Sunday, February 6, 2011

"Fast Five" Superbowl Commercials (Or Beer, Pepsi, Candy, Chips, and Coke)

Boy, that was some game, wasn't it?  O.K.  So it isn't over yet.  In fact, the Steelers just scored a touchdown to make it a 21 - 17 game with more than a quarter and a half to go.  Go Steelers!  To quote the announcer, "We've got a game at Super Bowl 45".....

Great game (disappointing half-time show - where was the Black Eye Pea's music?  Only heard voices searching for a beat), but that is not what I am here to talk about.  I am here to evaluate the nutrition factor of the Super Bowl commercials. 

We had the Doritos (Nacho Cheese if I recall correctly) that were so "good" they could raise both a neglected fish and grampa from the dead.  Not sure what to make of that.  Nacho Cheese Doritos are yummy, but miraculously good?   No, no, no...They are full of salt, artificial colors and flavors, and are fried. 

Then we had Pepsi Max.  Come on guys!  Did we really need another Pepsi product with "zero calories and maximum taste"?   It's just a "sexy" name for no calories, no nutrition value, and a bit of caffeine...

Bud Light "played up" the concept of product placement.  And Budweiser (complete with Clydesdales running in background shots) was so smooth that a tough Old West outlaw breaks into spontaneous singing of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". 

Coca Cola's theme was peace.  It appears that sugar and caffeine, served up with caramel coloring, can appease angry dragons in some otherworldly Ork-land, and cause natural enemies to draw a line of peace between them.

And. last but not least, there was the Snickers commercial that had a great tagline - "You're not you when you're hungry".   So true, so true.  But I don't like the "me" that I am when I pack in the chocolate, caramel and nougant either. 

I guess each sponsor hoped that, while you watched your team either drive the ball to victory, or succumb to a disappointing defeat, that you were munching on their snacks and drinking their beverages.  Well, at our house, while our boys were away at their respective Super Bowl parties, I fed my husband smoked salmon and low-fat Cabot cheese with TLC crackers, Baba Ganouj with pitas, spanakopita and dried mango from Trader Joe's, and Double Chocolate Extra Stout Beer.  Not quite the "wow factor" of raising the dead or appeasing battling armies, but satisfying and good for you, too (well maybe not the double chocolate beer, but hey!, it is, after all, the Super Bowl!)

Hope you are enjoying (or if it's over by the time you read this) that you enjoyed, the game.  And do tell me - how did you celebrate Super Bowl 45?  Did the food and drink commercials make you "want some?"  I have to be honest, as clever as some of them were, none of them made me want to run out and buy their products.  Well, maybe the baby Darth Vader and that really cool VW Passat.....

5 comments:

  1. I absolutely love your blog!!!!
    I ate a filthy meal of ham, chili, lasagna, and chips for my Super Bowl Dinner!
    My heart was rent with sorrow when i saw, eyes swelled with tears, Fergie molest Slash.

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  2. So....you also did not like the Half time show?

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  3. had "piece of yellow cake" ice cream. An hour later I felt like I had eaten cake -- not ice cream. Yuk! But the yellow food colorings I'm sure were good for me!

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  4. Well, at least your yellow cake ice cream contains some protein and calcium. You're right about the food coloring, but it oculd be worse (like beer, soda, chips, and candy!)

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  5. Hated the half time show. It was the worst ever. And most of the commercials were not new. Being about junk food and stuff is to be expected but at least they are usually new. Plus the wrong team won.

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