Big The Show
The Super Bowl is a well-known American tradition. Most all Americans know of it and many view it. Through the past, present, and future, the Super Bowl is the biggest event for many people. But, not only is it a huge event for people, but also the media. In this newsletter we plan on informing you of the ways the Super Bowl has an impact on people through the media.
Super Bowl History!
By: Marc Tackett
January 15, 1967, sport from a game to an international extravaganza. On this day the Kansas City Chiefs where the champion from the the champion from the National and find out which league was the
was a day that changed a
the Green Bay Packers and played in the first Super Bowl American Football League and Football League met to play best. On this day the Green Bay
Packers, led by quarterback Bart Starr, won the first ever Super Bowl. There have been thirty-six Super Bowls played and the Super Bowl is still one of the most watched sporting events in history. Coming close to Major League Baseballs World Series. Although some may say that the football is Americas past time and not
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baseball. Football continues to be a fascination to
many people and
the Super Bowl can be the most important day of the year for many. The Super Bowl is the climax of the football season and is played usually the last weekend of January. After a long season and a few weeks of playoffs, the best team from the American Conference and the best team from the National Conference meet in the Super Bowl meet to find the Super Bowl champions. There is a lot of attention surrounding the Super Bowl. There are a lot of things based on the Super Bowl during that final weekend in January. There are television shows, game shows, news reports, sports updates, movies, festivals, parades, and songs all about the Super Bowl. Some of these things are looked forward to as much as the game itself. Of all of those things the commercials during the Super Bowl are the biggest. There are as many people watching the game for the commercials
as there are watching for the outcome. There is also the halftime show that attracts a lot of viewers. The Super Bowl is not just a game, it is where dreams are made and where dreams die. Heroes of the Super Bowl have come and gone through the years, and every year there are new ones. This is what keeps the people watching. Many trams have participated in the Super Bowl and only half of them have left as Champions. Not everyone can have the title of Super Bowl champs, and thats what keeps it going. Everyone wants to be on top and in football the only way to the top is through the Super Bowl.
Halftime Shows at the Super Bowl
By: Julie Swartz
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Many Americans look forward to the big game, super bowl of course, but there are those who watch this event only for the performance show at halftime. Its an exciting event, which hosts big name artists for the half time concert. In the past the game has hosted musical artists such as Brittany Spears, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, New Kids on the Block, Diana Ross, Boyz II Men, and many more. This gives viewers a break from watching an intense sport event to watching a fun-filled presentation done by many talented musicians. This year was an exciting show, which featured U2. They performed three terrific songs on a giant heart-shaped stage. Three thousand and five hundred people from the New Orleans area volunteered their time to help out with the show. Its a huge production, which receives a lot of attention every year. Super fans of U2 of course tuned into the game to watch their favorite band. Halftime shows are extremely publicized to the public so the word spreads quickly. Newspapers, commercials, and even the news tell readers and viewers who to be expecting this year at the super bowl. Without these news groups, artists such as U2 would not get the audience that they did in fact get. Bellow is a picture of U2 before their super bowl performance.
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Although there is a pre-scheduled half time show on the station which hosts the super bowl, there are other stations which have programs during the half time show also. NBC for example had a playmate special on Fear Factor. This show is crazy and outrageous which causes it to have a lot of viewers. NBC used this to their advantage and tried to persuade football fans to tune into their station during the halftime show. Media plays a colossal role when speaking about the super bowl game and its halftime show performances. Without newspapers, commercials, and the news groups this event would not be as well known and publicized. Because media groups advertise super bowl night, it has now become one of the biggest spectacles to watch throughout the whole year.
By V. Terrell
The Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event of the year. This televised event is the highlight of a football fans viewing season. It is also the highlight of a commercial buffs year. To these television watchers the Super Bowl is better known as the Commercial Bowl. This year the Super bowl was said to have been televised to an estimated 130 million Americans and over 800 million viewers world wide (Eckberg, 2002). In an Ad week online poll six out of every ten viewers watched the game for the sole purpose of viewing the sixty different, million dollar commercials (Eckberg, 2002).
With those numbers the advertisers had a large playing field to work with.
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This year advertisers used humorous, serious and downright mystifying tactics to entertain viewers. Not only do these tactics entertain us but they also tell the state of our media driven society; what things catch our attention the most and persuade us to buy the products we use and consume the foods that we eat. So what do singing blondes, dancing pets, and anti-terrorism ads say about the affects of media today?
