I spent my evening watching the 44th Super Bowl and in that time have come to several conclusions. The first of these conclusions is that the game itself was somewhat mediocre, but that is the least of the problems. The actual advertising for the Super Bowl was highly disappointing compared to the commercials of Super Bowls passed. The commercials have gone from the the Budweiser frogs that we used to watch and love to anti-abortion commercials featuring former Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow, whom many people may or may not like. Even the halftime show was over-flowing with mediocrity. Personally, I am a fan of The Who, but after watching my news stream on Twitter, many 20-something college students are not. Overall, I believe that the Super Bowl did not reach the level of excitement that I was expecting. However, I am very glad for the Saints’ win, as is the city of New Orleans, which might be the biggest beneficiaries of this Super Bowl 44.
Four years ago, New Orleans experienced Hurricane Katrina, an event that changed people’s lives forever. The Super Dome that was the home of the Saints had become a haven for families who had lost their homes and loved ones, perhaps even their lives. In my mind, a Super Bowl would seem to be the furthest thing from my thoughts after such a disaster. Even today, New Orleans is still trying to deal with the aftermath of the hurricane. But the Saints had a different idea. In interview after interview, I heard Saints players referring to this game as their chance to do something for New Orleans. If they won, the Saints would serve as an inspiration to the city of New Orleans and show that the city is now back on the map. Tonight, the New Orleans Saints did just that. I could see the passion and desire that Saints fans had on their faces throughout this game. Even as the Saints were coming out of the tunnel, the energy was almost indescribable and gave me chill bumps. The Saints not only came to play, even though it was a shaky start, but to win; win they did.
The Drew Brees post game interview really sealed the the image of the “new” New Orleans for me. Brees stated in his interview that four years ago, he had no idea that he and his teammates would have made it to, much less won their very first Super Bowl. I must say that I agree with him. All season they persevered, maintaining a near-perfect record, and they have finally made it all the way. In my opinion, the New Orleans Saints could not have hired an agency to do better PR than what they did for themselves by winning this game. The Saints have opened a lot of doors for the people of New Orleans to regain confidence in themselves and their city; perhaps giving them the encouragement they need to take the finals steps in getting their lives back to normal.
Twenty-three-year-old MTV reality star, Heidi Montag, has done quite well for herself through the years. What started as a minor role on The Hills, an MTV show featuring wealthy girls and all the drama that goes with it, has now grown to a big hit that’s all about Heidi and her ever-loving husband, Spencer Pratt.
She must be doing something right, because Heidi never disappears from the media. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I don’t really care how her relationship is going with Spencer or about the speculations of her and LC’s friendship. What do I care about? Well, she recently decided to undergo 10 plastic-surgery procedures in one day. What is she thinking? But hey, the media is still fascinated by her and therefore, she never goes away. Don’t you just hate to love the media?
Two topics have been discussed abundantly over the past few weeks: the census and the Super Bowl. I had never really thought of the two coinciding until recently. According to a recent Yahoo! News article, the Census Bureau is hoping to exploit the strong ratings from this annual attraction. There is, however, a $2.5 million price tag on this effort to reach 100 million Super Bowl viewers. This year’s $2.5 million deal, which the agency says could reach 45 percent of all U.S. adults, includes two 30-second pregame spots, two or three on-air mentions by sportscaster James Brown and a 30-second ad during the third-quarter.
While this seems like the opportune time to target a large percentage of the population, some people have let their feelings of opposition be known. Sen. John McCain tweeted this week that the government “shouldn’t be wasting $2.5 million taxpayer dollars to compete with ads for Doritos!” Sen. Johnny Isakson called on the Census Bureau to justify every dollar of its $133 million ad campaign, citing the tight economic times.
I can’t say that I completely agree with dropping $2.5 million to reach football fans who would rather be watching Budweiser commercials; however, I do feel that if results are seen, then the end justifies the means.
Last time I checked, college football season was over. Actually, if I remember correctly, The University of Alabama Crimson Tide won the National Championship. At least I think that’s what happened. I wouldn’t be too sure though because according to the news focus surrounding the pro-life super bowl ad airing this weekend, Tim Tebow is a winner at everything. What are people so infatuated with this human being for? And yes, contrary to popular belief, he IS a human. Just like everyone else. Sure, maybe he can run pretty fast and throw a football, but I’m pretty sure there are others who can do that too. I understand he’s a good guy and very down to earth. But so what? What makes him so special that he gets to defy advertising norms and cause controversy. It was bad enough during football season to hear the never ending Tim Tebow coverage coming from the football announcers, and oh how we loved to hear about his bro-mance with his roommate/teammate Riley Cooper. However for anyone who is wondering, Tim Tebow has GRADUATED. That means he is no longer a part of the Florida Gators (even though he never really was a PART, he WAS the Florida Gators, was there even anybody else on the team?) Doesn’t this mean there should be less coverage devoted to him rather than more?
