Abba Zabba

Advertising is everywhere. On the highway, there are billboards. In the city, there are bus ads. And of course, there are constant commercials on TV. But because there's so much advertising, we've learned to ignore most of it. When there's a commercial on, most people will change the channel, or mute the TV, or get up to get a snack. And a lot of people watch pre-recorded TV (whether on a computer, DVR, or VCR), so they can skip commercials entirely.

Unless it's the Super Bowl. Then everyone gathers around the TV to watch the "hilarious" new commercials. Plenty of people watch the Super Bowl even though they don't like football, to see the ads. And then the next day, every newspaper has articles about which were the best commercials, and people stand around at work talking about their favorites.

But that's ridiculous. Super Bowl ads are still commercials. They're still trying to get you to buy stuff you don't need. And they're going to be rerun approximately one billion times over the next few months. So why make a special effort to seek out what we try so hard to avoid the rest of the year?