from a nearby prison tunnel under and steal the pepsi machine.
Subtext: Convicted felons prefer Pepsi.
Ad: Budweiser "white men can't wassup"
Premise: a bunch of dorky white guys drinking heinkein look like idiots doing more or less the same thing as all the idiots in normal budweiser "wassup" commercials.
Subtext: White people are dorky and our customers look down on them. Oops, our customers are 85% white. Our customers are stupid and can't be as cool as our commercials.
Ad: Levi "corpse donor" 569 jeans
Premise: A "cowboy" kills himself on a coin-op pony and his jeans are delivered to a loser who can't afford his own.
Subtext: Idoiot cowboys buy our stuff, kill themselves stupidly, and if you're a loser you'll want their used jeans
Ad: CBS Becker "Airtime Abuse"
Premise: Two characters from a CBS show sit around commiserating about how outrageous it is that the network uses the superbowl to "flog" its poorer shows.
Subtext: Our show sucks, CBS is abusing its viewers, and isn't it funny that we come right out and say it?
Ad: Levi "corpse donor" 569 jeans
Premise: A "cowboy" kills himself on a coin-op pony and his jeans are delivered to a loser who can't afford his own.
Subtext: Idoiot cowboys buy our stuff, kill themselves stupidly, and if you're a loser you'll want their used jeans
I could go on and on. I sat there stupefied that almost every single commercial had a subtext talking about how stupid the company's target audience is. I mean, sure, you'd have to be stupid to drink Bud, but isn't it adding insult to injury to *tell* people that at the same time you sell them product?
The movie ads were ok. Too bad none of the movies themselves looked any good. But at least the ads didn't play the "morons will go see this movie" angle too strongly. Better than you can say for most of the ads.
Cheers
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
Well!
Thank you for saving me from myself!
Fortunately, and despite what you seem to think, I *do* have a mind of my own...
t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
But the 'matrix' Eyecam stuff at superbowl was indeed a bit disappointing. It did look grainy, pixelated and murky, and the rotation was very crude. Although one can see how it was done (the numerous cameras trained at the same spot, digital instant playback with selectable camera source..) I'd like to know the specifics of the system. Like, what sort of cameras were used, what lenses, how were they all aimed at the same spot, what software and hardware was used to put it all together. Did they have field tracking cameras with crosshairs from two angles used to compute the location? What are the full range of capabilities of the system? Can they replay the whole game from any camera angle? Is the picture quality available good enough to do interpolation later on? How do the controller work? ... and what could they do to improve the system (more, better cameras, higher framerate, split-frame offset shutter sync permitting super slowmotion, all that. Maybe there's an idea for an article there.
Thanks for the rant. It's lonely sometimes being the only one in the group who's never seen an episode of Survivor, or not even *wanting* to set foot inside the Home Depot that just opened up down at the mall.
Ok, A few points about this: 1) What does the super bowl have to do with "News for Nerds" 2) What relevance does this have outside the US? If I was to have suggested a topic on TV ads during the Aussie Rules grand final, do you think it would get posted on slashdot? I know it wouldn't. Do you guys realise there is a world outside the US? These days Slashdot has degenerated to an American-centric Mac-bash site - it has almost no relevance in the modern world. Very sad, as it used to be my favourite news site.
probably because doing it smoothly would require an infinite number of cameras...
Easy. Real any day, since it's the only one that works on Linux.
Hopefully Ogg Vorbis will come to the rescue soon with a video codec.
I disagree. There's more to life, the universe, and everything than the advancement of human knowledge alone. Sports are a great amusement, and I wouldn't choose to live in a world without them. No, they're not going to improve society, fight world hunger, cure AIDS, or end inner-city violence. But looking at their entertainment factor alone, they're worth the mega-bucks spent by competing corporations, the occasional uber-fan, and the general competition prompted by fanaticism. The way I see it, the world is a more enriching, entertaining, vivid experience with a diverse realm of experience. It's great to have a cause like the advancement of science and/or knowledge. But a world that was only science/knowledge wouldn't be worth living in. It'd be a chore to go through...like a rice cake with no topping.
===================================== "Better Living Through Hypocrisy, It's The New Opiate" -- Absolute0, on a slogan
Anyone in favor of replacing Natalie Portman with Britany Spears, say 'I'
I!
