Kudos, Budweiser!
Budweiser became the largest and latest sponsor to speak out, saying
Tuesday it was "disappointed and increasingly concerned" by the [NFL] scandals. The brewer, whose commercials featuring the iconic Clydesdales
are almost synonymous with pro football, sponsors some 88 percent of
NFL teams, according to consultants IEG LLC, making it the
second-biggest sponsor in the league.
I understand the Radisson Hotel chain has also spoken up, and the Minnesota Vikings have decided (under sponsor pressure?) to cool their relationship, at least temporarily, with embattled super-star and child-whipper Adrian Petersen.
This is something the NFL and the team owners understand....you get into their wallets, they pay attention. Now if some other heavy hitters (Ooooo....sorry) will also speak up, sponsors like Under Armour, Nike, Gatorade, etc, then I'll bet you'll see the NFL clean up the game.
Fingers crossed they become and stay vigilant.
S
That was the news headline today regarding the drought all across Texas. Technically the Dallas area is no longer in a drought. In fact, so far this year we're 5" above normal in our rainfall. Our area lakes have been largely replenished and it's not even spring yet, traditionally our "wet" season.
Houston, however, isn't so lucky. Their population is growing, but their water supply due to the drought is shrinking. Eventually the two lines on the graph will cross and they'll be in deep doo-doo. Which....umm....brings me to the title of this post.
The Trinity River, the nasty 'ol Trinity River that runs through Dallas, the river that has signs posted along it's banks telling us to not eat any fish we catch there, is Houston's drinking water. Dallas processes 135-145 million gallons of raw sewage every day, separates....well....you know, and sends it on downstream via the Trinity, ultimately to Lake Livingston. From there Houston puts their Good Housekeeping Seal on it and pumps it right to their residents. While this is probably pretty normal in the water biz, it just sounds so....Ewwwwww!
But then Houston is used to it. You know how the beer brewers always brag in their commercials about their "perfect water", the ingredient that makes their beer the best in the world, blah blah blah? Last time I looked there was a Budweiser brewery in Houston. Right on the Houston ship channel. So am I to infer the water for Budweiser's Houston brewery comes from....Ewwwwww!
All this reminds me of the time years ago listening to the radio as they reported a massive recall of Payday candy bars. It seems the department that oversees health at food processing plants (FDA?) found an unacceptably high level of "rodent droppings" in the finished product. A certain amount of rat poop is within tolerance it explained, but this batch was waaaaay off the chart. At the moment I heard that report I was eating a Payday candy bar....Ewwwwww!
Some things you just don't want to know. Who's with me? I wonder if this is where the old saying "Ignorance is bliss" came from?
Now forget about everything I just wrote and go have a nice weekend. :)
S
This morning I clicked on YouTube to re-watch my favorite Super Bowl commercial from yesterday. What I found instead was a screen saying the commercial had been pulled due to a copyright dispute with NFL Properties. Hmmm....wonder why the NFL didn't complain BEFORE they took Chrysler's money and ran their ad?
It was a typical Super Bowl....a rather average game except for the last 3 minutes. I didn't think either team looked "World Champion" quality hitting on all 12 cylinders. More like the last ones still standing. And the commercials? Where was the pizazz, the supreme sense of humor from years past? Budweiser might as well have just put a match to their $10M. The same for most of the rest IMO. If you weren't old enough to remember Ferris Bueller from the famous movie of the 80's, you probably didn't understand the Honda commercial. The same with the Volkswagen ad featuring the deformed looking guys. What was that all about? K had to explain to me later that it was a Star Wars reference. You shouldn't have to explain a commercial.
I did like the Chrysler halftime commercial. It was powerful, and I thought using Clint Eastwood as their grizzled, determined-sounding spokesman was a stoke of genius. Brilliant!
I'd like to link to it for you, but thanks to the jackasses at the NFL I can't. You think the NFL will give Chrysler their money back? Haha!
And then there was the commercial for the Abarth Fiat 500. Wow, what a car! Yeah, let's go with that. See it for yourself right here. (Ironically, Fiat owns Chrysler.) Several others elicited a chuckle from me, but no real gut-busting laughs. Oh, wait....I forgot about the girl head-butting the guy for his Oikos yogurt. That was a funny surprise. Do y'all disagree? Did I miss something?
Gotta go. I'm off to buy a Chrysler, or a Fiat. Or maybe some yogurt. ;)
S
EDIT: The Chrysler commercial is available again. You can see it here.
