For sports junkies the world over, commercial breaks mean it's time to roll off the couch to grab another beer or boil the kettle.
Not in the US, on Super Bowl Sunday, an annual pageant of patriotism and commercialism canonizing athletes and US corporations.
Big game ads are as eagerly anticipated as the football itself, as companies kick-off multi-million dollar product launches with cheeky and macho spots.
Cavorting Spice Girls and Britney Spears, tear jerking parables to the American dream, divorced Duchess Sarah Ferguson, and international man of mystery Austin Powers have all had 30 seconds of Super Bowl fame since 1999.
"Audiences for Super Bowls have become as interested in the 30 minutes of ads as they are in the NFL championship game," John Antil, professor of business administration at the University of Delaware said.
Adverts are a nuisance in most places, but a survey in the US found 58 percent of viewers would rather miss part of the Super Bowl than the ad breaks.
Sunday's National Football League (NFL) showpiece, this year in its 40th incarnation between the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Detroit, was not merely the pinnacle of the hard hitting sport's season.
Top brands like Budweiser, Gillette, Ford, Pizza Hut and Sprint used the event as a multi-million dollar shop window.
P. Diddy and Jackie Chan starred for Pepsi, while Leonard Nimoy boldly goes where no man has gone before with the first Super Bowl spot for Aleve, a painkiller.
These are difficult days for advertising, with network television viewership challenged by proliferating cable and satellite stations and the Internet.
"It makes the Super Bowl even more important than it has ever been. The Super Bowl is the only thing left that really reaches the mass audience," Antil said.
Official figures put Super Bowl viewership at close to 90 million -- but since many fans watch at parties and in bars, the true figure could touch 130 million -- or nearly one in two Americans.
In a sign of the popularity of Super Bowl adverts, the NFL's cable network will this year feature 30 minute reruns of Super Bowl commercials back to back after the game.
In a departure from ads aimed at frat boy football fans, advertisers are set to temper the male bravado, and woo women -- who form just less than half of Super Bowl viewers.
Unilever has bought a spot for one of its praised commercials for "Dove" products which dumped bone-thin models for women of all shapes and sizes.
Budweiser ads, branded by some feminist groups as sexist, will reportedly cater more to female beer drinkers.
The National Organization for Women has lambasted past Super Bowl advertisements, charging they overwhelmingly target men, and make women the butt of jokes.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a