The TV Event That Happened Sunday
I don't have a lot to say about the Superbowl, because I'm not the sort of person who has a lot to say about the Superbowl. However, there's a brief story I want to tell, and I'll provide a little context for it.
In recent years I've been made aware of the timing of the Superbowl because my friend always hosts a Superbowl party. I go to the party because there are friends there and it's fun. We watch and I ask questions to try to understand this crazy game called American Football and we laugh at/lambaste various commercials and even though I would never bother watching the Superbowl if left to my own devices, watching it with a group of friends in this context is a good time.
Earlier that morning, I was talking to another friend, who doesn't know the friend who has the Superbowl party. She asked if I was going to watch it for the commercials, and I responded in the negative.
As I told her, I actually hate the "watch it for the commercials" thing. I agree that they're more entertaining than the game, but I don't want to support this gross commercialization. It's an aspect of our culture that disgusts me, when some of our strongest art and entertainment exists for the blatant purpose of selling something. It's the kind of thing I try to avoid, because I don't want to reinforce the trend. (I realize I'm just, like, using a bucket to try to get the water out of my flooded city, or some other belated metaphor for futility, but I have my standards and I'm proud of them.) I don't get all self-righteous about this, and I'm perfectly willing to join in on the fun of commercial-watching with my friends, but it's not something I'm comfortable with overall.
The friend I was talking to said something like "But don't you like the buff guys in tight clothing?"
And I said "No!"
And I told her the story about me totally not noticing the Thunder From Down Under poster in Las Vegas.
Most attempts to provide sexual appeal to female audience members don't work for me (as do attempts to provide sexual appeal to male audience members, fyi, this isn't a gender issue) so the whole "sex sells!" adage does not form an effective basis for getting me to buy stuff.
But as we were watching commercials, and ad for Star Trek: Into Darkness came on. I saw Benedict Cumberbatch, and I made the high-pitched fangirl noise typically described as a squee. Ivy was in another room, so we called her over, and the two of us went crazy over Benedict Cumberbatch every time he was on screen.
And I felt kind of hypocritical, because I'd been all derisive of the idea that I'd enjoy commercials for men in tight clothes, but then when a specific man shows up in a commercial, regardless of his clothing, I totally lose it. And either way, it's just a commercial giving a viewer exactly what the viewer wants to see. In my case that just happens to be Benedict Cumberbatch.
Somebody asked if an actor in another commercial was David Tennant, but they weren't really serious and it definitely wasn't him. If it had been, then this year's Superbowl commercials would have been the most successful ever, at least in terms of how much they appealed to Robynne.
In recent years I've been made aware of the timing of the Superbowl because my friend always hosts a Superbowl party. I go to the party because there are friends there and it's fun. We watch and I ask questions to try to understand this crazy game called American Football and we laugh at/lambaste various commercials and even though I would never bother watching the Superbowl if left to my own devices, watching it with a group of friends in this context is a good time.
Earlier that morning, I was talking to another friend, who doesn't know the friend who has the Superbowl party. She asked if I was going to watch it for the commercials, and I responded in the negative.
As I told her, I actually hate the "watch it for the commercials" thing. I agree that they're more entertaining than the game, but I don't want to support this gross commercialization. It's an aspect of our culture that disgusts me, when some of our strongest art and entertainment exists for the blatant purpose of selling something. It's the kind of thing I try to avoid, because I don't want to reinforce the trend. (I realize I'm just, like, using a bucket to try to get the water out of my flooded city, or some other belated metaphor for futility, but I have my standards and I'm proud of them.) I don't get all self-righteous about this, and I'm perfectly willing to join in on the fun of commercial-watching with my friends, but it's not something I'm comfortable with overall.
The friend I was talking to said something like "But don't you like the buff guys in tight clothing?"
And I said "No!"
And I told her the story about me totally not noticing the Thunder From Down Under poster in Las Vegas.
Most attempts to provide sexual appeal to female audience members don't work for me (as do attempts to provide sexual appeal to male audience members, fyi, this isn't a gender issue) so the whole "sex sells!" adage does not form an effective basis for getting me to buy stuff.
But as we were watching commercials, and ad for Star Trek: Into Darkness came on. I saw Benedict Cumberbatch, and I made the high-pitched fangirl noise typically described as a squee. Ivy was in another room, so we called her over, and the two of us went crazy over Benedict Cumberbatch every time he was on screen.
And I felt kind of hypocritical, because I'd been all derisive of the idea that I'd enjoy commercials for men in tight clothes, but then when a specific man shows up in a commercial, regardless of his clothing, I totally lose it. And either way, it's just a commercial giving a viewer exactly what the viewer wants to see. In my case that just happens to be Benedict Cumberbatch.
Somebody asked if an actor in another commercial was David Tennant, but they weren't really serious and it definitely wasn't him. If it had been, then this year's Superbowl commercials would have been the most successful ever, at least in terms of how much they appealed to Robynne.