Super Bowl Sunday turned out to be a bye week for on-field protests, with none of the players kneeling or raising a fist during the national anthem, allowing the NFL’s biggest day to unfold without the season’s most polarizing issue at center stage. The absence of protests before the game pleased some fans, who either saw the kneeling players as being disrespectful to the flag and the military, or were simply sick of the season-long rancor over the protests over racial injustice. “I’m glad they stood for the anthem. It’s not appropriate,” said Kelly Erickson, an Eagles fan from Philadelphia who watched the singer Pink perform the Star Spangled banner without incident at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump, for one, has been a harsh critic of the pre-game gesture, heaping scorn on the protesting players and the league for allowing them to go unpunished. But demonstrators who gathered outside the stadium had hoped some players would carry on with protests that began in 2016 with former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick and were joined by dozens of players around the league this season. “All eyes are here,” said Mel Reeves, a Minneapolis civil rights activist who organized a two-day “Take a Knee” conference that culminated in the rally. “When the players are doing it, people have to pay attention to the issue.” The wave of protests started to fizzle late in the season when the National Football League said it would donate $89 million over seven years… [Read full story]
The Super Bowl halftime show and a performance during the music industry's annual Grammy Awards are once again the top venues to maximize a musician's exposure to consumers, the trade publication Billboard said on Friday. The National Football League's February Super Bowl, which draws more than 100 million TV viewers, ranked first in the annual list followed by the Grammy show, music's biggest night, which features several performances by top music acts. The magazine's list of the 75 most effective promotional outlets for exposure for singers and artists will be available on newsstands on Monday. Billboard compiled the "Maximum Exposure"…... [read more]
Photo: AFP "The Wonderful Pistachios brand is fun, just like me," Psy said Wednesday by way of a press release from Paramount Farms, which owns the upmarket California snack label. "Also, I love pistachios and I look good in green." It will be Wonderful Pistachios' first spot ever during the Super Bowl, the annual American football classic, set for February 3 this year, that is also the most coveted showcase for commercials on US television. Psy made Internet history shortly before Christmas when "Gangnam Style" -- featuring his signature horse-riding dance -- clocked more than one billion views on YouTube.…... [read more]
The New Orleans Saints have won Super Bowl XLIV. They beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 here at Sun Life Stadium in South Florida. Saints quarterback Drew Brees was 32-of-39 for 288 yards and two touchdowns. But it was the big 75-yard interception return for a touchdown by cornerback Tracy Porter that sealed the deal. "I studied and knew their tendencies," Porter said. "I just jumped around and the ball went right into my hands." Porter's teammate Darren Sharper, who was on the Green Bay Packers as a rookie when they lost to Denver, said this was a game that nobody…... [read more]
Apple now lets developers create vanity domains in its long-held AppStore.com domain as a way to jump quickly to apps. We find this out in a "Star Trek: Into Darkness" ad. Apple may not have its own Super Bowl ad today, but the company quietly launched a new product effort during someone else's ad spot. At the end of the commercial for the upcoming "Star Trek: Into Darkness" film, Paramount flashed a quick promotion for its iOS app, complete with an AppStore.com link that takes people right to it. In function it's identical to what Apple already uses through its…... [read more]
Ford Motor Co. on Monday blasted General Motors over a snarky advertisement for GM trucks run during the Super Bowl broadcast, but stopped short of taking any kind of legal action. "Where's Dave?" asked one of the survivors. "Dave didn't drive the longest-lasting, most dependable truck on the road. Dave drove a Ford," replied his friend. Ford had sought to block the ad before Sunday's broadcast of the US football championship game, which drew 111.3 million viewers across the country. But GM went ahead, and the spot, based on ostensible Mayan forecasts of a 2012 apocalypse, became one of the…... [read more]
