Bill Clinton: Beyond Scandal and Adultery

Those of us born in the early 90s didn’t have to major in Political Science or read the newspaper every day to know that former President Bill Clinton has a bevy of women surrounding his name.

Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton embrace after Clinton gave a speech. The black beret she is wearing in this photo became an icon during the scandal. Image courtesy of LA Times Blog.

Most would even be able to link the names Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones to Clinton’s namesake, maybe even before they link Hillary Clinton and Bill.

What the ‘Millennial’ Generation Knows About Clinton

It is well known that Clinton was tied to affairs with Gennifer Flowers in the early 90s, but these allegations didn’t keep him from being elected to office in November 1992.

A Washington Post Special Report published an interview with Bill and Hillary Clinton on Jan. 26, 1992, where Clinton famously skates around the questions, neither denying nor admitting an affair with Flowers.

Fast-forward six years.  The 90s kids were starting school and learning about the Presidents, while President Clinton learned that fooling around with interns has major consequences.

Clinton was accused of having an affair with White House Intern Monica Lewinsky in 1998 when the Starr Report was released to the public.

The Starr Report, compiled by Kenneth Starr, was published for the American public to buy. The book contains the allegations of perjury, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power. Photo courtesy of Amazon.com.

He became the second President to be impeached by the House of Representatives.  His impeachment was on the grounds of obstruction of justice and perjury after lying under oath regarding his affair with Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones yet another female he had indiscretions with.

With this accusation, newspapers flourished with witty Pro- and Con-Clinton columns and tabloids exploded with vulgar details of the affair.

Most of the millennial generation was in elementary school, and they weren’t able to comprehend an extra-marital affair. I imagine most conversations between parents and children went like this:

Kid: “Mom, my teacher said the President was impeached.  Why?”

Mom:  “Because of Monica Lewinsky.  The President lied about spending too much time with her.”

The millennial kids grew up.  They understood what affairs were and learned jokes told in school from older kids about Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and her black beret and infamous blue dress.

Now fast-forward to 2008.  Hillary Clinton ran for president, and Bill Clinton served as a supportive husband.  Although not in the presidential hot-seat anymore, Clinton managed to make The KoldCast TV’s top-10 most embarrassing presidential moments when he fell asleep during a MLK Day talk in Jan. 2008.

Once again, the former president was popular topic amongst the millennial generation, but for mockery rather than for political reason.

What we should know (to catch our generation up with our parents’)

What my generation didn’t learn about Clinton were his accomplishments and failures as president of the United States.

Ambitious 17-year-old Bill Clinton met President Kennedy at a Boys Nation Convention. The image became an icon of the presidents "passing the baton" from one democrat to another. Image courtesy of http://markn.tumblr.com/post/108450954/susheela-bill-clinton-meeting-president-kennedy.

According to Biography.com’s report on Clinton, the president’s first two years of presidency proved unsuccessful, largely due to a failed healthcare bill headed by First Lady Hillary Clinton.

In 1994, Clinton passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which added 100,000 policemen and increased the level of punishment for a variety of crimes (including the Death Penalty).  Additionally, he signed a law that increased minimum wage by ninety cents.

By increasing his popularity in the second half of his first term, Clinton was reelected for a second term.

During his time in office, the economy flourished.  According to The White House’s Clinton Biography, the nation “enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time in its history.”

The nation experienced the lowest unemployment and inflation rates in recent history, and the highest homeownership rates in history.

A Forgotten Blemish (By every generation)

The United States experienced a time of peace and prosperity during the Clinton administration, but there is great controversy over Clinton’s handling with the Rwandan Genocide that occurred in the 1990s.

Stories of the horrific Rwandan Genocide have leaked to the United States in recent years.  Hotel Rwanda, Left to Tell and Running the Rift are among various media publications that tell of the events that occurred in Rwanda between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes.

Imaculee Ilibagiza spent 90 days in this tiny bathroom with seven other women waiting for aid from the United States. She shared her story in the book "Left to Tell."

According to an article by The Guardian, President Clinton chose not to intervene in Rwanda, even after the term “Genocide” was used by Senior officials.

