The Super Bowl’s Military Fables

[n2doc]

by Dave Zirin


Lieutenant Chuck Nadd rides in a wagon pulled by Budweiser-sponsored Clydesdale horses in the company's "A Hero's Welcome" Super Bowl ad. (Youtube)

The Associated Press called it, “The Budweiser Ad That Made You Cry During The Super Bowl.” There was Lieutenant Chuck Nadd returning home from Afghanistan only to be thrown a surprise “welcome home” parade by the good people at Budweiser. He and his wife even traveled through the celebration pulled by Clydesdales “aboard the famously-red Budweiser beer wagon."

Then, after the ad ended, there was Lt. Chuck Nadd, in the stands at Met Life Stadium watching the Super Bowl. (Hopefully, he did not have to take public transportation there. The Clydesdales would have been a faster ride.)

Seeing Lt. Nadd at the big game was an audacious triple lindy of product placement. You had the military, the NFL and of course the smooth taste of Budweiser, all in one Fox camera shot of corporate Americana. (Budweiser is actually owned by a Belgian/Brazilian consortium but details)

Commercials like these, not to mention the NFL showing live shots of troops watching the game from Kandahar, have become so par for the course, it does not even register. It also serves a purpose for the NFL above and beyond a nod of respectful recognition to the troops. Drew Magary at Deadspin captured this last November. He wrote, “Any time the NFL slaps a camo ribbon on their unis, any time Fox cuts to a bunch of happy veterans... it helps portray the league as some kind of noble civic endeavor when it's actually just an entertainment venture and moneymaking apparatus designed to rake in billions of dollars and fuck your town out of stadium money. The Falcons, to take one example, managed to euchre $200 million out of taxpayers for their new stadium. One stroke of a pen, and Arthur Blank has an extra $200 million to put Sicilian marble in his luxury box shitters. Compare that to the $800,000 the league donated last year [to military charities]. That $800,000 helps buy the American flag the Falcons and other teams get to hide behind any time you start to wonder if the league really does have the public's interests at heart.”

more

http://www.thenation.com/blog/178194/super-bowls-military-fables

[daleanime]

1. Kick....

[Doctor_J]

2. It's getting creepy in the world of sports

You can't watch a sporting event any more without seeing some veterans standing at attention through a 5-minute rendition of the SSB, and an enormous flag. Reminds me of the newsreels from 1936 Olympics.

[Enthusiast]

3. They're keeping us safe.

We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here. They hate us for our freedoms. I'm sure there is more.

[jsr]

4. Sporting events wouldn't exist without our military.

All praise be to the military.

[Doctor_J]

5. Nothing says "thanks for putting your life at risk" like some Islanders' tickets

We as a country have become very bizarre.