Warning: dumb questions from a foriegner here
So what happens to all the players that only play one or two seasons of pro football, or don't get drafted , given that (unlike soccer or in my case, Aussie Rules) there doesn't appear to be "minor leagues" - if you don't make it or fall out of the system, you'll never play football again.
Is even the base pay so high that even a rookie who doesn't really make it set themselves up for life? Do they all go and buy bars and forever moan about the injury/coach/whatever that derailed their careers? Is there a charity to look after these unfortunate souls? ;)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
True, they weren't quite what I was expecting. Did anyone else notice that the cameras were not all in sync? On the coaches challenge in the fourth, concerning the close call on the touchdown, it seemed that one or two cameras were a frame nehind the others. The players (Was it Dilfer?) right hand came off the ball and moved behind it, then on the next rotation stop, it was back on again.
Not anywhere near the Matrix, but definitely a HUGE step in terms of proof-of-concept. Anything which let's us get better/more angles on the action is a plus in my book, and connecting them in this way made it a whole lot easier to relate each angle to the others. Definitely a good start.
OT - Did you notice that they either broadcasted the introduction of the starters in real-time, or the censors were real slow on the button? Siragusa's "F***!" came through very clearly in Indy, and another Raven followed his example. I guess they didn't expect NFL milionaires to swear?
--
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
They comemerate the Gulf War, a conflict over oil, but they don't mention that 14 years ago to the day 7 people gave their lives to try and further science. I'm glad at least the Slashdot community remembered Challanger, I wish the rest of America could think about something other than their pocket books for a change.
Monkies have tails, apes do not. That was a chimpanzee. There's a difference.
I guess you have a point. I never have been able to `enjoy' things like art, sports, etc (I just don't `get it' as people have told me...)
That's what I thought at first but -- given that the 3D view is a reconstruction based on x camera angles, how can you tell if a given camera angle is real footage or an approximation? Here's yet another point where technology makes it easy to confuse reality with reenactment.
If you want to watch football. Watch a league that has the sole purpose of actually playing football.
It is unlike our current "NFL" which is more interesting in saving their corporate sponsorships than entertaining an already comatose audience.
Get your PostgreSQL here: http://www.commandprompt.com/
Just don't bitch because you can't get decent health care, why in 50 years when you have Alzheimer's (or some other disease), that there's still no cure.
Surely you are not making the asinine argument that without football there would be a cure for alzheimers. Its not like its a zero sum game where money that isn't spent on football would go to.. well anything...
Stupid American's - the rest of the world loves that your shitty country is going down the toilet.
Sure, whatever, guess that's why we have to turn away people....
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Watched a movie instead. I did tune in for a few moments, though, and saw two kicks and then two run backs for touchdowns. After that... turned the movie back on .
hahahahahhahaha...
too bad we rule the free world..
enough said.
"I think, therefore I get paid."
Some dot.com's should follow the E-Bay commercials context and get out of the advertising business.
More companies are in a rush to get their companies known without having a strong company to back it, spending millions for 30 seconds on Super Bowl airtime.
How is a super bowl ad going to help a dot.com when, most of the males watching are in a partylike mood often too drunk to log on to the net and view a web based site they see in a commerical.
Following suit was IBM's commercial where the CEO was clueless. This shows much of the aura of those who were in charge of the now defunct dot.com carnage.
Companies like Pepsi and Budweiser stand to make more no matter how much they spend since their products are geared for the show, while a dot.com is not.
killall -9 mytwocents
"When I was a Buddhist, it drove my parents and friends crazy, but when I am buddha, nobody is upset at all"
I really liked the one in the 4th quarter where the guy sprayed honey all over his camping buddy to escape the bear.
For those that don't know, when the name change came into affect all the AT&T Wireless & other companies that merged together phones change the logo over night. A co-worker's non-techy brother came by and told him he dropped his phone and now it's in Spanish. They spent days trying to figure out how to get it to quit saying 'Cingular' on the screen before they knew that the name had changed and this was the new one.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
the lean mean fatreducing machine! That was great. They're not that expensive..pretty popular with college kids.
-
But it's not the "fault" of capitalism; rather, capitalism gives people the ability to fulfill their desire to collect. Advertising, then, is a way to get people to collect your product instead of the numerous others available.
Today's sig brought to you by http://www.swankypimp.com
Accually I rember in high school the whole "Jocks" vs "Geeks" thing... ummm my memorys may be diffrent than yours however...