“Intelligence reports obtained using the US Freedom of Information Act show the cabinet and almost certainly the president had been told of a planned “final solution to eliminate all Tutsis” before the slaughter reached its peak,” The Guardian reported.

Although it isn’t possible for the United States to solve every world crisis, it is unsettling that the United States didn’t intervene when over 800,000 people were killed in a span of 3 months in Rwanda.

Good deeds now

Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton teamed up to give aid to Haiti. Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

Even after his Lewinsky scandal and ignorance to the Rwandan Genocide, Clinton has remained a political figure, supporting Hillary as the Secretary of State and working with former president George H.W. Bush to create the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

With political parties currently so divided over the federal budget, Bush and Clinton have set an example for the rest of the nation of how Democrats and Republicans can work together.

Perhaps that’s what makes Clinton unstoppable.  He’s highly likeable and has an ability to consistently prove that he is genuinely trying to improve America, even after scandals that would demolish the average politician’s reputation.  If my generation would focus on his unfaltering spirit-his American Spirit-we would see how he can be a role model for our lives by working through embarrassment and political scandal and still succeeding to improve the lives of others.

Bill Clinton: Hero, villain, or…neither?

When I was in kindergarten I shook Bill Clinton’s hand.

No, really I did. I lived just outside of Washington, D.C. and I remember the frenzy — and furry — when our classroom of 5-year-olds found out we were taking a field trip to see the president of the United States of America. My old schoolteacher, Mrs. Cooper, was tickled to death. A liberal, African American woman with a stern voice and soft eyes, she adored the president, despite what my parents told me were “the bad things he had done.”

It seems everyone has an opinion about Bill Clinton.

Or at least according to Audie Cornish they do. The NPR host uses this statement to preface an interview with Barak Goodman, writer and director of a new four-hour-long documentary on the scandal-ridden 42nd president.

The documentary aired the first of two installments last night on PBS as part of the American Experience: President series.

But the question is does my generation even give a hoot?

I’m not sure they do. When the Monica Lewinsky scandal really surfaced my generation of 20-somethings was in grade school. Those just about to start college were even younger. I’m afraid my generation was just too young to get swooped up with his loyal followers or even feel betrayed by his dishonest actions that were frankly, way over our heads.

The fact that such a large portion of Goodman’s documentary focuses on the Monica Lewinsky scandal accounts for our country’s obsession with watching high profile figures fall to ruin in scandal ridden run-ins with drugs, crime and in Clinton’s case, sex.

Although I might argue that the Battle of Mogadishu or Clinton’s role in the Second Intifada are slightly more important than whether or not Clinton “had sexual relations with that woman,” that’s all my generation seems to want to remember.

I do remember that after that field trip I came home and told my mom I wasn’t washing my hand for weeks. (I wanted to extend the bragging rights for having touched the president, I suppose.) Even then, at 5-years-old, he wasn’t a hero or a villain to me —he was just, in a weird way to phrase it, a well known guy — and I think for my generation the same sentiment still exists today.

Clinton After the White House

I was just a few months old when former president Bill Clinton took office in 1993 and nine years old when he left it.

I don’t remember media or press coverage of his presidency or his 1999 impeachment trial. It was only later, as I got older, that my mom told me about his political legacy and affair with Monica Lewinsky in the oval office.

My mom, who had raised me by herself and is a big believer that women should be independent and strong, was disgusted by the whole scandal. She was outraged that Hillary would stand by a husband who had cheated on her multiple times, just to “save face” and salvage political careers. In her mind, President Clinton was a liar and could never be trusted again. To my mom, his political success did not matter over his personal ethics.

I never heard any positive things about Clinton until I heard my friends’ parents talking about the way he had created a time of economic prosperity and booming business.

I never knew Clinton played the saxophone until just a few years ago. By the time I was watching MTV, Clinton was not stating whether he preferred boxers or briefs on television.

In a new four-hour PBS documentary entitled “Clinton”, the former president’s achievements, fiscal policies and scandals are highlighted through extensive interviews with people who have been close to him.

The documentary is part of a series on PBS entitled “American Experience: Presidents Series”. The writer and director, Barak Goodman, said the series focuses on Clinton’s presidential successes but also the consequences of his infidelities, according to an NPR interview.

