A Big Beautiful Door

There certainly seemed to be a great divide between the political landscape in Washington D.C. and that of Corporate America last night at the Super Bowl. Both major US political parties have spent the last couple of weeks pointing out what divides us, both in this country and around the world. Last night corporate America fought back with a number of commercials.

The first that comes to mind was the Coke commercial that showed people from various cultures singing “America the Beautiful” in a number of languages.

Airbnb is being sued for discriminating against African-Americans and violating the Fair Housing Act. They countered with their “We Accept” ad.

Earlier this year Anheuser Busch started to print “America” on its labels instead of Budweiser. They also included phrases such as "E Pluribus Unum" and "indivisible since 1776." The only problem with that is due to the incompetence of Bud’s management team they sold out to, a Belgium company InBev years ago. Here is their take on immigration.

If that was too subtle for you 84 Lumber of all companies made an advertisement that even in this atmosphere was deemed too controversial by the Fox network. Fox rejected the original cut of the ad that featured a wall that blocked people seeking work in the United States. The 90 second advertisement that did air pointed people to 84 Lumber’s website. Of course the website immediately crashed. I went to YouTube and saw the full version. When I woke up the next morning it had over 2 million views. This ad was not something casually dreamed up by the ad agency of 84. It was a specific decision made by the owner of the company who is a Trump supporter.

In a statement, 84 Lumber’s president and owner, Maggie Hardy Magerko, said: “Even President Trump has said there should be a ‘big beautiful door in the wall so that people can come into this country legally.’ It’s not about the wall. It’s about the door in the wall. If people are willing to work hard and make this country better, that door should be open to them."

You can read more about the controversial ad here.
What was your favorite Super Bowl Ad? Post a link in the comments section below.

Wait a Minute

Can I have a minute of your time? That will cost you close to 10 million dollars. I am not a math major, but at nearly 5 million for thirty seconds of time during Super Bowl 50, that adds up to almost $10,000,000 a minute. What does that mean? It means you and your eyeballs are valuable. Without you watching the Super Bowl the advertisers would not be paying that exorbitant sum for access to your hard earned money. Even if the networks are lying about how much money they get, (why would television lie to you) there is still an enormous amount of time, money and energy involved in getting at your wallet or purse. Let’s say CBS gets as little as 4 million per thirty second advetisment. By my count there were 82 ads in the last Super Bowl. That adds up to almost one quarter of a billion dollars, or enough money to buy 1,217 average houses in Frederick County, Maryland.

With all that money spent did it have any effect? Are you going out to buy that Audi R8 Coupe for $115,000? Me, I’m a sucker for Christopher Walken, and I always wanted a Walken Closet, so I guess it’s the $21,000 Kia Optima for me.

Can I have a minute of your time? It will only cost you seven to eight million dollars. That’s about how much a minute of ad time will cost for this year’s Super Bowl on CBS. What are advertisers really paying for? They are paying for the path to over 100 million bank accounts. Is it worth it? I think in most cases it is not. I’ll ask people what their favorite ad was, and they’ll describe the spot to me in detail. I’ll ask them to name the product the advertisement was for and they will draw a blank. In reaching young adults, (read – people with money to spend) social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter may be more viable options. I’ll leave you with one final question – What’s your favorite Super Bowl Ad? Here’s one of mine.

Sports Fun

Had enough culture for the day? Good, let's have some fun. Here are 32 Great Calls. No, not blown calls by the referee. Great calls by announcers covering some of the most memorable sporting events of the last 60 years. Some of the clips I've seen many times before, but check out number 6 Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes in 1973. I don't even care about horses, but I know greatness when I see it. The other clip not to be missed is number  7, Victor Hugo Morales on the greatest goal of all time, Diego Maradona’s second goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. You don't have to love soccer to enjoy this one, trust me. What's your favorite clip?

In the Heat of the Marketplace, Media Conglomerates

With the economy swirling away down the toilet, Iran enriching uranium to 20% and the nation surrounded by terrorists, perhaps news of yet another media merger does not do enough to pin the fear meter to make it to the top of the news cycle. One of my favorite media critics thinks differently though. Lisa de Moraes, who writes ”The TV Column” for the Washington Post, took on the exciting job of covering a Senate subcommittee hearing on the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC. Yes that is correct; the cable delivery system wants to be your primary content provider. What could go wrong? You can learn more on Ms. Moraes' take on the proposed merger.

My favorite part is when Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says with a straight face, “Our success will stimulate our competitors to be more innovative, too. So this joint venture should be good for consumers, innovation and competition”. Translated from CEO to English that reads - “by buying out our competitors we hope to make even more money, forcing the other media moguls to do the same and leaving the consumer with even fewer choices.”


Wasn't this all settled by the Paramount decision of 1948, when the United States Supreme Court declared it illegal for movie studios to own the theaters in which the movies that they produced were shown?

Who Owns our Media? Why Should You Care?

On January 29th, 2010 ABC World News chose Steve Jobs as its "Person of the Week" presumably for the introduction of the iPad. What's wrong with this picture you might ask? Here is a short answer to that complex question. ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The largest shareholder of the Walt Disney Company is (wait for it) Steve Jobs, this week's "Person of the Week". Talk about brown nosing your boss. Couldn't you just buy the donuts at the next staff meeting? Don't get me wrong, Steve Jobs is amazing with couple of career's worth of highlights. The question is not "Is Steve Jobs' Life amazing?" Instead the question I would like to ask is - "Does Disney's ownership of ABC News affect the content of ABC News?" I have my answer, what's yours?
Here is the ABC "Person of the Week" story on Steve Jobs -
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/abcs-world-news-diane-sawyer-person-week-steve/story?id=9699563

By way of contrast, here is the NBC Nightly News story run the same days as the Jobs story. NBC calls their segment "Making a Difference." NBC chose not to profile their largest shareholder, but instead did a profile on an ER nurse helping the relief effort in Haiti. Her name is
Gabby McAdoo.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tom Shales on the Muck and Mire at NBC

When I was a young lad growing up watching the world in black and white on the RCA console TV, there aired a poor man's version of Abbott and Costello. The show was called "Mack and Myer for Hire". Now as the NBC television Network settles into the "Muck and Mire" of its own design, NBC threatens to become a poor man's version of a television network.

Read what my favorite television critic, (Tom Shales) has to say about NBC by clicking on his name at the top of the post.