See, I don't get to watch the superbowl. Mom is watching one of those jewelry channels instead...how do you feel about tourmaline?

...I thought the ads were more sexist and idiotic than usual.

Ditto.

hi joan, i have missed too much of it to comment. i did laugh at a couple commercials, but for the life of me i cant think of what they were. i thought glory days was actually an odd choice - because it is about a sporty dude whose best is behind him. like he was telling the players, "enjoy it guys. this is all you get." i thought it was a little sad bruce played it at all.
i wish deven's picture could have been shown on the giant screens there. THAT would make it worth it.

Well, the potatohead ad was a bit sexist I thought. The nagging wife who won't shut up? How is that even relevant for people today? Actually, I can think of more times where my wife would want me to shut up:)

I like the one of the guys doing stupid things and then getting up, going, "I'm good!"

Many a beer filled handy man project on a weekend has comparable scenes all over suburbia.

You're right, lame ads overall. Lots of boring football in between, too. That one play at the end of the first half--that was a rare treat.

But when General Petraeus is on the field for the coin toss, it doesn't give me a warm feeling for the entire enterprise. Maybe I misunderstand the symbolism of such a gesture, but shouldn't he be at work?

Girl, you are suffering from a post-Armey debate depression: Hoping for something uplifting to happen to make you feel like people (like the Boss) are what you hope them to be.

People who are after fame and money will let you down almost every time. It's a good thing you have the job you do or you'd be in a perpetual state of underwhelmedness.

I can't escape the television in this smallish place with thinner than thin walls...
Watched Bruce but was distracted by his eyebrow make-up...damn!

Have been posting comments and reading comments, sometimes I enjoy the comments as much/more than the posts, hate football in any event but can not deny this event to my hardworking truck driver who is counting the months till his retirement and does not ask much of me...I will hint that maybe he could turn down the Sony's Sound...his pride and joy.... and try to get back into Frank Schaeffer's CRAZY FOR GOD....rough reading....calls for a gin and tonic..hey! that's an idea...

Joan, tell me what you mean about BS mentioning Pat Tillman. I mean, I know all about Tillman of course, but what made you think he might mention him tonight? I'm just trying to figure out the connection.

(I wish I'd gone skiing; Super Bowl Sunday is the best night of the year to ski).

I think Bruce rocked, but then again, I'm a "Jersey Girl," so I admit to a certain prejudice. But, I also know that Bruce is no diva and that he and the band worked very hard at that segment---lots of high-energy rehearsals, lots of "just tell me what you want us to do."

Where I feel "missed," is at every commercial. It that arena, I am truly not the target market, haven't been for years. At least I like the Clydesdale commercials., but that's just because there is a horse and a dog---what's not to love.

Lainey, I described who Pat Tillman was in the last post: the Arizona Cardinals star who joined the Army after 9/11 and was killed in a friendly fire incident which was covered up by the Bush administration. A very sad, corrupt story -- too much to expect on my part. Maybe that's just a non-serious-NFL fan's association with the Cardinals...

m.a.h. - i think bruce has two of the best songs of all time - born to run, and jersey girl.

and i did remember which commercial i liked - the "adopt a dog" one with the rhino was very cute.

m. a.h, I've been loving Bruce since 1975 and watching him in concert since 1977, it's no shortage of love or knowledge of Bruce that let me down tonight! It's just his catering to his demographic. And I've been watching the Super Bowl every year since I was a little girl, it still lets me down that it's assumed I'm not watching.

But I gotta say, the game is getting good!

I want to know how they got that picture of me on the way to work every morning? Huh? And how come I didn't earn a big fat fee for being in the commercial?

Love the hat, Joan.

I took the starving college student to dinner last night and simply sat in wonder at the plates of food he inhaled... Hope Nora is well!

Yes, the commercial with the ostrich and the old lady yelling, "come back here, you bad bird!" was funny.

The Superbowl demands everyone act all PC, so it would be tough for BS to say anything.

