High-dollar ads for the big game

Viewpoints

February 7, 2010

Greg Webb Weatherford Democrat The Weatherford Democrat Sun Feb 07, 2010, 05:30 AM CST

WEATHERFORD — Phil Riddle

editor@weatherforddemocrat.com

I love the Super Bowl.

I’m a football fan, so the game is the finishing touch to a five-month campaign for a title in the NFL.

More than that, though, I enjoy the spectacle.

The entire broadcast is viewed by nearly a billion people across the globe, driving costs for advertising on the world’s biggest stage into the economic stratosphere.

According to CBS, host of SB XLIV, some ads this year, based on their placement throughout the game, cost companies in excess of $3 million for 30 seconds of air time.

That’s never really bothered me. It’s capitalism at work.

It never concerned me that a beer company or a car company was writing a check with that many zeros on it to have its products viewed during the latest Roman Numeral Bowl.

Until I started getting to help pay the bill.

Yep. Our friends and benefactors in Washington have decided their combined constituencies are going to spring for a $2.5 million ad touting the importance of the 2010 census.

The census, conducted every 10 years, is an official head count of the nation, mandated by the Constitution, to help fairly distribute taxpayer money and decide representation.

Between touchdown passes, sacks, fumbles and former jocks spouting superlatives about this year’s game will be a taxpayer-funded, 30-second spot reminding us to fill out the form so we get the representation we deserve.

If our best interest were being represented, we wouldn’t be hit up to pay for a TV ad while rotating a diet of rice and beans and beans and rice while keeping our fingers crossed our jobs don’t get outsourced to India.

Help me with this, please.

As a country we are facing deficits that will financially cripple us for generations even if we stop spending now. We are in the throes of uncertain economic times when folks are losing their jobs and houses at a pace not seen since the Great Depression. And the Gucci-shoe crowd on the Potomac signed a purchase order to spend $2,500,000 so we get counted.

And that ain’t all.

According to broadcast reports, the Census bureau is spending $133 million between January and May to publicize the count. Let’s see, they’ve already told us there are only 10 questions ... if a train leaves Washington at 6 p.m. going 65 mph ... carry the one ... that’s 13 million bucks PER QUESTION.

Our duly elected representatives are charging US $13 million to ask our address, our phone number and how many bathrooms we have in our house. Why can’t they just check our tax returns. All our contact information is there and the bureaucrats are very efficient at gathering those each April without spending $133 million on advertising.

I was planning a Super Bowl Party today with brats and chili, nachos, chips, dips, pies, cakes and lots of fun with friends in front of a big screen.

I may have to tone down the celebration.

After all, I’m on the hook for part of a $2.5 million advertising bill.

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High-dollar ads for the big game

The Komen Foundation recently cut ties (before announcing they would reinstate them) with Planned Parenthood and stopped funding breast cancer screenings — was that a good thing?

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