My take on the Super Bowl Half time show and the audience

[thenetwork]

The problem is that with the Super Bowl Halftime Show still claiming over 160M+ viewers, you wonder how many "muted" the performance, or went into the other room to fill up on food, to use the bathroom and/or to stretch and get some air.

Whatever numbers TPUSA's Halftime Show are likely more accurate (though still a lot less) than whoever paid full attention to Bad Bunny's performance (which at times looked like The Weekend's halftime performance, except with mazes of sugar cane fields instead of mazes of mirrored, lighted walls). The reason why Kid Rock's concert numbers are more believeable is because people actively tuned into the performance at it's start, while most of the Super Bowl Viewership was already there well before the halftime, and were not as actively tuned in.

And I'll agree, just like with your run of the mill television ads, creativity is becoming less and less in the making of commercials -- either they are about as bland as prescription ads, or dumb -- like the karaoke singalong screen ad for a company I don't remember (see, how did THAT $1M+ ad work for you!!!).

 

[TheBigA]

The problem is that with the Super Bowl Halftime Show still claiming over 160M+ viewers, you wonder how many "muted" the performance, or went into the other room to fill up on food, to use the bathroom and/or to stretch and get some air.

A viewer is a viewer. They don't have to listen. I had both shows on and didn't listen to either one. It doesn't matter. Same thing with radio ratings. If the PPM hears the signal, the station gets credit, regardless of whether or not the person wearing it is paying attention. That's how Nielsen works.

The Bad Bunny performance was in Spanish. What difference did it make what he was saying?

The reason why Kid Rock's concert numbers are more believeable is because people actively tuned into the performance at it's start,

That's not true. We were able to see that most people didn't tune in until it was about halfway done. There were less than 2 million viewers at the start. It rose to 5 million for Gabby Barrett. Then dropped to around 4 million for Lee Brice and Kid Rock. The TPUSA show started before the halftime began, and it continued when the second half had already begun.

 

[The Hustle]

According to Awful Announcing, "Nielsen measures viewership using an “average minute audience.” When they say, for example, the Super Bowl halftime show drew 100 million viewers, that means throughout the halftime every minute saw 100 million unique viewers, on average. That is distinct from the way YouTube record viewers. On YouTube, you are counted as a view when you watch a video for 30 seconds. 10 million YouTube views cannot be compared to 10 million views on Nielsen."

 

[crainbebo]

Try $8,000,000. For old-school karaoke. AI slop. And more AI ads. Surprised Liberty Limu Emu didn't spend $8M on an ad.
Give me E-Trade Baby and any Clydesdale ad over 90% of the 'ads' I saw yesterday.

BTW another one I liked was the Pepsi polar bears. They finally gave Coke the boot!

 

[davideduardo]

I'll be interested in @davideduardo's take on the show. On the one hand, he's *very* conservative; on the other hand, he appears, from postings elsewhere on the site, to be relishing the idea of a Hispanic performer during Super Bowl half time.

I am not a football fan. I have only watched the Superbowl once, to see Shakira, and that was enough.

I admire Bad Bunny's achievements, both as one with a Puerto Rican family and one who spent over 50 years working in radio there. I am not particularly fond of his music, for a variety of reasons. And his politics, which lean with the two or three percent on the Island who want independence, are not my line of thinking which is with the New Progressive Party and eventual statehood.

And, actually, I am an independent in the manner of Ben Franklin's "limited government" Federalist thinking.

 

[KilowattKat]

Try $8,000,000. For old-school karaoke. AI slop. And more AI ads. Surprised Liberty Limu Emu didn't spend $8M on an ad.
Give me E-Trade Baby and any Clydesdale ad over 90% of the 'ads' I saw yesterday.

BTW another one I liked was the Pepsi polar bears. They finally gave Coke the boot!

What about the William Shatner Raisin Bran ad? It sure made me laugh. I think he's 94 now.

 

[Moose Jaw McGee]

The Bad Bunny performance was in Spanish. What difference did it make what he was saying?

Doesn’t it matter to Spanish-speaking viewers? Or don’t they count? Btw, have you seen the English translation of some of the “lyrics” he spoke?

 

[davideduardo]

Doesn’t it matter to Spanish-speaking viewers? Or don’t they count? Btw, have you seen the English translation of some of the “lyrics” he spoke?

Remember, like hip hop, reggeatón is an "urban" youth music that has great appeal among younger Latinons in large parts of Latin America. But it has a distinctly Puerto Rican vocabulary which young listeners will learn, but which nobody else will understand.

 

[TheBigA]

Btw, have you seen the English translation of some of the “lyrics” he spoke?

The lawyers at NBC speak Spanish. They made sure the language in the songs was appropriate for TV.

 

[davideduardo]

The lawyers at NBC speak Spanish. They made sure the language in the songs was appropriate for TV.

I went back and played my VCR and found that nearly all of the songs were identical to their original releases. Because so much of the language is in Puerto Rican vernacular, it would take a very knowledgeable lawyer to understand that version of street Spanish from the Island.

For nearly four decades, a lot of us involved in Puerto Rican radio have believed that the FCC does not "enforce" on the Island despite many, many reggaetón songs being well beyond the "Seven Dirty Words". The belief is that the FCC does not want to get into a cultural censorship war with Latino groups likely to misinterpret that as racism.