“I feel that we had no way of avoiding that story as one of the major centerpieces of the film – it consumes most of the fourth hour because it has such long-range consequences for the country,” Goodman said.

My generation knows Clinton more for what he did after he was president. At 64 years old, he has now been out of the White House longer than he was in it.

After leaving office in 2001 Clinton founded his nonprofit organization, the William J. Clinton Foundation. It started as an initiative to provide healthcare to victims of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. Since then the foundation has expanded to include strengthening small businesses, climate change, healthy eating and education.

My age bracket knows Clinton more for these achievements than what he accomplished during his presidency.

His wife’s bid for president during the 2008 election will stand out in my generation’s mind as the first time we remember a woman being a serious contender for the highest public office. His support during her campaign was helpful, but she did not need to rely on her husband’s credentials. She had plenty of her own.

That is the most crucial change to our generation’s perception of Bill Clinton: Hillary, his wife, has become the real political powerhouse while he takes the backseat.

The Football Game that Became an Advertising Phenomena

Name the most famous Super Bowl commercials of the past five years. Who performed during half time at the past two Super Bowls? Name the winners of the past five Super Bowls. Can you only answer the first two questions accurately? Maybe you got some of the winners of the past five Super Bowls but not all of them. You are not alone if this is you.

The Super Bowl started as a sports event, but it has now turned into a major advertising event.  The Super Bowl began in 1967 and the popular advertisements began in 1970 with a Noxzema commercial. The 1970 Super Bowl set a record with a crowd of 80,562 people. According to Neilsen 111.3 million people watched this year’s game, making it one of the most watched shows in U.S. history.

Photography courtesy of footballbabble.com

Over the years the audience has grown tremendously, and the hype has drastically increased also. But is the hype really something to look forward to? The hype began with the 1970 Super Bowl and skyrocketed from there. Advertisers are paying millions of dollars to secure their advertising spot during the Super Bowl game. The hype for Super Bowl advertisements does not appear to be worth it. In 2012 Volkswagen paid NBC $3.5 million for the 30-second ad featuring a dog. This was the highest average advertisement price a network ahs ever charged. Yes, the advertisement got people talking, but Volkswagen has not seen any marked increases in sales since the advertisement aired.

Photography courtesy of superbowlforgeeks.com

Some of the advertisements were even released to media outlets prior to the Super Bowl. This year, Audi’s Vampire advertisement was previewed on morning news shows in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Even though this increased the hype for the advertisement it was quickly overshadowed after the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl half time performances have been drawing in viewers since for years. TMZ increased the hype for Madonna’s performance in 2012 by reflecting on famous performance over the years. Americans have a fascination with celebrities and musicians, and the Super Bowl latches on to the phenomena to draw in viewers. Most of the time the performances do not live up to the hype, and sometimes ruin a performer’s reputation. Remember the Janet Jackson incident back in 2004? What about M.I.A.’s explicit content during the Madonna’s 2012 performance? Just like the advertisements, half time performances get people talking, but quickly fizzle out a week after the Super Bowl.

Photography courtesy of muumuse.com

So will people keep tuning into the Super Bowl? Of course, it has become an integral part of American culture. No one wants to be uniformed about the team that won the game, the popular advertisements, and the half time performances. Despite the hype people will keep tuning in to watch the Super Bowl to be entertained. With all the serious, and sometimes tragic, events occurring around the world the Super Bowl gives Americans a chance to relax and have some fun.

The Super Bowl: A Healthy Obsession?

I have to admit, I have trouble sitting through a whole football game. Even when the Cincinnati Bengals are playing, I tend to get uninterested and often fall asleep on the couch.  I can name our quarterback and a few other major players, but definitely not the entire roster.

But the rest of my family loves football. They gather around in our basement on Sundays and cheer when we win and complain when we lose. If the game isn’t sold out and gets blacked out, my dad and my sister will find tickets last minute and head downtown to the stadium.  They are committed to the team, the players and the pride that comes with it all.  And you can find this same enthusiasm and spirit all around America.

This passion is what has made football America’s favorite pastime, a title professional baseball once held. Thirty-one percent of Americans consider professional football their favorite sport, while only 17 percent chose professional baseball, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive. And catching up to that number is the 12 percent that favor college football. So what is it about football that puts it ahead of all other sports?

