I watched the Super Bowl and noticed some interesting fnords. Obviously, the Super Bowl is mostly one big commercial for the State. Some interesting bits manage to slip by the censors.
There's one interesting point regarding Super Bowl ads. The network reserves the right to censor ads. Suppose I had $3M to waste, and was willing to waste it on a Super Bowl ad. If I tried to publish a "The State is evil!" commercial, I would be unable to get it past the censors. (If I really had $3M to spend promoting free market economics, obviously I could do a lot better than blowing $3M on a Super Bowl ad.)
I found this satiric Super Bowl Commercial while googling. It's a Blazing Saddles spoof.
My favorite was the Alec Baldwin Hulu Commercial. It makes sense if you replace "aliens" with "members of the parasite class". Members of the parasite class should be treated as a hostile invading alien species. TV is used to keep the masses complacent.
I liked the careerbuilder.com ad. I liked the "gradually building up feature" like the "old woman who swallowed a spider" ad.
I also thought the GE Scarecrow ad was a bit weird. Is that ad supposed to make me think that GE's product is reliable or unreliable?
The biggest evil fnord was the coin toss ceremony. They introduced John Elway, who legitimately deserves respect for being a good football player. Then, they introduced General Petraeus. Juxtaposing them is an evil fnord. The fnord is "General Petraeus deserves respect!" instead of "General Petraeus is partially responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and a much greater number of Iraqis." Subtle imagery like this makes the Super Bowl an advertisement for the State. Knowing the fnord, it's harmless to watch.
The "Support our troops!" and "Support the police!" evil fnords must be repeated as often as possible. If these statements are obviously true, then why is it necessary to repeat the lie so often?
Surprisingly, I didn't notice any dropoff in site traffic during the Super Bowl. Google Analytics gives an hour-by-hour breakdown. Overall, Sunday was a good day traffic-wise, partially due to someone mentioning my blog in Reddit ("The Destruction of Trial by Jury") and a financial forum linking to "The Hunt Brothers' Silver Corner". My article on the Hunt Brothers is one my most widely cited posts.
Let me know if I missed any good ones!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Super Bowl Fnords
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2 comments:
i am *so* glad you noticed the elway/petraeus thing. i haver been ranting about that for nearly 24 hours. i stepped inside to see if the game had started because i hate the pre-game, and i see jerry rice smiling as the camera pans to elway. they introduce him, and he gets a good reaction (as he should). the guy is a hall of famer, led tons of 4th quarter comebacks, won two super bowls (including one with a huge comeback at the end), and is, from all accounts, a very nice guy.
then they show petraeus, and the crowd erupted!!! i was sickened so i went back outside for another 15 minutes. i was actually angry, and i normally block out stupid politics/government nonsense.
It was strange for me to see joe nameath(I cant spell) At the end of the game with the trophy. Looking old as hell, walking just fine with both of his knee replacements.and a big smile with his fake white teeth. It was almost like a scene from Dick Clarks newyears eve celebration at time square.
Fritz
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