THE NEWS HACK'S CREED:
I know more than you.
I make lots more money than you.
I'm smarter than you.
I'm sexier than you.
I appear on TV all the time.
I work ten minutes a day.
I rule the universe.
I'm going to live forever.
You are an idiot.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 2:
A lie isn't a lie when it tells THE TRUTH.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 3:
I've come to realize that the looseness of the journalistic life, the seeming laxity of the newsroom, is an illusion. Yes, there's informality and there's humor, but beneath the surface lies something deadly serious. It is a code. Sometimes the code is not even written down, but it is deeply believed in. And, when violated, it is enforced with tribal ferocity.
--JOHN "OMERTA" CARROLL.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 4:
News isn't news when we don't report it.
PERMALINKS:
THE NEWS HACKS' DICTIONARY
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[O]ver the years, while many of the games were lacking, the ads weren't. For several years, the ads were more memorable than the game. [Which took MadAve GENIUS! --ED.] People started to pay more attention to the ads, anticipating what clever idea might come next.
The press picked up on this, writing stories about which advertisers would be in the Super Bowl, which ones were out, and what they were spending. They previewed the ads, reported on "banned" ads, wrote stories about the best and worst ads, and have now set up on-line ratings that are published the day after the game.
Ah, the ratings. It's the ratings that have ruined Super Bowl ads.
TRANSLATION: Blame GanNETt. That jernalistic super-RealTOR perfected the art of ranking Super Bowl ads. It can't report to save its hide but it can rank Super Bowl ads.
Because of the attention to the ratings, Super Bowl ads are now dangerously close to a series of Saturday Night Live skits, designed to bombastically amuse the viewer. While I would admit that an ad's biggest crime may be to be forgotten, Super Bowl ads have become a contest where each competitor sees who can out-gross, out-animal-talk or out-uncomfortable-body-part the next ad. The hype and ratings have continued to erode the quality and integrity of ideas.
What's the remedy?
Ignore the ratings. Avoid the clichés.
BOLD THINKING!!!!!
Resist using talking babies, cute animals and crotch shots -- well, unless you're selling diapers, pet food or jock straps.
Go back to listening to consumers [?????????? --ED.] before the Super Bowl.
Okay guy, since you seem to think big business listens, if I could talk to a high-mucky-muck Super Bowl-enabling consumer-products CEO I'd say, "Hey moron, you spent zillions of our money on offensive ads so you can hector the help for years boasting that you were in a luxury box at the Super Bowl. I hate you for other reasons but this makes my esteem for you subterranean. Please build yourself a rocket to Mars and GET LOST! You sponsor the Super Bowl so you can AFFORD it."