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A Super Social Media Weekend

For those of you not aware, after my last blog I jumped on the proverbial bandwagon and joined Twitter.  For anyone interested, you can follow me at @seewhatyoumeme. 

Apparently, Don Draper now follows me on Twitter.  That, my friends, is worth the price of admission. 

So far, I'm diggin' the tweetin'.  The different news feed format takes some getting used to when you've been accustomed to Facebook but now I'm learning a whole new vocabulary.  Hashtags.  Retweets. Tiny urls.  Enough to make your head spin.  It's all a necessary step in my plot for world domination.  More about Twitter in a minute.  But first...

...speaking of Facebook, we watched The Social Network on Saturday night. I found the whole story incredibly compelling and the spitfire dialogue hearkened Aaron Sorkin faves The West Wing, Sports Night, and Studio 60.  Yes, I know.  Studio 60 was cancelled after 1 season.  I still liked it.  Say what you will about his personal life but Sorkin is an emperor of dialogue.  I'm still not sure how much of the Zuckerberg character in the movie is true-to-life, but between this movie and the Time magazine Person-of-the-Year article, I find him incredibly intriguing. If you're trudging through your Academy Award to-watch list, make sure you check this one out.

Then came Super Bowl Sunday.  If the aliens invaded tomorrow and we needed to educate them on our culture, one might say that Super Bowl Sunday is our national holiday dedicated to:
A) Eat and drink to excess
B) Watch football
C) Watch commercials
D) All of the above

Some might confuse (A) with Thanksgiving (well, really, just about any national holiday.  That's what Americans do).  Others may mistake (B) for New Years Day but there is no question that this is the one day that we put Madison Avenue under the microscope.  For over a week, our media outlets have been buzzing about one thing: The COMMERCIALS.  We analyze them, we discuss the most historic/best commercials of all time.  We preview commercials on YouTube before they actually air.  Then we re-watch them on YouTube...and analyze...and discuss.  Did you know that there was a sporting event connected with all of these advertisments?  News to me.


Roger and "Monkey Butt" cheer on the Pack
I spent my Super Bowl evening immersed in the experience.  Roger is an ardent Green Bay fan so we had extra reason to cheer this year (Go PACKERS!).  We had snacks aplenty and beer in the fridge so I settled in to watch the Super Bowl...on Twitter. I was completely amused by the ongoing commentary that seemed to revolve around everything except the actual game (with the exception of the occasional touchdown tweet: #GoPackGo!).  There were tweets about the ads, the National Anthem, the halftime show, and the fans watching the game in their luxury boxes ("How's that popcorn, A-Rod?").  

Overall, I found the general quality of the commercials to be so-so or mildly amusing.  While some of the commercials did invoke a giggle or two, I did find it more than a little disturbing to see how many commercials aired before 9 PM that probably should have had a PG-13 rating attached.  I'm no prude but I know that families want to make the Super Bowl a family friendly event.  One friend commented that her five-year-old wanted to know, "What's a rack?" after the Teleflora commercial and I was pretty surprised to hear an obvious "DAMN" from Eminem during the Brisk Tea  ad.  These both aired at about 7 PM.  Frankly, I found those more "offensive" than the Groupon ads. 

So let's talk about those Groupon ads.  The one getting the most buzz is the one about Tibet but there were actually three commercials:



Save the RainforestSave the Whales

Save Tibet

These ads were brilliant!  [Kudos to GENIUS director Christopher Guest] First of all, they were a tongue-in-cheek parody on every sappy, tug-at-your-heart, celebrity spokesperson PSA ever created.  They featured the product brilliantly and (best of all), everyone's talking about it.  Groupon has been featured in every media outlet for the last 24 hours and those ads are getting viewed constantly on YouTube.  I find it interesting that people raised such a fuss over the Tibet commercial when the other two (save the rainforest and save the whales) didn't really get people riled.  I guess the suffering of whales and our ecosystem are ok but the Tibetans just struck a nerve. 

For runners up I give props to the Living Social ad with the surprise ending and the much touted VW Force commercial.  Both were super cute, appealed to a wide demographic, and left you not only giggling but also thinking about the product they promoted. 

I think @DonDraper would be pleased. 









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