Super Bowl XLVI is history, and the NY Giants are champions again.  Anyone that knows me, knows I love football, and that I am a die-hard Washington Redskins fan.  Hey, if my team couldn't be in the Super Bowl, I figured I may as well root for someone from our division right?

Just some passing thoughts on this Super Bowl, the commercials, and everything related to the greatest spectacle in sports!

Super Bowl & Football Thoughts

• Eli Manning IS an elite quarterback. His place in football history along with his spot in the Football Hall of Fame is secure.  
• Archie Manning not only showed us what a good quarterback can do; he showed us how to raise good young men and provide them with the opportunity to succeed at what they wanted to do.
• Tom Coughlin is a Hall of Fame Coach.  No discussion necessary.
• The Patriots were out played and out coached.
• Tom Brady and at times the Patriots, looked like they had never been to a Super Bowl; that was stunning to me. Intentional grounding out of your own end zone?  Really? Meanwhile the Giants looked like they were in control the entire game. 

The Commercials

• Client Eastwood is still THE man!  That Chrysler commercial gave me chills. Yes, they took government money in a bailout, but they paid it back.  Great job Clint & Chrysler.
• Dogs are lovable and they sell!  Several commercials featuring dogs that were very well done.
• Pepsi still has it! Or at least their marketing firm does.  The Castle Commercial was classic Pepsi, a great spot.
• Sex sells. GoDaddy.com. Do we expect anything more from them? 
• Ferris. Bueller.  VW & Mathew Broderick; instant classic.
• We never get tired of Betty White.
• I am very tired of promos for The Voice.
• The M&M commercial was funny! Brown is the new color and the red M&M stripping was hilarious!  Thanks Dawn ( @VAinParadise ) for the reminder! 

Madonna & The Halftime Show

• Wondering if Bridgestone is pleased with what they paid for?
• At 53, Madonna can still move and looked great. I know I don't look half that good at 47! 
• Dancing in 8" heels can lead to certain trips; but she did have great recovery.
• Lip syncing: never have liked it and think it's lame.  Had a great discussion on Twitter last night with Sueanne Shirzay ( @SueanneShirzay ) about this.  I respectfully disagree with her; no matter what the size of the venue, you shouldn't have to lip sync if you can still sing :)
• MIA flipping off the nation.  Really; what that necessary?  For this reason alone, I think the show sucked; just not the venue for it.

Social Media & The Super Bowl

• A lot was made prior to the game about social media and the NFL, but to me the most use of social media was the advertisers. Several commercials were leaked via advertisers YouTube channels prior to airing on Super Bowl Sunday. I believe there was an attempt to recereat VW's success last year with the Darth Vader commercial.  
• Social media cannot be forced.  Communities and discussions cannot be forced. None of the spots created that Darth Vader buzz prior to the game.
• I noticed, especially on Twitter, more discussion of the commercials than the game.  Found this very interesting.

Those are my thoughts and ramblings.  How about you? Did you like the game, the show, the commercials?  Or did you not even watch?

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There is no argument that Facebook is a major player in social media, and the impending IPO could be HUGE financially for those willing to invest in stock in the leading social site.

So, why is this good news as it relates to free enterprise. it is a shinning example of how one individual can create something that becomes a platform used worldwide.  Think about it, Mark Zuckerberg decided to start the site on his own. He didn't go to his local or federal government for help.  He made the decision to start the company, albeit for reasons not connected to success (check out the movie The Social Network - http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/  for more on that); but that is not the point.  The point is, one individual created what has become the leading social media site with over 800 million active users!  That is amazing by itself; but now thinking abou the company going public and the money that it will generate for Facebook is staggering.  The point is too that he did this in a free market, free enterprise environment that we have here in the United States.  We should all be thankful that it exists and should support it as much as we can.

This also means that Facebook's perfromance, their profits and losses will be key due to the fact that shareholders will expect results.  It should be interesting to see how that impacts advertising revenue and future changes to Facebook

Good luck to Facebook and it's investors. Will you be buying stock in Facebook?

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I must admit, I have been a fan of Ford motor company for years. Over the years I have owned two Ford's and my family has been loyal to the Ford brand for many years.  It didn't hurt that my uncle, Bob Ripley worked for a local Ford Dealership for several decades.  Anyone familar with southern West Virginia will recognize the name Dodson-Hager Ford.