Perhaps it’s the fact that a good portion of Americans have short attention spans and tend to lose focus quickly. In football, there are only 16 regular season games, whereas in baseball, there are 162 games played, not including the playoffs, and 82 games are played in the NBA. Therefore, each football game has more of an effect on the season. Each one is a bigger deal. And attending the actual game is a special occasion.

At the end of the season comes the biggest sporting event of the year. The event advertisers are willing to pay $3.5 million on for a 30 second commercial spot.  The event watched by 111.3 million people. The Super Bowl.

David Tyree #85 of the New York Giants makes a catch with Rodney Harrison #37 of the New England Patriots hanging on in Super Bowl XLII.

The first Super Bowl was held on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles memorial coliseum.  Since then, the Super Bowl has grown into a national obsession. The day extreme football fanatics wait for and plan for throughout the rest of the year. It’s no longer just about the game, it’s about the party, the food, the betting, the beer.

And this year’s Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLVI, was no exception. Held on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, the game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots became the most watched show in U.S. history. And because we have entered an increasingly digital era, the social media hype was of extreme proportion as well. There were 12,233 tweets per second during the final three minutes of the game, and 10, 245 tweets per second during the half time show, coming in second and third in Twitter’s overall history, according to International Business Times. (The first is Japan’s airing of the anime film “Castle in the Sky,” holding the record with 25,088 tweets per second.) Last year’s Super Bowl only generated a high of 4,064 tweets per second, breaking the record at that time.

Twitter experienced 12,233 tweets per second during the final three minutes of the game

This year was such a big year for tweeting in part because of the increase in tablet use over the past year. Seventy percent of iPad use occurs in front of the television, making the Super Bowl a “two screen experience.” The total social media traffic involved more than 17 million interactions, according to Trendrr.

So the question becomes, is the Super Bowl a healthy or an unhealthy obsession? Because I don’t feel strongly either way, I see both the positives and negatives to having football be such a significant part of American culture. On one hand, football gives kids role models.  Kids look up to professional athletes and strive to be like them one day, which motivates them to work hard and stay in shape.  It promotes athleticism and the importance of exercise, and inspires us to do our best, because it will pay off in a big way if we do. It shows us that there are ways to succeed outside of strictly academics, and can be a good distraction from life when we need it. Football brings families and friends together, and gives people a way to relate to one another.

But I do think some aspects of the industry have a negative effect on Americans and our society. Athletes get paid an exuberant amount — the average quarterback makes $1,970,982 a year, according to Sports Illustrated­— while teachers and educators, who have a tremendously important responsibility in this country, get paid significantly less. We show loyalty to our favorite teams, but many Americans don’t go to the polls to vote. We pay more attention to ESPN than CNN, and many people know more about their favorite football player than they do about key figures in American history. Our obsession with professional football players is comparable to our obsession with movie stars; we know a creepy amount about their lives, and we go to football stadiums and movie theaters for the same reason: entertainment.

If Americans keep in touch with what’s happening around them on a local, national and international scale, and view football and the Super Bowl as purely entertainment —a good distraction from the stresses of daily life — than I’m all in favor of the sport. And I’m excited to see how advances in technology and new social media innovations will alter how people view and talk about the biggest event of the year.

The Super Bowl…a Silly, Overpriced Entertainment

The Super Bowl…this game seems to be the most important event of the year for just about every American. The best of the best professional football teams battle it out to see who wins the AFL–NFL World Championship Game. Aside from the fact that Americans would create a “World Championship” game that only invites American teams, why is this game such a big deal to our kindergarden country?
Sports are very important in our country, and the world, however the level that people get worked up to for a game that is played by people are getting paid obnoxious amounts of money to play.
Fans at the game paid around $2000 for a “cheap” ticket while expensive tickets went for over $12000. These costs are often 10 times the face value of these tickets, however the demand is so high that costs are driven up. This, combined with the ridiculous average advertising cost of $3.5 million per 30 seconds shows that the Super Bowl is simply an insane money making ploy.
As the rest of the country is plunged in a recession, billions of dollars are sunk during this one game. While many billionaires make their money providing a valid service, professional football makes gobs of money for players and owners, yet returns nothing tangible for the viewers, aside from entertainment value that could be obtained for a great deal less money.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31751_162-57370751-10391697/super-bowl-ticket-prices-a-historical-look/

Definitely a “Super” Bowl

 

On February 5, 2012, an estimated 111 million people tuned into NBC to watch the New York Giants conquer the New England Patriots in football’s biggest game, according to Yahoo! Sports. The Super Bowl, which began in 1920, has become more than just an American football game; it has become a celebration, a call for friendly gatherings, a fierce competition, and a time to reconnect with friends and family around a television.

