This Week in Sports 2010: Week 5 (Super Bowl XLIV Edition)

Who Dat? Drew Dat. Drew Brees was unreal in the biggest game of his career. Brees was 32/39 for 288 yards and 2 touchdowns in the 31-17 Saints (who were down 10 at the end of the first) victory. The Super Bowl MVP was Super indeed. But the Saints most clutch player was not on offense. He is one Tracy Porter. Porter, with his carved hair and all (Google it), got the game saving interception again. First against Brett Favre in the NFC Championship game, now Peyton Manning with roughly 3 minutes left to go up 14. 

Sean Payton made some of the gutsiest plays in Super Bowl history. Going for it on 4th and goal, the onside kick to end the half, playing Reggie Wayne close with the risk of him beating Porter. All his gutsy attempts paid off. 

Looking at Peyton Manning's pass that was picked, you will see that it was a decent route, and a decent pass. But it was a GREAT read by Tracy Porter. Peyton was on a role during that whole drive, and Reggie Wayne was involved in the drive for the first time all game. But there was that hard hitting, aggressive, take-all-risks Saints defense there to halt the Super Bowl dreams of yet another team, and yet another legendary quarterback. Peyton was 31/45 with 333 yards, 1 touch down, and 1 pick. Joseph Addai was the surprise of the game for me as he rushed for a solid 77 yards and 1 touch down with 58 yards receiving. The story of the week was probably Dwight Freeny's ankle. It was sore all week and there were rumors he would not play. But he played as he said he would and did not do bad. He had a crucial sack on 3rd down and forced the Saints to double team him every snap. 

This was one of the most exciting Super Bowls in a long while, and was very close to being the first one ever to go into overtime. Super Bowl XLIV will go down in history as a feel-good story on how one team had the whole country behind them, and how the town went from ruins to Super Bowl Champions.

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Can Your Network Do That?

Marketing wars. The concept is nothing new. Two companies who have competing products or services often turn to marketing to get what marketing guru's call "mind share". And, unless you have been living in a completely disconnected state from society for the past three weeks or so, you know that Verizon has launched some pretty hard hitting adds against AT&T and their network. My guess is these ads have been pretty effective, because AT&T is now suing Verizon claiming that the ads are deceptive. 

I assumed it was only a matter of time before AT&T shot back at Verizon with an ad of their own, and they did. Sort of. AT&T's ad (which you can see below) featured Luke Wilson and some lame magnet board that listed all of the advantages that AT&T has over Verizon. I must say... after I saw the ad for the first time, I said (out loud): "Really? That's the best you could do?" It was just... bad. 

So here's the scorecard at this point.

Verizon: The most effective marketing campaigns the company has ever had
       The hottest phone of the year.
AT&T: Luke Wilson
           Magnets

But here's the thing, something that AT&T has that they didn't mention in their ad... is the iPhone; And the iPhone has Apple, who you could argue has had some of the most effective marketing campaigns in recent memory. And, in my brain... I imagine an internal conversation at Apple going something like this.

Marketing Genius 1: They have Luke Wilson. Luke Wilson... and a magnet board.
Marketing Genius 2: Seriously?
Marketing Genius 1: We have exclusivity for the next six months. We've got to do something.

Behold. The two Apple ads that do what Luke Wilson and his magnet board could not.

Apple iPhone Ad - What Time's The Movie? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.

Apple iPhone Ad - Did You See My Email? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.

Marketing War, commence.

Ads Now On Google Maps iPhone App

Apparently, now on the Google Maps iPhone app there are “Sponsored Links”. As you can see, the object that holds the links are a customized icon rather than the thumbtacks. Apple’s recent purchase of the mapping service company Placebase could suggest that Apple may be into making some new maps and stray away from Google. Google Maps is an app that comes pre-installed on the iPhone and never had ads. Since this came installed, it shouldn’t have ads of any kind on it. Google is a tyrant, always trying to add to their large monopoly. Ah what do you think about Google ads on the Google Maps app and why Apple has allowed it.