Britney Spears is one of the most looked up to blondes in todays media world. Britney is the American poster child representing youth, beauty, and sex appeal; In other words, all the ingredients to make an eye catching and successful commercial. Pepsi recruited her as their star player in the commercial bowl this year. In this 90 second montage our little Britney is shown promoting Pepsi throughout the decades beginning with the sixties. Throughout this commercial she is singing about how Pepsi is the drink For those who think young. Advertisers know that in todays society everyone wants to be youthful. It is much more common for someone today to have had a plastic surgery or to be on diet pills trying to keep their youthful look. Pepsi is promoting youthfulness throughout generations. They are saying, Hey look at us we have been around for decades and were still young.
Along with youthfulness another big tactic used was humor. Blockbuster was among the many that used humor to promote their company. These advertisers used two dancing, wisecracking pets to ask competitors, Can your entertainment do this?
Budweiser,
the winner of the Commercial Bowl for the last three consecutive
years, is always sure to get a few laughs. Once again this year, they used Cedric The
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Entertainer and his comedic charm to entertain the viewers (Hatifield, 2002). After the tragic events on September 11th, Advertisers were well aware of the laughter our society
needed.
Even in the movie industry, filmmakers are leaning more towards
comedies and family oriented films to release this year. Laughter brings people together, Togetherness builds a stronger society.
This year even The White House got in on the Commercial Bowl action. They spent 3.2 million dollars on two 30 second anti terrorism ads (Lewis, 2002). One of the commercials mimicked the always-popular Visa commercial listing the costs for all things necessary for a terrorist mission to be successful. The main purpose of these two ads was to link illegal drug use to terrorism. Some people would like arguing that its purpose was to have more of a Propaganda effect. According to LA Weekly writer, Judith Lewis, Linking drugs to terrorism impresses only upon the public a fear that illegal drugs profits help to fund terrorist attacks. White House advertisers know the publics need for a scapegoat on the whole September 11th issue and decided to use one of the most watched television events to feed this info to us. And we all know that what ever our lovely government officials tell us must be true.
This years Commercial Bowl was a good reflection of the state of are society. Most of the ads were cautious and conservative. The advertisers were sure not to piss any one group of people off this year. As for the rest of us we will sit in front of our televisions awaiting the advertising tactics of the next Commercial Bowl.
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Supervision
By: Julie Tressel The Super Bowl has a tremendous effect on many aspects of daily life ever since it first aired in 1967. One of the ways it has changed an aspect of media is through television. Television producers and directors are very aware of when the Super Bowl is on and make the necessary changes to their programming as they see fit. The week the Super Bowl is on nothing can be average or ordinary. When extraordinary events are televised worldwide, competition becomes the name of the game. Many weekly television programs will opt to have a Super Bowl theme show the week that the big game airs. They figure anyone excited by the idea of the biggest football game of the year would surely tune in to their program because of the game oriented topic. The yearly Super Bowl episode is becoming as common as annual holiday theme shows such as Christmas and Halloween. Friends aired The One After the Super Bowl in January 1996 during their second season. NBC aired Youre in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown in January 1994. 1995 brought Home Improvement in to the game with their Super Bowl Fever episode. Other popular television shows such as Frasier, Quantum Leap, The Simpsons, The Drew Carey Show, and Seinfeld have been known to feature the Super Bowl on their weekly sit-coms. The only other strategy 7
networks seem to employ is to run re-runs or completely cancel their show the week that the Super Bowl airs.
