We'll be right back... after the break!

The one with all the commercials...

As part of the integration-process, we simply had to install cable television... if not to keep up to date with the many TV shows then at least to make sure that our super-sized television (courtesy of Ward) shipped all the way from Belgium feels at home here in the US. So we did, and now we have full access to more than 300 channels (I tried to get less channels for less money but that was simply not possible - here in the US, everything is more, bigger, better and extra... so why would you want less channels??).

However, there's a catch - and I'm not talking about the endless reruns of old shows (after all, we have those in Belgium too... probably every teenager growing up in the 90's knows each Friends-episode by heart by now!). No, I'm talking about commercials, commercials, some more commercials and oh yes, commercials! Let's say you want to watch a new "Dr. House" episode. The show starts at 9 pm - 9.05 pm: the first commercial block - 9.15 pm: some more commercials - 9.24 pm: ah great! commercials - ... you get the point. By the end of the episode, you've seen so many commercials that you can't remember what the show was about - but you do know which brand of cereals or washing powder to buy (at least, subconsciously)! Luckily, there's a solution to the commercial-problem: a digital tv-recorder... record all your shows and just fast forward through the commercials. We hardly watch any shows "in real time" anymore.

But last Sunday, recording the show was not an option - apparently, watching the grand finale of American football is something you have to do in real time in front of a huge television (hence, the Super Bowl TV sales) and preferably surrounded by your friends and really greasy food. So that's what we did! We watched the Super Bowl in a bar downtown while eating nachos and burgers. Although American football doesn't seem very complicated (just a bunch of big guys fighting over a weird-shaped ball), Ward hasn't been able to make me fully understand the rules. So it was hard to follow... each time I thought I was getting the hang of it, I was interrupted by... you guessed it, commercials! Approximately 95 million people tuned in to see the game... you can imagine that a 30 second ad during Super Bowl is every marketeer's dream come true! That's why companies are willing to pay up to USD 2 to 3 million for a 30 second time slot. The result: a lot of commercials... so much so that the actual one hour game was entirely scheduled around the commercials and lasted more than three hours, making it unbearable for people like me to keep watching (I only made it through the first half).

However, for some people, the ads during the game are as important as the game itself - allegedly, some people watch just for the ads. Most of the time, television ads in the US - unlike in Belgium - at least try to be funny (the "two washing powders of brand Z for your brand X" ads are very rare) but during the Super Bowl, a special effort is made and many of the commercials actually made me laugh. According to the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter, Dorito's was voted as the best ad during Super Bowl 2009 - Budweiser came in second and third.

Oh, I almost forgot, if anyone would still be interested, the Steelers won...