While we’ve been in the ad biz since before Loyd Dobler held that radio over his head in Say Anything, we don’t pretend to have the knowledge or insight Ad Age Editor Hoag Levins or black-turtlenecked Ad Age Man-At-Large Bob Garfield possess, except, perhaps when it comes to Garfield’s commentary on why the Rolling Stones are bad choice as a Half Time Super Bowl act. Calling the Stones “114 year olds” who have “been around since the early Jurassic period,” Garfield can’t seem to understand why the Stones are still relevant cavalierly claiming they “have one foot in the grave,” their appearance in the Super Bowl is a “last surrender to commercialism” and they’re on their way to “Hollywood Squares.” Calling them a “commercialized pop act,” Garfield is so out of touch with culture, he, in perhaps an apparent attempt to appear hip, can’t seem to grasp that fact the Stones still are “hip.”
In discussing the rampantly proliferating advertising orgasm that surrounds the Super Bowl and just about everything else in our society, Garfield can’t grasp that this is both a very smart thing for the Stones to do from, yes, their own self-promotional perspective but also for the fans watching the game who, for once in a long while, will be presented with actual music rather than the over produced blather we’re so often shoveled during Half Time. Certainly not everyone loves the Stones and sure, there are people who, perhaps, have never heard of them, but, a lot more people like them and have heard of them then, say, whoever that collection of rappers where a few years ago.
Choosing the Rolling Stones for Super Bowl Half Time was a very smart decision for the NFL, ABC and fans the world over who will be watching the game, looking forward to seeing a bit less controversy and a lot more entertainment that Janet Jackson could ever deliver.
