Are you ready for the Super Bowl?
The big question for Super Bowl Sunday is when can we take a restroom break or grab another snack?
Certainly not during a TV ad -- since this is the premier chance of the year to see advertisements that already are making headlines.
We'd better figure out something, because this will be a long game: There seem to be at least 35 ads lined up. Whew!
But here's a hint: Many of the ads have already been released online. See some of them at timesfreepress.com/superbowl2015.
Some websites are already asking viewers to pick their favorites. Puppies are ranking high again, just as they did last year, and you've probably already read or heard about GoDaddy's backfired parody of Budweiser's 2014 heart-warming lost puppy commercial. USAToday reported that GoDaddy released its ad showing a greedy puppy mill owner only to unleash a social media firestorm among animal activists and puppy lovers.
"GoDaddy appears to have run off already with its tail between its legs," pulling the ad, USAToday wrote. The company is substituting a different ad, according to reports.
A 30-second spot during Super Bowl XLIX reportedly costs $4.5 million, plus whatever production value or talent fees are involved. Clearly advertisers think it's worth that cost to get their brand in front of more than 112 million viewers -- the number who reportedly watched last year's game.
One new national telephone survey reportedly found that 38 percent of folks who plan to watch the game think the commercials are more interesting than the players running around on the field.
Deflategate? Who cares. Watch the ads. See if anything can beat the 1995 Budweiser Ants who carried a beer across the sands of a desert to plop it neck-first into their ant hill. Within moments, the sand began jumping to the beat of KC and the Sunshine Band.
Bump, bump, bump, bump -- "do a dance, make a little love, get down tonight "
On the serious side: Pres Bowl
After several weeks of flirting and teasing with pundits and the public, Mitt Romney folded his 2016 presidential tent and said he would not seek the nation's top office for a third time. At least for now.
Although he has been polling higher than other candidates, he said he made his decision for "the best of the party."
"After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I've decided it is best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee," he said, adding that "one of our next generation of Republican leaders," a candidate not yet as well known or as well liked as him "may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee."
The move will certainly shake up polls. Last week, some 16 percent of surveyed Republicans favored Romney. The next most-liked potential candidate was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who garnered 12 percent.
But it's important to note what Romney didn't say. He didn't mention Bush, who clearly, at 61, is not "next generation." And he didn't say he was totally and completely closing the door on running again in the event of "any circumstances whatsoever that might develop that could change my mind."
Instead of saying no, he just said: "That seems unlikely."
Hmmm.