The Online Photographer

That was truly the most entertaining Super Bowl in a very long time, maybe ever.

Not the best-played game; how do two teams get that far without either one of them having defenses? It defies conventional wisdom, as well as logic. Still, it made for great entertainment.

The underdog won, the play of the evening was a super-slick trick that came off neat as you please, and the champs went down setting records as they went. Can't beat that.

Now, the NFC East doesn't have Philly to kick around any more, Dick Vermeil has finally been avenged (he took the Eagles to their first Superbowl and lost, for those who don't remember or never knew), and the city of Philadelphia actually has sports heroes who aren't fictional. Previously, the city's greatest sports triumph was a movie character named "Rocky," lovingly commemorated in the city's most famous sports-related public statue. (In the movie, Rocky trains on the steps of the Museum and has a triumphal moment alone at the top when he realizes that yes, he can do it.)

Philly fans went kinda crazy afterward—as usually happens in cities where they're not sure they'll ever get to celebrate again. If Boston had won, there would have been a hundred people dressed in cozy mufflers in Harvard Square sipping hot cocoa and high-fiving each other.

I hope you Philly photographers got out and exercised your cameras' awesome high-ISO capabilities. When the Redskins won—back in the quaint bygone era of telephones tethered to the wall, film cameras, and liberal democracy—I will admit that I failed miserably to get one good picture of the night-of celebrations.

I have to say that for someone who doesn't own a television (I watched the game online), an abrupt three-hour-plus immersion into television culture was as much a shock to the system as a "polar bear" jump into the waters of a freezing lake. The strange fantastical flurry of bombast, jingoism and marketing manipulation was relentless and exhausting. As far as the commercials were concerned, Dodge got added to my list of "never patronize no matter what" companies for their misappropriation of Dr. King. But not because it was breathtakingly cynical—that's common enough—only because it was breathtakingly clueless. In a sea of tastelessness, it's truly tough to rise above the waves, but Dodge sure did it. Anyway, it's not significant—Dodge was already on my Never Patronize No Matter What list, on account of the fact that I once owned a Dodge.

By this time next year, we will all be asking each other, "who won last year, again?" But it was great fun. The Great Annual American Hooligan Holiday came off in high style.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Henry Heerschap: "My first new car was a '78 Dodge Omni, perhaps one of the ten or so worst cars ever made in the US. It had a similar effect on my future buying habits. One of my kids got given a PT Cruiser by my dad and I had similar thoughts, though I really liked the interior layout of that car. Anyway, we've been Mopar-free ever since. Anyway, when I saw the MLK Ram ad, I sat there with my jaw dropping several inches. I suspect some heads are rolling this morning."

Mike replies: One can hope.

My Dodge experience was a Neon Sport, which was a fun and fast car when it was new. However, after six months it was two years old, and by the time three years had gone by it was 15 years old. There are good reasons why you almost never see a Neon (1995–2005) on the road today—they aged in dog years.

Sal Santamaura: "For anyone who finds this entire subject utterly uninteresting, watch the video of last evening's (February 2, 2018) Jeopardy! game. I'd fit right in with those three contestants.  :-)  "

Mike replies: That's hilarious. Like Jaywalking for bookish types. Thanks for the link. (By the way, I knew all five answers.)

psu (partial comment): "I think the lesson of the last three Patriots Superbowls is how thin the margins are between a win and a loss and how densely those margins are populated with luck."

Bob Cook: "It's not often that I agree with you about things social, but your comments on the Dodge commercial are pointedly accurate."

Mike replies: It's good to have someone who doesn't agree with me agree with me.

Stephen F Faust: "Re 'I hope you Philly photographers got out and exercised your cameras' awesome high-ISO capabilities': Yep, and the celebrations were a street photographer's paradise!"

Dave Jenkins: "I didn't watch the game, (although I was pulling for the Patriots) so didn't see the commercial. Sounds as if it was in pretty poor taste. I will, however, speak up on behalf of Dodge automobiles. I'm sorry yours did not serve you well, but we have had terrific service from ours. In 2003, we bought a Grand Caravan which my wife drove until 2008. At that time, we bought a 2007 Grand Caravan for her to drive and I inherited the older one. Last year I sold it with 245,000 miles on the odometer and still running great, because we had bought a Chrysler Town & Country for my wife. So I'm now driving the 2007, which currently registers 207,000 miles and which I plan to drive for several more years. These Dodges have been wonderful cars for us, and we don't baby them."

John Camp: "The thing about the Dodge advertisement was that you started out being only moderately embarrassed, but your embarrassment deepened the longer it went on.... But I looked at it again this morning and found nothing objectionable about the images, and if you close your eyes and only listen to the words, no problem there, either. I think it was the idea of using the speech to make a buck that did the damage."

Mike replies: Perhaps "The issue is not so much who owns King's intellectual property but the uses to which it is put. The estate sometimes seems more inclined to go for the commercial main chance than to get King's words and thoughts disseminated in an appropriate context."

The words are by a writer named Michael Hiltzik, in an article on the LA Times website called "That Dodge trucks Super Bowl ad shows it's time to loosen the King family's grip on MLK's legacy," a web page so occluded and confused with ads—including one for a competing brand of pickup truck—that I had trouble reading the article.

The article notes that the Ram truck ad "...was seen as a landmark in crassness. That was true not least because in the speech excerpted for the ad, a 1968 sermon entitled "The Drum Major Instinct," King spends some considerable time excoriating the advertiser-driven quest for material acquisitions, including cars."

(From the sermon, via kingcenter.org)

Mark Roberts: "Someone's re-edited that Dodge commercial using a different portion of that same MLK speech. The effect is profound."

Steve Jacob: "An old friend of mine has worked as a marketing and branding consultant for several major companies over the years. She defines the habit of swamping consumers with ads as 'dead-horse marketing.' For many brands, dead-horse marketing is counter-productive. Consumers frequently boycott brands that interrupt movies, games, YouTube, or other passive pastimes. Many brands haven't got the message yet. When they do, it will be the end of commercial TV. Unfortunately, it also means more sport will only be available live on pay-per-view or subscription."

anthony reczek: "I watched (as much for the commercials as anything and for the first time this season), and made it through the first half. I had a different response to the Dodge Ram ad—it was wonderful to hear Dr. King's voice and words, like a breath of fresh air in the ad wasteland. The ad itself would have been much more effective if the creators weren't so ham-handed in trying to connect it to their product; a five-second photo and voiceover 'brought to you by...' at the very end would have sufficed. Full disclosure: probably will never buy a Dodge Ram truck (also don't eat Doritos, or drink Pepsi or Bud Light etc., etc.)."

Mike replies: You know, you're absolutely right. A simple "brought to you by" approach would have ennobled the company and earned gratefulness from hearers. It would also have opened King's spoken words up to multiple interpretations for different groups of people—specifically relating to the kneeling protests by black players earlier in the season. People would probably be praising Dodge on the morning after if its agency had taken that approach.

Good on you for imagining that.