But it was nice of you to put the thought out there.

How 'bout that 100 yard return?

I liked the Careerbuilder.com ad too. Esp, the hairy guy in the speedo in the cubicle.

Yes, the rhino/ostrich ad was great, too, but the game is way better than the ads...or Springsteen, frankly, but I'm OK with that.

I liked the horses in love, myself

(Oh, Catamite, you crack me up!!!!!!!)

Joan, I think Bruce would've brought Tillman up if (god forbid) Bush were still in office. To do so now could undermine Obama. I wonder why the team didn't do something, though. A sign, a flag, a picture, invite his mother.

Most of the commercials left me cold. Thought the Coke retro redo was clever and fun for us older kids.

The Coke ad, with the insects colluding to steal the guy's coke as he sleeps. He reaches for the bottle and it explodes in a profusion of butterflies.

the GoDaddy.com ads were stupid and sexist

Bruce seemed out of breath or something. I thought Glory Days was a bit crowd pandering too. I was hoping he'd do Dancing in the Dark - how awesome would it be to pull Courtney Cox up on the stage again?

I really liked the NBC "LMAO" promo. I LMAO to that one.

Careerbuilder was fantastic and climactic. No others jumped at me at all.

I decided to forgo the Superbowl and its hackneyed ads and offend myself this evening, minus the big budget.

I pounced around my room, scantily clad and licked broccoli like the PETA ads. It was truly shocking...and a little weird.

It's just a sporting event, not a crusade. Even the Chinese avoided any overt messages at the Olympics.

As for commericals, the E-Trade baby after the game was my favorite.

Joan, you're right! What a game this turned out to be---even if the NYG's weren't in it.

What a game, seriously...I'm sorry I knocked anything about it. I did love that NBC ad, too...nice to hear the cheers for Obama, but seriously, once Arizona made it a game, I didn't care who won, I was just rooting for the game.

I have been a Springsteen fan since he played 4 hour shows in 250 seat clubs and hearing one of his songs on the radio triggered excited phone calls to friends. I have mixed feelings about his Super Bowl appearance...I am pleased to see the band gain worldwide exposure via this uniquely American sport, but I am also saddened by what seems to be an unprecedented and crass effort to merchandise the new record.

"Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" is a classic but had no place in this setting..."Born To Run" was expected but as the closer, not song #2..."Working On A Dream" sounds like a song written for Roy Orbison to be played in the "Black & White" TV special, not the title song of a work created at this late stage of Bruce's storied career...I agree Joan, "Glory Days" was a choice designed to appeal to the masses...I can think of any number of songs that would have been better on this stage (Badlands, Because The Night, From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come), No Surrender, Prove It All Night, You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch).

Did we just witness the first rehearsal of the BS&TESB Vegas Review??

Ah, he played for the Cardinals--that's the part I didn't know. Thanks, Joan.

I liked the horse ads...the Budweiser Clydesdale...cause I really like horses.

I liked the Bud commercial where the horse traveled to the ends of the earth to find his true love. "I didn't know she was dating". That was kinda cool.

Gotta love the Budweiser Clydesdales ad!!! Never disappoints!
Also, loved the Pepsi ad with Bob Dylan. He's a fave.
The Dorito ads were very funny and clever, especially the first one with the cyrstal ball. Maybe a little slapsticky but that's the general mood for these male ball bashing sports, eh?!?

I stopped watching football when the players started looking more and more like some freaky genetic experiment. Man they are big and they have to breathe oxygen between plays. I cannot watch.

I wore the 3-D glasses for the Sobe ad. Kinda cool.

Nothing very exciting this year. As always, a couple of stinkers. A flower delivery service shows a woman receiving a batch of flowers which insults her. Mean and nasty. Close second worst is go-daddy. Three geeks use the site to find a popular female race car driver stepping into a shower. Creepy.

I thought Bruce was fun.