That whole jock pleading for his life thing really effects your prespective on life..
There is a stereotype that exists that geeks are weak antisocal introverted computer freaks and jocks are strong violent socal airheads..
Not true on both counts...
Basicly people think the stereotypical bully is a jock... really he's a loser...
Sports needs some intelect. Obveously stratagy is not the whole game but the strongest airhead jock is dead with a little planning...
In short the "I'm above that" is really just "I'm better than that bully back at my high school".. That bully never made it into the NFL etc.. The jock you beat at chess did.. Or maybe he beat you...
As for the lunitic sports fans.. don't seem much diffrent than the luntic video game fanatics.. They are just plain nuts...
I don't actually exist.
LOL. Damn, you sound stupid and bitter. Great combination! So anyway, what are you trying to say? That only Americans are superior enough to cure Alzheimer's? Why wouldn't the countries which don't "worship" sports and commercials be able to come up with a cure? And I guess those countries plan to keep all the cures for themselves instead of sharing them with Americans. Oh, the horrors! I am so fearful of the future now — I have only your wise post to make me see the light!
Cheers,
When I saw this, the first thing I thought of was, "Jobs is gonna sue."
Now, I think, "I hope he does, and I hope Foreman smacks him upside the head."
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
wait'll next year!
(I've been coding for quite a few hours this weekend)
I'm still working on a clever footer.
So I caught the second half of the game. Everyone there was rooting for New York. I don't like the city of New York (it's too much for me, or something), and I loved Baltimore the only time I've been, so I rooted for Baltimore. I'm unfamiliar with either team, so it seemed like a good team to go for. By the end of the game, they all hated me. :-)
I didn't really care for the game much; I only really paid attention when the commercials came around. And do you want to know my favorite one? I don't know why, but I thought it was funny. I believe it was late in the fourth quarter... NSync showed up on some old guy's step and told him thanks for telling his kids not to drink, etc., and it turned out being a Budweiser commercial. I thought it was incredibly ironic at first that Budweiser was using NSync in their commercial since half of them can't drink, and even more ironic that an alcholic beverage was taking a "don't let your kids drink" stance, since kids seem to be the number one consumers of beer in this country.
Ah well. Good game, I guess. Good commercials. Good night.
Goto Adcritic and look it up. Was it cat herders?
"Hey, quite down, the commercials are on!"
"Okay, game's back, so what were you saying about that..."
Grades, Social Life, Sleep... pick two.
--Justin Mitchell
"2nd Place is a fancy word for losing" --Bender (Futurama)
[Note: Details have been changed in order to protect the easily bored. Take nothing for granted, check all facts yourself, yada yada yada.]
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
(accidentally checked the AC box :)
Saturation advertising has been proven time and time again to be far more successful than logic-driven marketing. Examples:
Coca-Cola. While in the USA Pepsi is more popular, in every other country in the world Coke is numer 1. Why? Because everyone knows that 'Coca-Cola is IT.' The Coca-Cola symbol is one of the most widely recognised brandings in the world, that is why people buy it.
At a major train station in Melbourne, Australia (where I live) a chocolate company, Cadbury, has bought all the advertising spaces in the place. About every six months they plaster the place with one specific product, at present it's a 'Picnic' chocolate bar. (I don't know if these exist in the USA) Anyway, I've only ever eaten one of these before in my life, and I didn't enjoy it that much, but the other day I found myself reaching for a Picnic as I went for my weekly chocolate purchasing voyage.
Saturation advertising works at a subliminal level. Hell, one of the biggest hurdles for marketing types is getting people to _remember_ the product name, let alone have it on the tip of their tongues.
I switched back to CBS late and caught part of that commercial...thought it was taped procedings at the US Patent office.
Where's the beef?
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
I was watching the HDTV feed and not only did we have different announcers, but we saw somewhat different ads. RCA had an ad for HDTV, set at a golf tourney that ran about 10 times. Apparently, they forgot that if someone was watching the HDTV feed, they already own one! Idiots.
OK, so my coworkers are addicted to nicotine and get to take 3-5 15 minute smoke breaks outside every day?
Well, I'm addicted to sex; I want to be able to cut out twice a day to screw my wife, girlfriend, hooker, etc. in the bushes next to the smoking area, Dammit!
:) This is America! I want my equal freedoms!