 

[TheBigA]

I went back and played my VCR and found that nearly all of the songs were identical to their original releases. Because so much of the language is in Puerto Rican vernacular, it would take a very knowledgeable lawyer to understand that version of street Spanish from the Island.

Ever since Janet Jackson bared her breast on TV, the NFL lawyers have been very careful about the halftime show. Here's what USA Today said:

USA TODAY Network reporters who are fluent in Spanish listened to a replay of the performance. They said many of the explicit lyrics shared by Rep. Fine were genuine translations of songs, but weren't part of the performance.

 

[davideduardo]

Ever since Janet Jackson bared her breast on TV, the NFL lawyers have been very careful about the halftime show. Here's what USA Today said:

Even the USA TODAY reporters, unless they are Boricuas themselves, are going to have a hard time understanding the street vernacular of some of those songs.

Puerto Rican Spanish is very similar in its historic origin to the Spanish of the Canary Islands. And Street Spanish is similar to London roadman English, with seeming nonsense words to anyone not deep into the local Island culture.

When I work outside of Puerto Rico, I have to be very cautious, as my "native" Spanish is from there and I would either offend some or not be well understood if I spoke the way that comes naturally.

 

[TheBigA]

Even the USA TODAY reporters, unless they are Boricuas themselves, are going to have a hard time understanding the street vernacular of some of those songs.

If the language is that obscure, then it's not offensive. The critics are just anti-Hispanics. They want to force them to assimilate.

To them, any cultural differences, such as food or dance or anything unique is offensive and un-American and needs to be banned.

It goes back to this "English Only" order the president issued.

 

[davideduardo]

If the language is that obscure, then it's not offensive. The critics are just anti-Hispanics. They want to force them to assimilate.

The "critics" I've spoken with are Puerto Rican. They are Latinos, and understand the songs. In fact, one of my daughters and I occasionally write things in Puerto Rican Spanish slang and then read them with the full PR accent to non-Puerto Ricans just to see how they don't understand a thing we are saying.

Every Latin American nation, and even regions in each one, has a different dialect and radically different vocabularies. Just because not everyone knows a particular F-word does not mean it is not offensive to some.

And the idea of immigration since the first waves of non-English speakers in the early 1800's has been to become part of the American culture, which includes learning English. Nothing wrong with keeping the "other" language (I speak nearly all Spanish at home and with family yet all are 100% bilingual).

When I went to intern in Mexico and later to build my own stations in Ecuador, nobody spoke English with me and I did not expect to speak English unless, for some godawful reason I was at the American Embassy. In Ecuador, I had to learn local history... I still know the national anthem there better than the American one!

 

[TheBigA]

I had to learn local history... I still know the national anthem there better than the American one!

Bad Bunny knows American history too. He knows that America is more than just the continental US. He portrayed that in his show.

The NFL knows that too. That's why they're going to South America next fall.

 

[gr8oldies]

Doesn’t it matter to Spanish-speaking viewers? Or don’t they count? Btw, have you seen the English translation of some of the “lyrics” he spoke?

The lyrics were cleaned up for broadcast (interesting how MAGA was "outraged" over Spanish being spoken but claims it understood alledged "filthy words" in Spanish?

 

[gr8oldies]

Bad Bunny knows American history too. He knows that America is more than just the continental US. He portrayed that in his show.

The NFL knows that too. That's why they're going to South America next fall.

The NFL wants to add several countries by 2032. It's not going to be all about 'Murica anymore. I thought MAGA was boycotting anyway

 

[davideduardo]

The lyrics were cleaned up for broadcast (interesting how MAGA was "outraged" over Spanish being spoken but claims it understood alledged "filthy words" in Spanish?

Some were cleaned, but most could not be changed without totally rewriting the songs. I listened, and several songs had no change at all except the big hits were shortened so he could sing as many as possible in the short showtime.

 

[davideduardo]

The NFL wants to add several countries by 2032. It's not going to be all about 'Murica anymore. I thought MAGA was boycotting anyway

They may want to, but the fact is that soccer is a hard sport to beat anywhere it is the "national sport".

And in less wealthy nations, soccer just requires some decent sneakers, while American "football" requires rather costly gear.

 

[davideduardo]

Bad Bunny knows American history too. He knows that America is more than just the continental US. He portrayed that in his show.

"América" in Spanish is everything from Canada to Chile and Argentina. "America" in the U.S. is the United States of America. All of the two continents in English is usually "the Americas" or "North and South America and the Caribbean".

Puerto Rican schools do a terrible job of teaching U.S. History... unless you put your kids in private schools. Bad Bunny went to Juan Quirindongo Morell High School, a public school in Vega Baja, which is on the outskirts of San Juan.

The NFL knows that too. That's why they're going to South America next fall.

Yeah, and they will go to nations like Brazil with a population of 220 million and fill a stadium with 50,000. You calculate the percentage.

As mentioned before, a survey was done after one of the Mexican NFL games. They found the overwhelming majority of attendees had lived in the US, usually as college students, and acquired an interest in American "football".

In every nation in Latin America, we have multiple major league soccer teams from all around each country... often two or three teams in some of the bigger cities. Sports are competitions from "my part of the country" and it will be hard to have anyone actively follow a single team if there ever is one in any Latin American nation.