I went out for a late lunch and to the Trader Joe's and shopped for frames for photos our daughter took in Ireland. Super Bowl=super boring.

jimmy, Bruce was fun, you're right; I hoped for more from this event than I should have. The ads were awful; the game was great. I'm glad I watched after all.

I loved Careerbuilder...this got my vote. And I agree. I had a home full of men...they were laughing and guffawing at many of the commercials. I just sat there looking at them. I couldn't think about it too much or I was going to start grabbing them by the collar and bitch slap them!

I found sexism in one of the Clydesdale ads. When the one was talking in the Scottish accent, about his grandfather trying to find his "place" in life, and he was in last place in the horse race, I just KNEW (and was correct) that they would be in pink. And they were.

And all in all, the commercials in the second half were better than the ones in the first. I remember the Bridgestone Tire ads being pretty funny.

The game was the thing this year, and it was great.

Everything including the game, which was exciting start to finish, paled in comparison to Jennifer Hudson's rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. I have a post on this if you have time (ha!).

I watched The Puppy Bowl. They had a new "stadium" and this year, there was a ref.

I liked the ad with the dog fetching, and the horse bringing back a tree limb. I thought the choices were pretty limiting; but I don't think a 50 something woman is the particular demographic the PTB were catering to. And just who made that goon, "the boss"? The show was okay, but he surely is a sell out junk1

I loved the Bridgestone "Hot Item" commercial. Seeing a high-tech space vehicle up on blocks was hilarious.

Hey Joan,
I decided to forgo the Superbowl for Repo the Genetic Opera so I don't have a favorite, but I must say I love the hat ;)

Actually, The Super Bowl has long joined The Oscars on my list of Must Not Ever See TV. Sexist? Idiotic? Pandering? Well, it's all about mutantly oversized man-children colliding with each other over a piece of dried and stretched pork. Form follows function. And advertising follows form. And Tom Joad grabs another check for his mansion mortgage.

I liked the ad for the starving artist show coming up next weekend at some Holiday Inn where every "original" will be $20. Was I watching the wrong channel? How did that chili turn out? ;)

I have to say I was VERY surprised he didn' t mention Tillman ... I was surprised there wasn't an entire segement of pregame/halftime dedicated to him ... I was sorely disappointed by that. Thanks for shining a light on it ... how quickly we can forget.

:)

I don't understand the criticism of Bruce's halftime show that I am reading this morning. Bruce had 12 minutes to play to a world-wide audience . Of course he played well-known oldie standards to reach the broadest possible audience. I exepcted nothing more. I was even surprised when he played a portion of Working On A Dream.

The Superbowl is NOT the place for political statement-making. Thanks HEAVENS he did not make it so. We need to be able to tune in to one uniquely American tradition and NOT hear a political word uttered. Yes, it would have created a sore somber mood, and we deserved to be spared that for one carefree night this winter.

Here's what I saw: Bruce is happy. He was trying to (and did a fine job) empart that happiness and energy to the entire audience. It was uplifting, fun, easy, and hopeful. I'll give ya hokey - it was a little hokey but I enjoyed seeing my old buddy in that new role :-)

I got the message - and it was a happy, hopeful one.

Yes, I am a devoted fan of Bruce on many levels.

hi j,
loved the career builder ad!!!! the woman sitting in her car screaming was priceless!!!!

love the boss and did he put on a performance. love clarence clemmons, the sax player. been with him since the beginning.

bruce is good peeps.:) have loved him since his first album. remember smoking the weed with friends with big maranz stereos, wood spool tables for cofffe tables. bose speakers that blew the windows out.:) glory days for sure. :)

don't follow football, but watch the super bowl because my 81 old dad does and it gives us something to talk about. but my dad also watches tennis and we talked tennis in the morning yesterday. he also loves rafa. see photos of my post yestarday and i bet you will love rafa too.:)
mary