With a name derived from the classic college football bowl games, the Super Bowl is held annually as the final game of the National Football League playoffs. The location of the game changes annually, and this year, it was held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to an article by Mason Levinson, seats at the Feb. 5 game sold for an average of $3,664 a piece, and according to ESPN, companies paid about 3.5 million dollars for a 30 second commercial slot.

Family and friends gather across the world to watch players tackle each other and sprint to the end zone in order to gain the title of Super Bowl champion. So why is the Super Bowl such a huge event? The answer is simple, the Super Bowl is not simply a football game, it is a tradition. In my home, Super Bowl Sunday is not a day that is focused solely on football. Rather, it is a day where my mother invites the family, neighbors, and close friends to gather around our wide-screen television and cheer on a team that we may know nothing about.

In addition to a four hour football game, the Super Bowl is packed with advertisements and commercials that viewers love to watch, rate, and discuss.

In a New York Times NFL Blog, George Vecsey said, “It’s a whole separate industry, making and publicizing the commercials. Sometimes more people talk about the halftime show or the commercials than they do about the game.”

These advertisements are not only relatable, but are interesting, funny, and easy to understand. Countless men, women, and children have reiterated, “The commercials are the best part” when referring to the Super Bowl. When it comes to these advertisements, companies work all year to perfect a quick commercial looking to sell a product while simultaneously entertaining an audience.

Another huge part of the Super Bowl, the halftime show, brought in 114 million viewers this year according to an article on The Inquisitr. Madonna, style icon and performer, took the stage alongside Nicki Minaj and Cee Lo Green as both on and off screen audiences watched intently, ready to dissect the performance as soon as it ended.

This constant hype that surrounds the Super Bowl makes it a huge event for everyone, including those who do not take particular interest in football. For these reasons, the Super Bowl is not simply a game, but an event, a memory, and a reason to share conversation and laughter among friends, family and acquaintances.

The Superbowl Isn’t What it Used to Be

Many records were broken in this year’s annual NFL showdown. Tom Coughlin became the oldest coach to win a super bowl and Tom Brady set the record for most consecutive completions at 16. But the statistic that stands out most to me, has nothing to do with the player’s or the coach’s, or even the playing of the game itself. According to the New York Times,  more than 2.1 million people watched the Super Bowl online, making it the “most watched single-game sports event ever online.” What’s even more impressive about this statistic is that this was the first year that the Super Bowl had ever been streamed online or on mobile phones ever. Beginners luck perhaps?

I understand that this is a mere fraction of the more-than 160 million people that watched at least part of the game on their couch at home or in a bar, but this is more than a statistic; it’s a message. It’s a message that times are changing. The Super Bowl isn’t what it used to be, and this is just the beginning.

Aside from the rising cost of over an estimated 1 billion chicken wings and 50 million cases of beer that were bought in preparation of this year’s contest, and the growing number of viewers each year, perhaps the most interesting annual growth belongs to Super Bowl television advertisements.

1995 was the first year a  30 second Super Bowl ad cost $1 million dollars and ever since it’s risen exponentially. This year’s average ad cost was $3.5 million, half a million dollars more than last year’s cost. The cost of advertisements is outrageous and it’s getting to the point that only certain companies have the ability to afford them. Company’s featured in this year’s collection of ads include Budweiser, Coke and Doritos, all of which had multiple commercials air. But the worst part about this outrageous investment on marketing is the fact that many of these commercials were available for viewing online days before Super Bowl Sunday. Analysts claim that by letting the audience know what to expect ahead of time, they won’t be disappointed by the premier. But if these renowned marketing companies are doubting themselves, why are they paying $3.5 million dollars for an ad? And if these companies can’t capitalize on selling of beer and fast cars during the Super Bowl, who can? and by what means must they be sold? It’s sad that as “important” and expensive as these ads are, they can be seen online for free before the kickoff.

