Every year, the Super Bowl is one of the most-watched events of the entire year. The Super Bowl is the championship football match for the NFL that takes place every February. It is a huge cultural event with many different aspects that make it appealing to so many different audiences. Sports fans — specifically football fans — love the game itself. The halftime show always draws in a ton of fans. Depending on the performing artist, some years may be more popular than others, not to mention the absurd amount of time and money put into advertisements that play during the event. There’s something for everyone in the Super Bowl; it’s much bigger than just a football game.

When it comes to commercials, the Super Bowl is the one time you will actually want to pay attention to them. They are often well put together and feature all kinds of big celebrities to help promote products on the best advertising night of the year. Every year, many viewers tune into the Super Bowl just to see the ads that play between whistles, and the advertisements are just as interesting as the game in their own right.

There are three types of Super Bowl ads, in my opinion. The first is the bizarre commercials: the advertisements are usually just strange for the sake of grabbing your eyes and thrusting their brand name into your face. These bizarre commercials are always memorable and are often turned into memes through social media; they allow everyone to come together and say, “what?” The next type of Super Bowl ad is the celebrity showcase: when brands pay lots of money to have some of the most famous names in pop culture today appear in their thirty-second advertisement. Sometimes it feels as if each commercial is trying to outdo the other one with who they can get to appear in their ad. Dunkin Donuts decided to put Ben Affleck behind the drive-thru headset, Adam Driver was cloned in a Men-In-Black outfit to promote Squarespace, and Draft Kings decided to put a random mismatch of celebrities together from Kevin Hart to Tony Hawk. The final notable category is the movie trailers. These are always interesting because they are at the same level as the trailers you see before a movie in the movie theater. Also grouped into this category are advertisements for streaming services, of which there were quite a few this Super Bowl. It’s no doubt streaming services have completely changed how we consume media, and now they’ve infiltrated advertising across various platforms. The most notable of these from Sunday had to be Tubi’s fake pop-up advertisement that made it seem like you accidentally sat on your remote and caused the pop-up menu to cover the screen. This year on top of those three categories (some advertisements can fit into multiple of these categories), there also happened to be a few religious advertisements, something I can’t ever remember seeing in years past.

Between the game and the entertaining advertisements, the Super Bowl halftime show could be its own main event that just so happens to be performed at a football game. This year Rihanna was the sole performer, which is completely different from last year's performance which consisted of multiple hip-hop artists. Rihanna needed no help or introduction this year as she is one of the most popular artists in the world. She is also the eighth most-listened-to artist on Spotify and is generally loved by everyone despite not releasing a solo album since 2016. The Super Bowl halftime show has its own dedicated fanbase that is separate from those who enjoy the sporting event that accompanies it and the advertisements sprinkled throughout. The performances are always elaborate showcases of great music, intricate choreography, and stunning visuals, and this year was no different. Many fans were stunned to see that Rihanna was sporting not only the latest fashion trends but also what looked to be the start of her second pregnancy. Fans were ecstatic to see Rihanna performing her classics again, as it is unknown when the artist will add another album to her already impressive discography.

Whatever your reason for watching the Super Bowl, it’s a great way to get together with friends and family. The Super Bowl has a little bit of something for everyone, which is why the event is so huge every year; it’s amazing how a sporting event encompasses sports, music, food, and America’s love of advertising all in one. 

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