Folks, he had 12 minutes. TWELVE. If he didn't play "Born to Run", people would be pissed. If he didn't play "Glory Days", people would be pissed. People are pissed he didn't play "Dancing in the Dark". People are pissed he didn't play "Badlands". The man has been recording since the early 70's - there is a lot to choose from. No one complained when Prince did "Purple Rain" two years ago, no one complained when Tom Petty did "Running Down a Dream" last year. As for it being a marketing ploy, OF COURSE it's a marketing ploy. You're playing to the largest audience in the world, may as well try to sell a few albums. Radio completely sucks these days, no one listens, and even if they did, when was the last time you heard Bruce on it? I don't blame him one bit. Frankly, I thought it was one of the best halftime shows in many years. It perfectly captured the spirit of the game - FUN.

The tire one with the potato heads .
She loses her lips in the canyon and her voice fades away
and then removes her nice eyes and puts in a set of pissed off eyes .
Hilarious

Well, I liked Bruce. Our crowd was going strong at that point and still hopeful for our Cardinals. Today, we are all in mourning. I am sad and more than a little hungover. It seemed up until the end that we could pull it off.

As far as the Tillman thing goes, I thought someone would mention him but didn't really look for it. Here in Arizona, he's been mentioned at all venues repeatedly until it has gotten almost tiresome. I admire the man and what he did, incredible and sad story; but it has gotten to a saturation point around here. Just my two cents from a local girl.

I liked the free Doritos ad. But I watched all of them this morning on U Tube. I'm a baseball fan.

I'm going to be the obligatory wet blanket by saying I saw 0 super bowl by virtue of the fact that I am (gratefully) married to a man with 0 interest in it--missed all the...ahem... wonderful commercials too, sadly (not).

good point, local girl :)

Bruce who? From 1973 or 1975 or 1978 or whenever it was? When was Bruce Springsteen last musically relevant? Great albums from the 70s don't have much sway in 2009. Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Prince... who are these geezers? I'm past 50 -- are there no more recent artists to perform during the meaningless Super Bowl halftime show?

It's gotta be a long, lonely downhill slide once you've carved out your little rock-n-roll niche and are expected to remain inside its confines, like a crypt. Springsteen is no Dylan.

Hair long-ISH but not over the ears... earrings, but not too big... muscled, but not too muscled... gotta be a working man... although I've been a millionaire rock star for thirty years... avoid that Madonna-like semi-mummification... don't people just plain get old anymore?

Would have to agree the Careerbuilder and Conan ad was my favorite. Audi had a smart and cool tie-in with the Transporter product placement.

Although I liked the Conan ad, I don't get the Bud Light ads in general. They portray their customers as dimwits who only think about consuming Bud Light, pardon me if I am mistaken, but doesn't seem sort like they are saying their customers are alcoholics?

I watched the game last night, intending to watch a quarter or so, and was drawn in. It was a good football game.

I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't thought of Tillman. And the fact that Gen. Petraeus was trotted out before the game makes the official oversight of Pat Tillman by the NFL and Super Bowl organizers even more tacky. Thanks for bringing it up.

And I ignored most of the ads. Most of them seemed more gimmicky than clever to me.

Hulu. Hands down.

I liked the ads and Bruce Springsteen more than the football game and I'm a big football fan! The game didn't get going until the 4th quarter, typical of pro games. That's why I watch college football.

My favorite ads were the General Electric ones on the power grid and wind energy. I also loved the Coke ad which featured cool insects and nature stuff. Those ad relate to my interest and were nicely done.

I liked the Conan and adopt-a-dog ads the best, don't watch football. About Bruce, he can't do everything. I know who Tillman is and his tragic story, but I don't know the connection between him and Bruce Springsteen and the superbowl. BS was there to entertain and he did. When he has a cause he believes in, he speaks or sings out for it. You can't fault him for his omissions without praising him for what he brings to his performances.