The Future of the Super Bowl
By: Laura Szarek The Super Bowl has always played a vital part in the history of sports amongst football fans. But, What does it mean for the future? With the technological development of the Internet today, the Super Bowl is simply at its highest peak of popularity. Approximately 1, 580, 000 Internet sites are dedicated to this yearly event containing information ranging from the history of the Super Bowl to the proper etiquette of hosting a party on the day of the Big Game. Because of this mass coverage, the Internet serves as a necessary step in the assistance of its popularity. Superbowl.com is a site created for the sole purpose of delivering information via the Internet to sports fans worldwide. This site includes news, multimedia downloads, schedules, a fantasy league, a store, contests, and analysis to name a few of its features. Because of it's vast amount of features it's easy to acquire any information that you would like. It is the most encompassing site on the World Wide Web to promote and inform any browsers that choose to search for information on the Super Bowl. HISTORY Superbowlhistory. com is a page dedicated to the reflection on memorable teams, coaches, players, statistics and games. It's a great site for reminiscing on past games and team members of yesteryear. This website is affiliated with Amazon.com, which provides support and additional information on their website. With links to players
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pages, these two pages work together perfectly in promoting the history of the Super Bowl. ADVERTISING & COMMERCIALS Everyone knows that the Super Bowl is made most famous because of its expensive advertising breaks and commercials. Those who chose to sponsor the Super Bowl spend millions of dollars to outbid other potential candidates who want to partake in this annual market scheme. Due to its large amounts of viewers, advertising in this time slot is an expensive honor. At Superbowl-ads.com you can watch all the great commercials that have been chosen to air at this time. This website is extremely popular because those who are not interested in the game itself can still enjoy the unforgettable advertising that is talked about yearlong. TICKETS FOR NEXT YEAR So how does one find tickets to attend this game live? At Ticketsnow. com, yet another Internet site devoted to getting football fans to this game. This site has a virtual broker selling tickets to future Super Bowls. In a bidding fashion, tickets range from $1,950 each to $3,310 each for the next game on January 26, 2003 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. PLANNING YOUR SUPER BOWL PARTY Super Bowl parties always promise to be the greatest of the year. Since they only happen annually, it is important to have the party that is most talked about until the proceeding year. At Epicurious.com there are about fifteen recipes posted, to prepare for all the hungry football fans that will be attending this celebration. At NFL. com, Girl Talk, there are tips on decorating, game etiquette, and seating arrangements for the
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passive and intense guests. This site even goes as far as to recommend a stereotypical guest list to make sure the party is as fun as promised. With the ever-growing popularity of both the Internet and the Super Bowl they work together to promote each other. Because there are so many sites available to Internet users, it plays a significant role in informing Super Bowl fans around the world.
Super Bowl Viewing Stats
By: Emily Thoma The Super Bowl is an event that every American has watched or heard about at least one time in his/ her lifetime. They following tables represent the viewing and information gathering patterns of many BGSU students. Thirty students were asked the following questions: D i you w at t s d ch he uperbow l ?
25 20 15 10 5 0 Boys Girls No Yes
W hat form of m edi di you hear about the a d superbowl from ?
15 10 5 0
Boys Girls Tv word of mouth
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D i you do a folow-up of the gam e vi d l a the...
15 10 5 0 internet Newspaper Tv Boys Girls
W h y d id yo u w a t c h t h e su per bo w l?
25 20 15 10 5 0 game commercials halftime Boys Girls
Post-Game Wrap Up
As you can see, the Super Bowl has a huge effect on Americans and the media. Not only is the game one of the biggest television events of the year, but so is the halftime show and commercials. With the innovations of the Internet and other media forms, the game is gaining even more attention than ever. Whether you are male or female; young or old; you most likely participate in the big game in some way or another.
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Works Cited FearFactor (2002), Available Online: http://www.Fearfactor.com Fuller, Todd. (1999). Episode Guide. April 3, 2002, http://www.sitcomsonline.com/. Eckberg, John. (2002, February 4). Ego Fest may not mean sales. The Cincinnati Enquirer [Newspaper, article in archives ]. http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/02/04/fin_super_bowl_ad.html. Hatfield, Stefano. (2002, February 4). Great Game, Shame about the ads. Guardian Unlimited [Newspaper, article in archives]. http://media.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,7550,644743,00.html. *http://www.epicurious.com *http://www.nfl.com *http://www.sirlinksalot.net/superbowl.html *http://www.superbowlhistory.com *http://www.superbowl-ads.com *http://www.ticketsnow.com Lewis, Judith. (2002, February 8). Why do you think they call it Propaganda? LA Weekly [Newspaper, article in archives]. http://www.laweekly.com/printme.php3?&eid=32179. Partridge, Darcy. (2001). Friends Episode Guide. April 3, 2002, http://www.friends-tv.org/epguide.html. Peary, Danny. (1997). "Super Bowl: The Game of their Lives" . New York. Hungry Minds Publishing.
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SuperBowl(2002), Available Online: http://www.superbowl.com/xxxvi/ce/feature/0,3892,4889102.html
*these pages were used in this project, but had no other information to cite them with
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