Don’t take this the wrong way because I love football but the Super Bowl and everything it involves is a bit excessive. The massive amounts of energy used for one event seems ridiculous. While New Orleans tried their best to reduce their energy impacts, there is no doubt an excessive amount of energy was still used. Then there was the blackout during the Super Bowl that delayed the game for a little over 30 minutes. It seems there was some concern that the energy required for the Super Bowl would cause power failure in the Super Dome, which shows the high demand of energy for this single game and half-time entertainment. On top of that drinks and food and confetti (a big hit for the Super Bowl), add to the waste produced by the Super Bowl.
It is also interesting to think of the money that goes into the beloved commercials during the Super Bowl. For a country that is having government budgeting issues, we have no problem spending $3.8 million on 30 seconds of add time. Speaking of ads, most of them were unsurprising. They are all about consumerism and buying product. Many of these ads were the same products just displayed in multiple ads.
The one I found most intriguing was the Soda Stream ad. It showed many stores that stocked plastic bottles of soda, the bottles were exploding because they weren’t needed anymore with Soda Stream being used by consumers instead. They claimed 500 million plastic bottles would be saved on game day if we drank our soda via Soda Stream. There are a couple of issues I have with this. One: it is trying to push Americans to have yet another single use appliance. Two: it isn’t acknowledging the issue with drinking soda; that it is completely unhealthy and horrific for our health. So I don’t see myself buying a Soda Stream anytime soon and I will continue to be appalled by their commercials.
These were just my takes on the Super Bowl this year, what were yours?