"Yes, the baby boomers; who have lived their entire lives based on one simple philosophy: GIVE ME THAT, IT's MINE!" -George Carlin
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
Being in Australia I had a unique (for me) viewpoint on the commercials. Thank God I didn't see them! Sure I saw the computer projected Kodak ads on the field and that horrible spinning sign in one of the endzones. And I did see FedEx also projected onto the grass on the field, but that's it.
Fox Sports carried the game here and there were no US commercials on it. Even the voiceovers for CBS shows (and the sideline commentary) were removed. Instead I saw a lot of shots of the Superbowl audience and players with no sound. I also saw a few ads for Aussie sports on Fox Sports, but that was maybe every 3-4 US breaks and lasted a fraction of the time the US spots run.
I telll ya nothing like seeing the world's biggest commercial showcase absent the commercials!
I have confidence that nobody will see this as informative.
You're calling 150 million americans brain-dead morons? YOU are "more intelligent" than those 150 million?
It's a football game. It's ads that make most people laugh. And it's Brittney Spears. It's when we loosen our ties, and have some fun with friends.
Elitism makes me puke. You don't like something, say you don't like it, but don't insult everyone else who might enjoy it.
--
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Apple missed the perfect chance to merge their 1984 classic with 2001 - just imagine this ad:
Ok, so it's an ad only a geek could love - perhaps better would have been an over-the-top tongue-in-cheek Microsoft ad like this: (This is probably why they only pay me to write software, not TV ads.)Has anyone ever heard of that American Legacy (or whatever) group that did those ads? How can they afford a Super Bowl ad?
sup
I don't know if i'm supposed to feel bad about laughing at that gimp artist commercial
That "gimp artist" commercial didn't have anything to do with GIMP, did it?
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?
Will I retire or break 10K?
i think the highlights of last years game were the mountain dew commercials. they didn't have any this year (pepsi sponsored the game, i take it) but i saw a mountain dew commercial involving a spaceship after the game that was probably the best commercial i've seen since last superbowl.
unfortunately i can't describe it any where near well enough to do it justice.
If I don't put anything here, will anyone recognize me anymore?
is it some sort of linux kernel upgrade? a new security hack? or maybe a stoner's dream come true?
confused in san francisco
--
j u l e s @ p o p m o n k e y . c o m
in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
I hate professional football, as it is today. The game is cool in it's own right, but the players who make the big buck$ in the current industry are complete morons. I think half of them would be serving a different kind of time if it wasn't for the NFL and the massive amounts of cash that is poured in by fools that think it is real.
/. crowd. At least it might be a bit more real. The players might play for the love of the game. If the game deserves that. We all understand passion counts. I'll guess we'll see. Check out the XFL. It might make the game a bit more realistic.
Reminds me of the WWF
But lets give half tonight a ring, make them heroes, and welcome them to Canton.
Actually, a few of the billionaires from the WWF are pushing a new league which might be of interest to the
With that said... I also live in the community of the guys that were stabbed to death (allegedly) by the VIP of tonight's game.
Humm, maybe we should ban violent video games.
Role models;
Interesting where we place our elite.
Go defense!
My Public Key can be found in a fake rock by my front door.
Silly! No one watches the Superbowl commercials with the intent of actually going out and buying any of these products! It's just that the Superbowl is traditionally a showcase for the most clever and amusing commercials of the year.
I'm totally out of the loop in regards to what Novell has been up to of late, but I was surprised to see them run some commercials several times tonight. Any reason they are showing up on the tube more?
They're missing the crucial Aliens "Whazzup!" ad! What the fuck ... I mean, probably one of the funniest ads and they don't even have it up to be rated. This is like the Florida Fucking Recount all over again ...
My heart goes out to those people in India, and the Superbowl is "frivolous" compared to that tragedy any day.
Being on the otherside of the world makes it remote enough that people can shut it out of their minds. But it would have been nice if their had been a moment of silence before the game, and it would have been bigger if the network had cancelled one of its "I love Raymond/monday lineup" ads and had given it to the Red Cross.
The sad thing is that it seems to have bothered so few. What's more, our "moral" leader Dubya is falling behind other nations giving aid. If our nation gives a dime for federal aid, they should cut a check for this without "having to be asked."
So yeah, the tragedy is not that people watched a game, but that so little consideration about the tragedy in India was given on the national level, or even at the game.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
They have the ads available on their website. They give you a choice of viewing them with Quicktime or Windows Media Player. Gee thanks, I think I'll just visit the Guinness site... no wait!! The entire Guinness web site can't be viewed from a Linux browser.