I didnt get to watch it and i havent gotten around to watching just the comercials.. my sister decided to be a big baby and force my dad and my brother to the back of the house so she could watch shit like joh and kate + 8 and wife swap.. So I plug in my head phones and watched all of the second season of the big bang theory and most of the epsiodes out from the True Blood show.. no comercials

Re: Gordon - "Springsteen is no Dylan."

Hey Gordon, you mean the Dylan that sold the rights to "Forever Young" to Pepsi for a commercial? That Dylan? You're right - Springsteen is no Dylan.

E-trade baby commercials are BRILLIANT!!

Pepsuber!

The Conan one was good, and the one about the guy in the cubicle, etc., was good in so much as it was relentless and ruthless.

Its just crazy that the world is in peril, and we can spend money on ridiculous commercials and fanfare and the la-te-da bull----. We are so messed up with priorities.

And Brude selling out to Wal-mart.

I was disappointed... Not surprised, he is getting older but come on. To act surprised that people aren't going to Wal-Mart for your CD shouldn't be news. I still don't own the new AC/DC CD because it's 'exclusively at Wal-Mart', and I'm exclusively not...

Slate has an article on the half time Bruce show...

http://www.slate.com/id/2210287/

It's like when I saw David Bowie who played 'I'm afraid of Americans' and then followed it up with 'Heroes'. I sang 'afraid' at the top of my lungs and most people were sullen but when he played 'Heroes', the jingoism was incredible...

If you haven't ever seen it Joan, go to April 11, 2007 at 18:29:59
My article of April 11, 2007 at 18:29:59 soon after his death. It was seminal.
Was Pat Tillman Killed By Friendly Fire Or Assassinated Because of His Changed Views On The War?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_professo_070411_was_pat_tillman_kill.htm

You are working that hat. Right On.

I wonder if Bruce considered 'Born in the USA'? I'm sure it was too much for the NFL but how could the crowd do anything but go nuts!?

I'm an even wronger demographic for the Super Bowl than you. Not that this is a competition; I'm just saying. Although I don't know who won (or who played, but I'm pretty sure it was football not baseball they were playing), I heard Jon Stewart say Arizona was the site and the TV audience there got 30 seconds of porn thrown in by mistake. The porn was not a commercial, but Stewart said the commercials were about how broke we all are, so maybe even porn was more fun than that.

As an avid Steeler's fan I am obviously VERY happy with the outcome of the SuperBowl. However, I did not think that the ads lived up to their usual hype. As a matter of fact, I have a hard time recalling one that I really liked. Thankfully, the game was awesome so it made up for the lack of great ads. Congrats Steelers and the people of 'Sixburgh"!!!

Careerbuilder ad was the definite winner. I just wish my family would have shut up and let me watch the commercials!

The etrade ads are the best.

David P. would have been back at work, but he wasn't around to blow $170 million and party all day with the country in economic crisis, so he took off the Super Bowl instead; consider it a recruitment opportunity.

and I have never, ever watched a SuperBowl halftime show; why anyone would is completely beyond me and why anyone would then care about whichever lame artist plays it is even worse; and then to knock companies for spending money on advertising during the single highest watched event of the year...yeah how stupid is that!! You would be much better off advertising when no one is watching.

Joan, darling. Love the hat, it's you!

I like the bow in the hat. You wear it almost as well as Aretha. Do not feel bad. Nobody wears it as well as Aretha.

"By the way, that's a cute hat...." to quote Bob Dylan. But never mind the Superbowl and the overhyped but boring ads. I want to congratulate you for holding your own and keeping your temper with that slobbering beast of a man, Dick Armey. I thought he was truly odious, sexist and unbearable. But you were wonderful -- how you maintained control with his spewing those toxic fumes is a wonder of the modern world. I;m proud to virtually know you.

I must be a simpleton, but I still like the baby commercials for e-Trade -- the one about the golfer was the better of the two by far. Best ever Super Bowl. Yes, too much sexism in the commercials...

Careerbuilder was my favorite, too. I also love the Budweiser Clydesdale ads. But i love horses so that figures.