So what do I think about the Super Bowl? and what does all of this mean? I think that just like everything else, it is being influenced by society’s ever-changing shift in technology and media outlets. The emphasis on meeting the demand of the online audience is clear, and it’s just getting started. Consider how the Super Bowl will be viewed 10 years from now; will anyone be watching it via their cable provider?

Just as beer and advertisements become integral to the Super Bowl experience, the internet is now important, using social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to provide fans with a more interactive experience, rather than merely viewing the game. The Super Bowl is a conglomeration of contemporary media, colliding and reflecting on what has become important since last season, and what trends and records will be next years responsibility.

The real price of the Super Bowl

Food. Money. And sports. Three things the quintessential American can’t seem to live without. Make the food junky, beefy, cheesy, chippy, and dipppy, and serve it with beer. Use the money to bet on a favored team, purchase an overpriced jersey imprinted with the name of a man you’ve never met, or, for the diehard fans, give an arm and both legs for a ticket to a game priced so high you could alternatively buy one, two, or three brand new Macintosh laptops, or even a place ticket to the foreign destination on your choice. Make that sport football and make that game the Super Bowl and now you’ve entered into a realm beyond all reason, rhyme and rationality.

Now, before I delve further, I would like to here insert my value and appreciation for sports on a recreational level. I think that playing a sport as a child is a positive outlet for movement and exercise that provides team-building and friendship connections as children are taught the value of practice and determination, how to cope with losing and how to be humble when winning. Sports can be a great way for youth to stay active and out of trouble. Sports can also be entertaining for those on the other side of the sideline. Games can be fun events to attend and can provide a sense of community for those involved and invested in a certain team. But there comes a point where all the good slips out of importance and innate competitive nature brings out the bad, the ugly and the unreasonable.

After the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday, Vancouver fans took to the streets and rioted.

What gets me is how completely crazy people get over a sport. Even without a direct connection to a team, fans fight and bicker nastily even with people they consider a friend. People even go so far as to start riots, causing violence and hurting innocent people, completely ruining what could be good fun. After the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011, Canucks fans broke out in violent riots across Vancouver, flipping and burning cars essentially lighting the city on fire, as mentioned in this Sports Illustrated article. This kind of behavior is very common in relation to sporting events, and can commonly be attributed to drunken, impassioned fans getting carried away in the emotion of the massive crowd via cheering, booing, yelling, and so on. After the 2012 Super Bowl, a riot broke out on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst after the New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants, in which no one was hurt though 14 were arrested, according to this Huffington Post article. In a Bleacher Report article after the riot, a featured columnist made a point I find hard to dispute, saying, “There is no reason to resort to public damage over a game played by millionaires that are, for all intents and purposes, strangers.”

Then comes the economics of it all. Aside from the fact that football players are given one of the heftiest salaries around (get the facts here from USA Today), averaging over $1 million per player, per team, per year, the Super Bowl itself is a multi-million dollar production (for just one singular game). To put on such a grandiose spectacular once a year, taking into account the halftime show (from the set to the technicians to the high-profile artists), the cost of a television commercial during the game and the price of the tickets for fans is no low-budget affair. The halftime show, which alone costs millions to stage and employ, is oddly one of the most anticipated events of the year, even for those generally apathetic to the game or the two competing teams.

Each year, something racy just so happens to occur, pulling more viewers the next year anticipating another wardrobe malfunction (see Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake 2004 halftime fiasco) or something else provocative or shocking. This year, over 111 million viewers (see this Reuters article) tuned in to see what they would get with performances from Madonna, Nikci Minaj and M.I.A., the latter of whom pulled her middle finger out after making what could have been construed as threatening, if someone were to read too far into the pop-performance. And that may have been the highlight (besides witnessing how unbelievably young Madonna looks for her age – is she frozen in time? Always a mystery she will be) of, yet again, a not so wonderful spectacle. Big moves and high-ticket tricks and visuals do not always compensate for the quality (or lack there of) in performance.