- Until you've found someone suffering from the disease, you haven't found the disease.
How is this relevant to the epidemiology of smoking? Namely, that while the link between lung cancer and smoking is well-established, the link between secondhand smoke and mortality is far less so.If secondhand smoke kills tens of thousands of people each year, then why is it I don't know anyone who's died from secondhand smoke? How do they come up with these numbers of tens of thousands dying each year from it? Are those actual, clinical diagnoses of "you have lung cancer triggered by high exposure to secondhand smoke", or are those inferred mortality statistics?
If those numbers are culled from aggregate diagnoses throughout the US, what's the criteria for diagnoses? If I live with a smoker and die of a virulent influenza (a respiratory ailment), does that get counted as a "secondhand smoke" death since "everybody knows that were it not for the secondhand smoke you wouldn't have fallen ill"?
What if, instead of living with a smoker, I hang out after work a couple of nights a week in a smoke-filled bar?
What if my only connection to tobacco smoke comes from walking out the side entrance at work and inhaling the fumes from the smokers there?
The link between secondhand smoke and lung damage is far from certain. Most of the numbers on secondhand smoke are inferred numbers, not direct observations; and the criteria which are used to determine secondhand smoke illness are oftentimes arbitrary and shifting.
There's a hell of a lot of politics surrounding tobacco nowadays. Best bet: doubt everything. Don't believe the hype from either side, whether that side be Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco, or whether that side be Truth.
Britney, Aerosmith, Backstreet, Nelly, and Mary J. Blige...the halftime show was the best I've ever seen. And Nelly and Mary J. Blige, while having no significant lines in "walk this way," gave the show significant street credibility. A triumph for marketing!
I'd live in a world without professional athletes in a second. Which is not to say a world without sports or entertainment - that would suck. But given the choice between pro sports and goatse.cx, I'm not too sure which one I'd pick.
Too much of what's "Wrong With America" (TM) these days is that people are content to just sit back and watch other people do things that they'd like to be doing if they weren't so lazy/stupid/unmotivated. So-called Reality TV is really just the opposite. For a huge number of people, Reality TV would be a show consisting of some slob sitting on the couch watching sitcoms and sports. Really entertaining, isn't it. Instead, you get to watch other people having fun. Wow. Sign me up.
Sure, it's entertaining, but it doesn't get you anywhere. You spend your welfare check or dotcom stock options on the biggest TV you can find and plop yourself down and veg for as long as you possibly can. Maybe I just don't get it either, but there's a reason the lowest common denominator just keeps getting lower, and it's not because too many people have stopped worshiping sports 'heroes' and gone out and done something useful with themselves. Why bother being successful myself if I can just go buy a jersey that looks just like one worn by someone who already made it. Even if I've never met them. All this for only $59.95? Woah.
Comparing pro sports to art is like comparing a wastepaper basket to a landfill. Sure, watchin the game (having a bud, if you like) is something to do with spare brain cycles, but it's not entertainment. Go play a sport - that's fun, and probably good for you! Go look at some art - learn something, talk to people, run for office, hack an OS, but WHY sit on your ass paying your hard-earned cash to line the pockets of some multimillionaire who probably goes home every night and secretly laughs at you and your fellow sheep. Until he ODs on the coke your money bought him, or gets busted for raping/beating someone and becomes a great role model for your kids. After all, HE made it, and all you ever did was buy a replica of his shirt.
So sure, go ahead, watch your little heroes run around in their spandex pants, have your little riots when your team loses/wins. I'm not going to try to stop you. But I sure as hell reserve the right to laugh at you.
(Score:-1, Underranted)
... stuff that matters, I am Tux the penguin.
Is there a way to moderate down the original poster....????
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
see some REAL MAN'S FOOTBALL
rr
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
The prime example of that was Accenture. What the hell are they selling???
Wow. It's not enough to have been humbled by a machine and a younger player: now he's being pushed around by a soft drink company. So much for the glowering champeen!
Pepsi's more popular in the U.S. than Coke? I thought Coke had bigger sales. Maybe it's just because I live in Atlanta where the only time you hear 'Pepsi' is when you ask for Coke and they ask you, "will Pepsi be OK?". Not really, but I think I'll live...
What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about?
...it is/was Andersen not Anderson!!!