Here’s the problem. The ad scheduled to run is controversial. I support pro-life; yet, I still think it is inappropriate for the ad to run during the Super Bowl. The majority of people watching the game are not concerned at that moment in time about whether to abort or not. They are worried about who is going to win the game. Commercials during the Super Bowl should match the atmosphere of the game and the audience watching it.
As much as I am tired of hearing about Tim Tebow, I think the ad is fine, I just think it would be better placed sometime else. The controversy over this issue has allowed many groups and businesses that would not normally advertise during this game to have “free” reign over the airwaves. Watching the Super Bowl commercials used to be my favorite, and only, reason to watch the game. This year I’m not too excited.
There has been a lot of talk today about the recent decisions regarding the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. For the past 16 years, this policy has kept openly gay citizens from joining the military and was a cause to discharge men from their ranks who were already serving. President Obama announced at his state of the union address last week that he plans to remove this policy and allow homosexuals to join and serve in our military. Today, February 2, two defense officials are supporting Obama’s decision, which is helping the process of eliminating this policy. I am glad that this process has finally started after 16 years and am a complete supporter of the removal of the policy. I find it ridiculous to keep people out of the military who love our country and want to fight for their fellow Americans. Since the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy has been around, some 13,000 potential servicemen have been kept out of our military. I do not understand why heterosexual men fighting on the front lines would prefer no one to have their back rather than have thousands of extra help from American citizens on their side aiding in protecting them. I read about one man who served our country for seven years and was ranked as a First Lieutenant and has served as an army policeman. He never let anyone know of his homosexuality while in the military, obviously going against the contract of the policy. It is just sad to know that the dreams he had to be successful in the military could have been taken away from him because of his sexual orientation.
Since this morning, many reports and articles have been released about this topic making our country become aware of the current proceedings. Some polls have been taken to get the public’s view on the situation. Ultimately, it is up to Congress to pass Obama’s revised policy. I think it is important to get the word out there, and have this important policy shown on television to become wide-spread. With high opinion leaders, including President Obama and his defense officials, supporting the ban on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, I think it will gain the support of many Americans. However, there will always be those against homosexual rights, and people with those opinions will create negative PR for this policy. I imagine a battle will be going on in the media with both sides of the issues.
Okay, guys, now you have to start blogging for real. Starting Monday you will all post one blog per week.
I believe that the recent information about Tiger Woods has been exploded by the press throughout the last couple of weeks. There has been everything from National Enquirer magazine articles all the way to Saturday Night Live parody skits. This is a Public Relations person’s opportunity to completely try to save his reputation as well as his ongoing relations with his many different sponsors. On Saturday Night Live on Saturday there was a skit that was supposed to be Tiger Woods and his wife and shows him continuing to lie to her as well as her beating him or fighting him. There has been some controversy over this skit but in actuality it is no different than the hundred of articles that have portrayed him in my different ways. But due to copyright infringement the videos have been removed from YouTube.
This video was created for my public relations management class. The assignment was to create a promotional video for the University of Alabama’s Department of Advertising and Public Relations. My group members and I decided to create a video for prospective advertising and public relations students. The message we wanted to get across with the video was that UA’s APR department is an exciting and fast-paced major that provides students with real-world experiences to help them in their career search after graduating from the program. I hope you enjoy it!
According to Digits, a blog found on The Wall Street Journal’s website, Facebook and Myspace removed the accounts of more than 3,500 registered sex offenders in New York this week, according to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
This was part of New York’s Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, also called e-STOP. This Act requires convicted sex offenders to give their email addresses and other online identifiers, and authorizes the state to release those identifiers to social-networking sites to prescreen or remove their accounts.
Mr. Cuomo’s office said that 8,100 registered offenders shared their email addresses with the state, meaning that the recent database sweep revealed more than 43% had created accounts on Facebook and MySpace.
Forty-Three percent of New York’s sex offenders! Almost makes me want to delete my Facebook account. I used to be on MySpace and deleted that account for the same reason; it had just gotten a little too creepy. What are your thoughts?
