Patriot Shoots Eagle: Pats win Super Bowl

For those of you lost by my title, that's a nod to the mascot vs. mascot battle. The Patriot would shoot and Eagle with his gun so of course the Patriots would win. Doesn't always work, but it makes for amusing battles. Anyway, I can pat myself on the back for correctly predicting the winner, although I never got around to posting it here. Actually, I have to say that I thought the Patriots would beat the Eagles more soundly. As it was, Philadelphia could have won that game. If McNabb hadn’t thrown that second interception after his first was negated by a penalty, the Eagles would have at least gotten 3 points. If the rest of the game proceeds normally, the Eagles tie it up with that long pass late in the 4th. Now, Brady probably would have led the Pats downfield and Adam Vinetari would have kicked the game winner just like the last two Super Bowls. But, there is a chance that the Eagles defense could have stopped them. It’s hard to say. I truly believe that unless the Eagles had jumped up by 14 points, the Patriots would have found a way to win the game. Their screen passes were mauling the Eagles and the defense was just worn out. So lets raise a glass to New England and enjoy the football off-season.

Now, as far as the commercials go, this was a pretty sucky year. Budweiser had a couple of good one, although the skydiver one is a recycled one I think. The two that have generated the most buzz around the office were the two Ameriquest commercials: the convenience store “robbery” and the cat “slaying.” I also was partial to the Fed Ex 10 rules of Super Bowl commercials. This was made even funnier by the fact that immediately following it was a Diet Pepsi commercial that used 5 of the rules. The rules, for anyone that missed it, are:
1) Celebrity appearance
2) Animal appearance
3) Animal acting like human
4) Groin kick
5) Talking animal
6) Smart mouth kid
7) Hot woman/hot man
8) Product labeling (optional)
9) Something that eludes me at the moment
10) Additional joke at the end

For the record, the Diet Pepsi ad (hot guy walking down street) used celebrity appearance, animal appearance, hot woman/hot man, product labeling, and additional joke at end.
But, for the most part, the commercials stunk. There was very little imagination and certainly nothing overly amusing or edgy. Part of the problem is that the cost is becoming so high for a spot that no one will go longer than 30 seconds and that limits creativity. Several years ago, Mountain Dew had a very good add that was a take off of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. It was imaginative and fun. Nothing like that could be found last night. So we must suffer through more and hope that advertisers will learn from this year and come back with something better next year.