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February 04, 2008
super bowl ads and BMI
I believe I said this last year and the year before, but I'm making it official: Gone are the days of spectacular super bowl ads. I blame TiVo. I don't miss them, mind you. Because of TiVo. Building a buffer to avoid commercials is one of the things I heart about TiVo. We probably ffwd'd through most of the ads (which were mostly selling trucks anyway) looking for any that looked interesting. Some were kinda cute. But unmemorable. I think that at this point, if a company pays $1 million per 30 seconds (or whatever the obscene charge is) they're stupid.
On another note, there was a commercial with Shaq. He was a jockey in a horse race. So I saw an internet ad this morning about whatever product he was pimping for and it said something about how Shaq is 7'1" and weighs 321 lbs. I got it into my head to calculate his BMI. I went to wikipedia, and there it lists his weight as 325. Which makes his BMI is 31.6. This means he's officially obese. I find this ironic, considering his TV show last year called "Shaq's Big Challenge" in which he spotlighted six obese children to help them lose weight and eat more healthy.
Now, we all know that Shaq is probably mostly lean muscle and not fat. But my point is that BMI is such a bullsh*t number. Before the weight loss this past year, would you have considered me obese? If so, well, don't tell me. :-) If not, well, you would be wrong. According to the BMI scale, I was obese. So, do you think that BMI is all it's cracked up to be? What would you consider healthy?
Update: Yes, I know BMI is for average people, not pro athletes. I still think it's bullshit. I would rather eat healthy, exercise regularly, have good blood pressure (working on it!), good cholesterol, good triglycerides, no sign of pre-diabetes, more muscle than fat, etc. than have an appropriate BMI. If I end up with an appropriate BMI, okay, but that's not my goal.
Posted by jennj at February 4, 2008 11:33 AM
Clue-ments:
The best Ad -- for the NFL not a truck.
http://superad.nfl.com/
And, sorry CF -- Go Giants! What a game -- my BP was raised and I could not fall asleep even after watching "House" to unwind.
Posted by: Iwan at February 4, 2008 02:14 PM
I've always thought the ads sucked.
Posted by: Kristin at February 4, 2008 02:18 PM
Iwan - BP was high in our house also. In a sense, it was a really great game because nobody knew how it was going to end until, well, the last seconds. But it was frustrating cause the Pats sucked.
Posted by: cf at February 4, 2008 03:07 PM
The Pats completely deserved the uppance that had come. Too arrogant.
Posted by: poz at February 4, 2008 11:24 PM
Sounds like a bit of sour grapes..."the Pats sucked." I've heard this from a couple of other Pat's fans, one of whom lost a bet to me - sans point spread, I might add (what was I thinking?!)
The sentiment tries to take away from the Giants' victory, IMHO. The Pats were the best team in Football, they were supposed to win, they wanted to win. You can't just say that they lost because they had a bad day or they played poorly. Fact is that they lost because they got outplayed - on both offense and defense.
Some might say they jinxed themselves with the run up to the game and the bad blood with the '72 Dolphins (grumpy old men). Frankly, 18-1 is great, impressive, and spectacular, but the 72 Dolphins went 17-0, or undefeated (perfection), which people now understand is a whole lot harder than it sounds - even for a team as good as the Pats.
Good day or bad day, the game could have gone either way, and it could have turned on, skill, luck, or Karma. In the end, there can be only one champion.
Interesting note, even in victory the Giants are showing some humility as evidenced during their victory parade here in NYC. How was it up in Boston?
Posted by: Iwan at February 5, 2008 02:48 PM
Iwan - I could also say that they suck = outplayed. The thing is, it was a _great_ game, even if I didn't like the outcome. A game where I'm on the edge of my seat until the _very end_ is great. Well, except for the possibility of stroke. ;-)
Most people up here are too much in shock to be jerks about it. It's subdued and there are people saying the Giants did a good job.
Posted by: cf at February 5, 2008 07:13 PM