Most of the As got together and franchised a name, Cellular One. They also created roaming agreements between them so they could compete with the less diverse B side (which is a good thing when you want seemless roaming).
Then the various PCS and GSM outfits came along, and Bs started buying As and each other. Verizon (a mish mash of a helluva lot of telcos) eventually bought a cellular one franchise in Southeast U.S. and with it somehow the rights to the name Cellular One. This forced the other Cellular One franchiesees to rename their franchise.
So now we have two of the biggest cell companies with two stupid names, Verizon and Cingular.
But I have a feeling they may not have had much choice. These days, you look for an available domain name first, and then name your company, not the other way around! There probably isn't many domain names left that are less than 10 chars with a few vowels in them....
Not mine, but then again I don't live in the US and therefore don't give a toss about American "Football".
Let's see if Slashdot covers the Five Nations Rugby this year...
Found this great article through adnews.com: The best commercials that never were (National Post).
The shareholder is always right.
cingular commercials SUCKED, come on!
Now, the Pepsi commercials were hilarious, and the Budweiser commercials.
I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the production facilities at RayJay on Friday with the Technical Producer Larry Barbatsoulis, and he gave me some info on the EyeVision setup.... the 33 cameras all have the same aspect ratio. He mentioned that auto-focusing was somewhat limited given the distance the cameras were from the field's crown. Some background on the process: the cameras are positioned by a cameraman in a trailer outside the stadium. He has a tripod mounted camera (without a camera) he has a display mounted where the camera normally is. otherwise he plays the same role as studio or cameramen inside the stadium. The entire game is recorded onto 2 TeraBytes worth of server space located onsite. He said it does indeed take up that much space... so much for real video for replay purposes (which he said could be instantaneous) the feed is routed from the storage drives to Digital Video. Otherwise the data is backed up onto DVD. Conicidentally, these arent HDTV cameras, and I dont remember if he said that these particular camera feeds were broadcast on the HDTV signal. The Super Bowl had 8 cameras dedicated to HDTV, with a wholly different broadcast team.
The only reason cigarette companies exist is because they were here a long time ago
The only reason anything exists is because either (a) it was just created or (b) it's been around. What's your point?
If your point is that tobacco would be considered a drug regulated by the FDA were it to be brought to market today, I repeat: what's your point? Aspirin (and other NSAIDs) are surprisingly potent analgesics and have low overdose levels. After I (accidentally) nearly overdosed on acetaminophen, my doc ruminated that, if aspirin and other NSAIDs were introduced to the market today, they'd be considered prescription drugs because of their potency and lethality.
So if we're going to retroactively ban cigarettes because they're harmful, going against centuries of tradition, why don't we also retroactively turn aspirin and NSAIDs into prescription drugs?
The answer is that in a country governed by the people, the people get to decide what's illegal and what's not. The people don't want cigarettes to be illegal, nor do they want aspirin to be a prescription drug.
Thus, it won't happen.
Period.
Is it right to make billions of dollars off of a product that serves no purpose other than pacifying addictions?
Why, let me get this straight. You want to ban the first cup of morning coffee, too? After all, that has "no purpose other than pacifying addictions".
But let's not go there right now, because to go there gives your argument more credibility than it possesses. There is a useful purpose served by tobacco, other than fulfilling an addiction. The purpose is, I like it.
I enjoy a stogie on occasion, once a month or two months, when something happens which is worth commemorating. It could be getting a software release out the door; it could be celebrating a birthday; it could be a stogie after a great baseball game. But for personal reasons, I smoke cigars to commemorate personal milestones.
Am I addicted? Not if I can go six weeks without a Rothschild.
Do I find tobacco useful? Certainly.
So your argument--that there exists no useful purpose for tobacco other than to feed addictions--falls flat on its face. There are a lot, repeat, a lot of people like me. We smoke tobacco because we like it, not becuase we need to. We drink single-malt Scotch because we enjoy the taste of a premium liquor, not because we're alcoholics.
You only have one life. There's no excuse for not living it well.
Most of these commericals were bland. However, EDS does get a couple claps for the running of the squirrels. I also think the George Fore-Mac grill was kind of interesting.
Que?
ff
/(o\ I'm not a medievalist - I just play one on weekends!
nice talk, potty mouth. I'm a huge "european football" or soccer fan. I've coached it for over 10 years. But I don't get all pissed-off about what it's called.
