Is the Super Bowl Still About Football?

Going about my pre-commute morning routine – scanning Twitter, Huffington Post and the like, while watching local news and “Good Morning America” – it hit me that the Super Bowl has become much more than football. It makes me think of how Christmas has become more than just Christ’s birthday.

The news was loaded with stories about the Super Bowl, but not one story mentioned the teams playing. Instead, I heard a ton about Coldplay and how Beyoncé is making a Bollywood-Style appearance in their new video. “Will she show up like that at the Super Bowl?” one of the show hosts asked. Then it was on to the advertising. Death Wish Coffee had beat out 15,000 (!) other small businesses in the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Big Game contest. As the winner, Death Wish Coffee will get an all-expenses-paid ad to air during the Super Bowl. Value? $5 million.

As a communications professional, this heated things up for me. Not just because it was about coffee, but I really liked the way Intuit QuickBooks gave up its own ad time to this small business. According to CBSsports.com, over 114 million viewers tuned into Super Bowl XLIX (last year’s game), making it the most-watched television show in U.S. history. That said, did QuickBooks make the right decision in executing this marketing strategy? One might say, yes, as it’s gotten a lot of news coverage so far. But coverage I came across mentioned the contest and the winner, but omitted the contest’s host. A potential big miss.

I digress, but with intent. The second-most-talked about topic related to the Super Bowl is the advertising. For me it started this week when I stumbled across some content online from Bud Light. With a dash of genius, Bud Light launched its commercial last week with this preview, starring Seth Rogan and Amy Schumer. With the audience numbers I outlined above, it’s every company’s dream to have a Super Bowl advertisement. Moreover, it’s one of the only times people don’t fast forward over commercials. These commercials have been legendary. People vote on them the next day, they’re shared via social media, and are topics of water cooler conversations. In my industry (marketing/communications) we have tons of conversations over what we liked best and so on. However, it is not just my industry. I’ve had the same discussions with my friends who are teachers and lawyers. Some of them knew more about the commercials and the half-time show than they did about the game—which gets closer to my point.

Before I get there though, there was another can’t-live-without Super Bowl topic. No, it wasn’t about whether this would be Peyton Manning’s last game – unless you were watching ESPN (which I had to do after a while). The topic was Super Bowl parties, everything from what to eat, to what to drink to how, to decorate your house. This doesn’t surprise me. I know as a marketer when you have these major events, it’s paramount to come up with creative ways to insert brands into the current conversation. What better way to get our clients in front of their target consumers than by leveraging one of the greatest “holidays” of the year.

Actually the sports fan in me is annoyed by the nonsense surrounding the Super Bowl. It feels good to get that off my chest. I’m a football fan, and I want to watch the game and hear about the players, coaches and strategies. My team sadly isn’t in the Super Bowl this year, but the game is what I appreciate and want to watch. I really don’t care about the half time show, what food is being served or what commercials are being played. I still take my bathroom break then or look at my phone. I’m there to watch the game.

So I’m torn. I work in an industry where the advertising and promotions around this major event are important to my clients. It makes sense. It’s smart. In the past, I have helped many of my clients come up with some of the greatest promotions around the Super Bowl. I get it. Truth is, the Super Bowl has become bigger than football. I’ll admit it.

This time, though, the game will win out – at least for me. This year is all about football and football alone. I am moving beyond the hype, and asking all other true fans to unite and pledge to watch the Super Bowl because you love football and nothing more.