The much-anticipated commercials is another source of viewer attention, even for those perhaps indifferent to what happens on the field, this year averaged $3.5 million for a 30 second time slot, though many sources cite great underwhelm from the viewers, according to this ESPN article. How is that worth it then? How is all of this money spent justified and accepted? I can’t swallow it. Not when there are so many other facets in our society getting economically stiffed on salaries and funding, which a fraction of just one NFL player’s annual income or the price of one second of commercial time during the Super Bowl could remedy.

I get that the game is something a lot of (probably) perfectly nice people look forward to, and I can understand the excitement to an extent. In fact, when the Saints made it to Super Bowl XLIV in 2010, I myself, not even a football fan, followed their success and rooted for what many would consider my “home team.” It was interesting and great for New Orleans, who had suffered a huge morale blow in the years following Katrina. So like I said, I can sympathize with the fun of it for fans. But at the end of the day, the monetary aspect and the unruly behavior and attitudes of the masses just makes it all too much.

Super Bowl Takes Entertainment to a Whole New Level

The first Super Bowl occurred in 1967 and attracted just over 24 million viewers. Most recently, 111.3 million Americans watched the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. The event’s rapid growth in popularity has made it the most watched television program in history. Though I look forward to the watching the Super Bowl every year, I can’t help but wonder what exactly it is that draws the attention of such an enormous crowd.

The History of Football

Some may argue that football is America’s most beloved sport. Football dates as far back as 1865 when it got picked up by several colleges as a game slightly different from rugby. In 1879, a player and coach at Yale University known as Walter Camp decided to establish a set of rules that would legitimize American football and separate the sport entirely from rugby. The first professional football game took place in 1895 between a team representing Latrobe, Pennsylvania and a team from Jeanette, Pennsylvania. The first league of professional football teams formed in 1920 and was named the American Professional Football Association.  In 1922, the League was re-named the National Football League (NFL). The American Football Conference (AFC) was started in 1946 to rival the NFL. CBS began broadcasting professional football games in 1956 and soon after Americans were hooked.

America’s Sport

Soccer is the most popular sport worldwide; however, the United States pays more attention to football. Because football (unlike soccer) originated in America, many see it as a symbol of American culture. We take pride in having a sport to call our own and therefore support it heavily. The development of hometown teams increased America’s passion for football even more. People were given the opportunity to cheer for a team that represents their state. This gave people a sense of belonging and football became apart of their identity. Personally, I was raised in South Carolina and am a die-hard Carolina Panthers fan. Some of my favorite child hood memories come from watching the Panthers play every Sunday with my family.

The Halftime Show

If the game doesn’t excite people enough to watch the Super Bowl, then the half time show will.  Until the 1990’s, the Halftime show mainly featured high school and collegiate marching bands. For the past two decades the Super Bowl half time show has used well-known modern and contemporary artists as its performers. The half time show raises the Super Bowl to a whole new level of entertainment. Sometimes I find it hard to celebrate the Super Bowl festivities when the team I have followed the entire season isn’t playing, but the halftime show keeps me tuning in to the Super Bowl when my Carolina Panthers disappoint. Each year the halftime show gets bigger and better, which keeps viewers anticipating what’s going to happen. This year Madonna impressed people with her ancient Rome inspired performance. The performance included acrobatics, artistic light displays, and extreme wardrobe choices that had the audience glued to the screen.

The Commercials

The Super Bowl being the most watched televised event makes it prime time for advertisers. A company must pay $3.5 million to obtain a 30- second commercial during the Super Bowl. The biggest Super Bowl ad spenders are General Motors ($83 million), PepsiCo ($174 million), and Anheuser-Busch ($239 million).  Companies want to make the best of their investment by producing a commercial that will grab the viewer’s attention. Super Bowl commercials have the reputation of being over the top and hilarious for this very reason. When the game get’s too intense, the commercials are right there to lighten the mood. Ultimately, the commercials maintain the audience’s interest even when the game isn’t on.

Millions of Americans are compelled to watch the Super Bowl every year because it brings people together. It has become embedded in our lives. The thrill of the competition combined with entertainment from the halftime show and commercials make a recipe for greatness. Football fan or not, the Super Bowl is a celebration people just don’t want to miss.