Nick Hickman
The decorations are up and the festivities are well in the works, for this Sunday, our Nation’s baby turns fifty.
Her roots can be traced back to the beautiful union between the AFL and the NFL in 1966. What soon came to be known as the Super Bowl was born out of a desire to crown a single champion between two unaffiliated leagues both competing for the spotlight.
Now, she owns an unofficial annual holiday at the beginning of every February. She is unmatched and untouchable. She is achievement personified, but is just as prosperous as she is cultural. In only fifty years time, she has infiltrated America’s bloodstream, pulsing and ripping through our veins as often as the air we breath.
Admit it, we’re hooked. We’re all addicted. Last year, a record 114.4 million people tuned in to watch Brady and the Patriots capture Super Bowl XLIX. There are approximately 111.1 million people living in Spain and the U.K. combined.
Aside from Super Bowl Sunday, only Thanksgiving can boast a higher statistical consumption of food.
The Super Bowl of two seasons ago between the Denver Broncos—who will compete again this year—and the Seattle Seahawks drew a record $119 million bet in Las Vegas casinos. It’s a sport played and adored by only one country in the world, but as American’s, we’re obsessed.
And part of the absurdity is that we’re all obsessed for different reasons. Sure, it’s likely that the large majority of viewers will watch for the sheer competition of the game, but many will be enticed by the halftime show and even Grandma and great-aunt Alice will tune in just to watch the commercials.
Usually we pay for clever tools to help us avoid commercials, but on Super Bowl Sunday, advertising brands will be competing nearly as hard as the athletes to capture your attention.
Though who can fault them? The rationale is simple. Say, for example, that just 5% of all viewers are motivated by an advertisement, spurring them to vote with their dollar. The resulting translation is an additional 5,720,000 customers to the responsible company.
Consequently, advertising companies will be willing to pay substantially for the privileged platform that is the Super Bowl. Thirty seconds during last year’s game sold for a record $4.5 million. According to Business Insider, that number has since grown 11% to a new average of $5 million per for this years game.
Money surrounds the Super Bowl in every corner and every aspect. Last year’s contest commanded more than $330 million in advertising revenue. This year, tens of thousands of passionate fans will pack Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, a venue that cost $1.3 billion to build.
Coldplay will headline this year’s Halftime Show after being selected as one of three finalists for last year’s game. Wall Street Journal reported that—along with Katy Perry and Rihanna—the three candidates were initially asked to pay the NFL for their performance in Super Bowl XLIX.
The Super Bowl is our baby and our addiction, and this year, both will turn fifty. It’s a small milestone in the scope of historical significance, though it’s a progression that shows no signs of slowing down.
Super Bowl Fifty will have its seats packed and its commercials rolling. It’ll have a remarkable halftime performance with brilliant effects and aesthetics, all this can be expected.
And too, you should expect the same next year, and the year after that. The NFL doesn’t need a headline like a fiftieth-anniversary to command our attention on Super Bowl Sunday.
In fact, it’s likely that they don’t even need to make any additional improvements or changes to the event at all. Barring nuclear annihilation, the NFL will be gifted next year with another energetic audience of hundreds of millions of fans.
As long as the money keeps coming, the fans will continue to be provided with a product that stimulates the deepest competitive trigger in all of us. And as long as the NFL’s product is in place, our cherished addiction will never cease.
Cover Photo Credit: Kathy Drasky/Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
What Do You Think?
-
Latest In Paris As Panic Grips Area Around Terror Memorial Scene
Sky News previously reported that gun shots were heard in central Paris. However CNN is reporting that according to a police spokesman the panic was a false alarm.
Meanwhile the AP has reported that Iraq warned the United States and other nations of a “imminent assault before the Paris attacks took place.
Stay with Rise News as we follow this developing story.
BREAKING: AP NewsBreak: Iraq warned US-led coalition countries of imminent assault before Paris attacks .
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 15, 2015
What Do You Think?
-
Is Bumble Really More Empowering For Women Than Tinder?
Finding true love just got easier due to the latest trend of dating apps available on smart phones.
Users are literally finger tips away from connecting with the right person, but who will make the first move?