I didn't do it, and if I did, you can't prove it. Bart Simpson
That and the fact that all the players act like assholes.
-- 4 8 15 16 23 42
REAL Player is the MOST AWFUL, EVIL, PIECE OF SHIT PROGRAM IN THE WORLD.
... more bloat.
Speaking from the windows perspective (it's not THAT bad for Linux,) it has to have the most awful installer in the world. It:
1) It installs MILLIONS of tray icons
2) It forces you to register tons of times
3) it changesyour default players (even though it asks, it does it regardless of what you say)
4) It's very hidden on the web site (plus is easy to find however!)
5) It's codec sucks. (sorenson might be not be around for linux, but it rocks) And it's not an open-source/closed-source issue either, since real is just as anal about their codec
6) When you install, it subscribes you to tons of mailing lists... and here's the kicker. When you install, it shows you a window with email lists you can join, and they are all unclicked... until you scroll to the bottom and see three clicked on by default! How evil is that!?
7) Even when all startup programs are closed and not setup for startup, there still is a sneaky one that pops up a month after install informing you "Did you know you're computer can make MP3s? Try RealJukebox!"
8) It comes with RealJukebox
Sorry, I know this was a bit offtopic. But I can't stand Realplayer advocacy. Real is an evil, evil company. Just because they support Linux, doesn't make them any better. It takes me 30 minutes to clean my system up from all the damage after a Real installation. And it still never gets completely clean.
I think that all commercials should be funny or slightly humorous to some degree. If I have to sit through endorsements, at least don't bore me to death. I found myself laughing quite a few times during the superbowl. For this reason, I think the advertisers did a pretty good job.
On another, slightly off-topic note, I think the half-time show was actually quite good. Even though it was a strange mix of performers, I liked the way they just got up on a stage, and did their music. There was no wierd flags, dancing, or strange interpretive art performances. Props to E*Trade for the half-time show.
It served its purpose for instant replays. I don't care about the quality, just the technicial aspects of what went-wrong/happened.
-- 4 8 15 16 23 42
Of the dozens of commercials shown during the Super Bowl (the exact number of them escapes me at the moment), only two really stood out from the crowd. My personal favorite of the night has to be the commercial featuring the "Running of the Squirrels". I wish I could remember the name of the company that it was advertising, but I honestly can't. A direct result from too much of the ale, perhaps?
The Honorable Mention has to go to Volkswagon commercial. A very creative one, I thought.
offtopic rambling: Just what percentage of football fans actually listen to Sting/Spears/Nsync/etc? It makes me wonder why they were even considered for appearances.
The SuperBowl ad is just another innovation for which we owe Apple our neverending thanks!
My other sig is extremely clever...
... the game's back on." "Lets go and get some more chips and dip"
It wasn't a waste of time if your a Ravens fan! hehe
-- 4 8 15 16 23 42
I still like the elephant busting from the stolen peanut truck....... i thought the was-sup aliens was kinda lame.
i'm not a bigot or hoomophobic - i jsut think the Cingular ads were all rather homosexually suggestive. Or maybe it's just kind of a rorschach test..... =P -shpoffo
Yes, it is funny when the one guy hoses the other guy with honey and then takes the drinks and the women.
The Snicker's commercials were also pretty good. Those damn car alarms have to go. And all those little dolls, priceless.
Do not touch -Willie
If you would like to see the ads again, go to
:(
http://www.adcritic.com
And the truly lazy, here are some of the ads that stand out - links go to the QuickTime versions... sorry, it was either that or Windows Media Player format
E-Trade: Dot-Com Graveyard
Budweiser: What Are You Doing?
EDS: Running With The Squirrels
Enjoy.
That rapper was Nelly! He rules. To bad the Rams didn't make it back to The Game, it woulda been an STL party! Plus I'm pretty sure the Rams woulda beat tha pants off either of those teams. FUNK!
FUNK!
and where can I see pic of her in her outft?
---
This
Apparently, I was the only person in the entire world who saw that damn Smirnoff Ice commercial, with the bears and the honey and the chasing with the hurting, glayven. I thought it was high-larious! Anybody else concur?
First winter rain-
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat.
-Basho
I guess everyone was too young to remember the "Keep America Beautiful" ad campaign back it the 70's. It featured an Indian riding horseback though a littered landscape. The clincher of that commercial was a tear rolling down the Indian's face. So while the E-trade commercial was funny...it definately wasnt original.
SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0
0 rows returned
that wasn't too funny but the last line was hillarious.
And that's all I can remember about it. I think it may have involved chips of some kind.
Not the Fla. vote one though.
---
This
I was told it was going to run in the middle ad break in the 2nd quarter. I'm worried that our check didn't clear in time...
soon to offer an IPO...
---Not a retread. That was an allusion (to allude to.) Like an indirect reference. To make you go, "Hey I know what they're doing," notice how well it worked.
---
This
lol...
well put.
"I think, therefore I get paid."
I could not find it on Adcritic. Why? They said that they had all the commercials!
How come the UPDATE to the original post is time-stamped "01/29 06:29 PM"? Right now by my watch it's 1/29 1:43pm.
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
People obviously care enough to comment on it.
--
dman123 forever!
--
dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
Disclaimer to previous post: ...Numbers are according to the /. story filters I set up. Your mileage may vary.
--
dman123 forever!
--
dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
indenture.ac formerly known as "bigtimeconsulting.com" is a wonderful parody of Accenture, from an insider in the know.
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
If you had a medium-sized IS company right now, would you fear web start-ups? Or would you, instead, be worried that Microsoft would undercut your core technology release and then tie you up in obstructive litigation until you starved or accepted the buyout on their terms? The 900-pound bull(y) in Redmond is a hell of a lot scarier than the little guy reading the comic about Charles Atlas.
The irony is that the commerical was aimed at "the bulls" -- the ponderous big competitors mentioned in the tag line. If you're a huge corporate IS interest, then yes, it makes sense to hire someone to take out the little, mobile runts who want part of your God-given market. That's the only way the ad even makes sense, if you think about it.
The budweiser commercial at the beginning was absolutely hilarious as well.
Seconded.
There's a great sports bar in San Diego with over a hundred screens (Sports City),
Where is this place?
---CONFLICT!!---
which means hemos is a windows user?
I belong to that group of people who would tape the superbowl for the commercials.
I didn't, but I watched some. Well, most of them weren't that good. But they were expensive. With lots of important people.
is used the matrix replay thing when the scuffle broke out. You couldn't see if any punches were even thrown from regular camera angles. Guess we need to wait till the XFL for that kind of action?
I want to see a commercial where the E-trade monkey and the Pets.com puppet get together and paint a Campbell's soup can while mindlessly jabbering "WAZZUP!@#" to each other...
Well it sounds like the Cartoon Network had the best commercials. They had wonderful parodies of last year's Monster commercials, recent Volkswagen and GAP ones as well.
Were that I say, pancakes?
Yes... and I can probably assume that I'm the only Ravens fan here :-)
"Let me open these blinds so the snipers can see in." - Kevin Giffhorn
I would be very careful with using only one source for your popular media. (I'm assuming current events is what you mean) You run a very high risk of unintentionally missing out on a lot of information. Such as: GWBjr. yanking federal aide if a program counsels about abortion abroad, an oil tanker spilling half its fuel in the Galapogos Islands, and the India quake. I'm not saying stay plugged into Fahrenheit 451 TV-parlour, just read a newspaper twice a month, a variety mag(Discover/NewsWeek/etc) once a month. The evening news once a week.
Just try to stay away from limitation, especially when it's marketed as specialization.
USA-Democracy is 270 million YESes and NOes a day, not one every four years.
I guess Cingular is trying to connect self-expression with cell phone use. It's a stretch, but not any more than the themes in most ads. I first thought that the add was exploitive, but then I went to Cingular's web site and read about Dan Keplinger (the artist), visited his web site, and read what he and others had to say about the commercial. Dan says: "I think Cingular showed courage to do something really different and something significant about the importance of self-expression." and "it gave me an unbelievable opportunity to show the world - a hundred million people - my art. It doesn't get any better than that. I hope that my talent, my art and my fighting spirit communicate their message. And I hope that people remember the gift that we all have - the gift of self-expression." What ad is better than that? And did Cingular or Dan benefit more? Now I really think it was a great ad!
Well,the adcritic site states they don't support unix. Sure are a lot of windoze users on /.
!
Um who were the jerks who started smoking in the first place? Americans like to blame business for their own problems. If people smoked in moderation then we woulden't have those problems.
~~Apathy alert: Approaching the Point of No Concearn
Wow, sounds like a good portion of the Slashdot articles these days: "Look at this really cool toy!"