Super Bowl XLIII: Rock Concert First, Game Second?

If you saw this promo for Super Bowl XLIII last weekend on NBC, you can be forgiven if you came away thinking the Big Game is actually a rock concert during which a football game occasionally breaks out. “On February 1st, the world will watch, as history is made,” the voiceover intones, before cutting to scenes of half-time entertainment Bruce Springsteen, in concert, playing “Born to Run.” OK, so we don’t know what teams are playing in the Super Bowl yet, but the promo still left me scratching my head. Has NBC decided that the game itself stopped mattering? It shouldn’t, given last year’s nail-biter between the almost-perfect New England Patriots and the New York Giants.

No. That sound you hear if you watch the commercial isn’t just Springsteen’s “E” Street Band; it’s the sound of promotion coming at viewers from angles they’re not even aware of. There are the quick references to Bridgestone, sponsor of the half-time show, and then, in the last three seconds, a snippet of the title song from Springsteen’s next album, “Working on a Dream”, which drops on January 27, five days before his Super Bowl appearance. As for the football teams, they can join the promo fever whenever they’re ready, I guess. It’s only a game, after all.