There is a broad range of dating app, such as OK Cupid and Tinder, but the app that caught my attention was Bumble, often referred to by many as the “feminist app.”
It works just like any other dating app, where users set up a profile of themselves and swipe right if they have an interest in someone.
But here’s the catch, women make the first move.
Men and women both make their own connections, but once a connection is made, women only have a span of 24 hours to initiate a conversation before the connection disappears.
Then men only have 24 hours to respond to that first move by the woman.
But is the ability to make the first move more empowering for women?
For many yes, women have the control in this scenario, making men wait by the phone for the first response.
It is a total inversion of the typical dating app experience in that way.
Women at a Bumble event in Melbourne, Australia. Photo Credit: Bumble/ Facebook
Women have men wrapped around their fingers waiting for that first text message.
Dating is not easy and having the courage to be the first one to reach out to a possible connection can boost the confidence of many women.
Bumble changes the stereotypical role of waiting three days for the guy to call, pushing for women to take action within a 24 hour time frame.
For others, being the first to say “Hello” is easier said than done.
For those too shy to make the first move then have a limited time frame before the connection is lost.
There is pressure to initiate the conversation, which for many can feel more disappointing than empowering.
Some simply have no idea what to say, which happens sometimes, and that should be okay.
Everyone has different experiences with dating apps, both good and bad, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Many women have reported good feedback from using Bumble and have had good conversations with their connections from going on dates to just establishing friendships.
That is the beauty of dating apps you have control to choose the person you want to have a connection with, and Bumble offers a different perspective on who makes the first move.
There is no instruction manual or rule book to follow when it comes to finding love, and everyone is entitled to go about that journey the way they choose.
So is Bumble more empowering for women than Tinder?
It certainly has the potential to be.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Bumble/ Facebook
What Do You Think?
-
SAVE THE REPUBLIC- BEAT TRUMP TODAY
After running the most racist and divisive campaign that America has seen since 1968, Donald Trump is dangerously close to becoming President.
While most national polls show Hillary Clinton with a solid lead, the margin is still too close for comfort in many states. Trump does still have a path to victory, no matter how narrow it may be.
This should be a horrifying fact for believers in American democracy.
If people who share common sense and a notion of basic decency don’t show up to the polls today, we could elect an authoritarian as our leader.
Our very Republic is in dire danger.
We are not in the business of endorsing candidates at RISE NEWS.
But Donald Trump is the greatest internal threat that this nation has faced in modern history.
His lack of knowledge of American history and how our Constitution works is troubling.
His stoking of white nationalism and racial hatred is un-American.
His foreign policy would put us in league with dictators and despots the world over as his isolationism is mixed with a virulent form of imperialism.
His lack of compassion and basic human empathy profoundly scares us.
He is more sociopath than political leader.
His treatment of women shows us how much of a pig he truly is- a relic that should be thrown on the trash-heap of history, not allowed to lead the most dynamic nation into a new decade.
His conspiracy theories are manifold.
In Trump’s mind, climate change is a Chinese conspiracy, Barack Obama was born in Kenya, Mexico intentionally sends rapist and murderers to undermine American security and Hillary Clinton engages in nightly satanic rituals.
He is a man who has gaslighted America and lied more than a junkie trying to get a fix.
He has retweeted white supremacists, embraced a hate symbol and has been endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan.
He got into a fight with the Pope.
He has attacked journalists and the bedrock Constitutional right of a free press by promising to open up libel laws.
He has made fun of the disabled because he is a heartless thug who cares about nothing more than settling scores.
Despite his self-proclaimed massive wealth, there is no record of him giving much away to charity.
He has no real ideology, doesn’t study the issues and can’t even be trusted with a Twitter account.
He is a strongman and yet still a weak little child.
The American Putin, the Mugabe of Manhattan.
He has debased our politics, darkened our glow on the global stage and showed our children that character doesn’t matter as long as you have money.
As Jefferson said once, “Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.”
Trump has already done so many things that the rest of us would never be able to get away with.
If elected as President, he would do the same.
Except then, he would have nuclear weapons.
SAVE THE REPUBLIC. BEAT TRUMP TODAY.
Cover Photo Credit: Jake Cvnningham/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
What Do You Think?