For many years, the NFL Super Bowl Sunday has been an American institution in more ways than one. Will the current economic recession be its downfall?
By: Ringo Bones
More than just an end-of-season finale for the NFL, the American Super Bowl Sunday has for years been a magnet for multi-million dollar 30-second advertising slots. But the slow inexorable creep of the on-going global recession began to manifest itself in America in a dramatic way during the second half of 2008 via layoffs and stock market free-fall. Will this inevitably ruin the 2009 Super Bowl XLIII?
Big-time sports advertising in America has always been about profits and ease of moneymaking. When the crude oil tycoon J. Paul Getty started the cable-based sports channel ESPN, you can be sure that he’s not doing it for humanitarian reasons. Given that the “R” word – that is recession – has already behaving like Frankenstein’s monster set loose on an unsuspecting public, will it eventually take down one of the most hallowed American of institutions – that is the Super Bowl Sunday?
The on-going global economic downturn has finally make itself felt on American soil when a week before Super Bowl Sunday – the 2009 Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida. According to NBC there are still four 30-second advertising slots that remained vacant. Whereas in the past, 30-second advertising slots – despite costing millions of dollars – are snapped up by interested parties as soon as they are made available. Does the vacant advertising slots point out – especially during the Super Bowl – that America is now indeed in a deep recession?
In spite of all the doom and gloom, the hallowed institution of the American Super Bowl Sunday still managed to provide a refuge for die hard fans to forget, just for a moment at least, the on-going global economic downturn. If Americans still manage to have a good time in spite of a “relatively austere” Super Bowl – in advertising terms at least. Then, the Super Bowl, together with the die-hard fans, can safely manage to hold on for things to get better – even though it means spending more money.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
