The Sound of Defeat

I don't watch football very often, and lately the times I've done it haven't been very rewarding. Exhibit One: The Superbowl this evening, in which the Steelers hammered the Seahawks.

I couldn't help noticing that the sound mix on the half-time show by the Rolling Stones was utterly lousy. I was listening to the game in 5.1 Dolby surround sound, and I could barely hear Jagger. If they can put microphones on the players and pick up their comments, you'd think they could effectively mic rock musicians.

I also noticed that despite the much-publicized five-second delay, aimed at protecting America from the horrors of bared breasts and Anglo-Saxon expressions, nothing protected the viewers from commercials that were in questionable taste. Did family viewers really need to see a close-up of a blood-stained cell phone, as part of the promo for a new rip-off of CSI? (And on a big-screen TV, that bloody mobile was really in your face.) Did they need to see the ads for the new Lorne Michaels tv series, in which a cherubic little girl states, smiling, that some people are "going to Hell" because they are Jews? Explain that one to the little rugrats sitting in front of the TV with their Nerf footballs and their Steelers jerseys.

Used to be that commercials went out of their way not to offend anyone. But they are becoming increasingly coarse, particularly radio ads. A national car commercial talked about how one could "kick the crap" out of an SUV. A local ski resort ad featured folks coming up with lame excuses for playing hooky from work; one woman's excuse was that she "drank too much water and peed out my electrolytes!" I'm no campaigner for decency, but commercials are offensive enough by nature; they don't have to strive to offend.