Thinking of the cars Ford has produced over the years brings back great memories.  Come on, the Ford Mustang?  How great was and is that car?  Well, with the exception of the Mustang II during the 1970's, but we can overlook that period in time. 

The current line up of Ford products seem to further the quality of the brand. I do not own a Ford currently, but their trucks, SUV's and some of their cars are worth the look in my opinion.

The current line up Ford commercials, at leeast the interveiew style commercials, stink in my opinion!

If you haven't seen them; here is one:

Recently these commercials have underwent a makevover of sorts, shifting the interview to outside, on the steps of a building in impromptu press conference styel format.  Complete with someone, portraying a photographer, running up to snap pictures of the interviewee. So, what is my problem with the commercials?  They are old school and expect the viewers to believe that these Ford owners are surprised to be interviewed.  They show "reporters" writing down answers and sticking microphones in the faces of the owners.  And, they have NO reference to social media whatsover! Even at the end of the commercial, no website link, Twitter image, Facebook logo or YouTube brand page link.  I guess what makes me shake my head is that Ford has a strong online and social presence, so why hide it?  Click over to Facebook; they have MULTIPLE pages; one for each model!  It's like these commercials are produced by a complete different marketing department; and they seem so fake! They are not attempting to connect or build a community at all with these commercials. 

Do shoppers turn to social to research cars prior to purchasing?  Yes, check out this post from Splash Media:  Social Media Marketing CAN Fuel Auto Sales - If Done Right.  Cars.com has done it for years, so can all other brands. 

Those are my thoughts, and a bit of a rant I suppose. But what do you think? Do you like the commercials? Are they effective? 

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Social media is a force for good. It enables family and friends to stay in touch across the world, enables children to communicate with their friends by smartphone and Facebook, companies to promote their goods through viral seeding and news to spread like wildfire around the globe. It leads to more open societies, more scrutiny of wrong-doers, more accountability through shared knowledge.

So why are some people increasingly disturbed about the rise of social networking, and the technology that facilitates it?

Disturbing Findings 

The news this week that Carrier IQ has been contacted by a US Senator to explain the workings of their smartphone software, with its troubling security and privacy implications, is causing a storm. Carrier IQ insist that the information their software collects is simply to enable their operators to diagnose glitches in the operating systems. But security analyst Trevor Ekhart reports that he found the CIQ software was recording users’ locations, keystrokes and the sites they visited, without asking their permission or offering an opt out clause. In effect the company could record every single action performed on a smartphone without the owner knowing, since the software was installed as standard, and details of it don’t appear on menus. The software has been installed on Samsung handsets and on some HTC Android phones. Carrier IQ initially tried to silence Eckhart by resorting to court action, but digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation intervened. Now Senator Al Franken, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law has weighed into the debate, and Carrier IQ have until 14^th December to reply to his letter to them, asking for urgent clarification on the matter. The software is estimated by Carrier IQ to be installed on more than 140 million devices, but Apple have moved to remove the software from the iPhone 4S and other devices running its iOS5 system software.

Privacy and Security Implications 

The spat raises interesting questions about the privacy of our data and the information being gathered by mobile phone operators without our knowledge. If it is possible that our personal information, including the contents of emails, SMS and social networking interaction can be gathered and used without our knowledge and permission, then questions must be raised about the potential for exploitation of this information by hostile parties, or even government.

The recent riots in the UK, during which some MPs called for the suspension of Blackberry’s BBM and messaging system, and Twitter, highlights the threat that politicians feel that social networking capacity poses. They argued that rioters were using social networking to ‘orchestrate’ riots, to co-ordinate attacks on police and to evade detection. The UK government refused to comply with the requests to suspend the service, but later information was gathered from social networking sites and used as evidence during the prosecution of rioters.

Blackberry and Facebook representatives pointed out to a Home Affairs Select Committee that although social media had been used ‘maliciously’ in some instances, it had to be viewed in a balanced way. Facebook and Twitter were use for social good during the riots too, reassuring family that their loved ones were safe, warning to the police about areas to watch, and co-ordinating the clean-up in the following days. Data gathered from Blackberry communications enabled the police to prevent incidents as they were able to follow the thread of planned attacks.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
 

But, as Juvenal asks, who watches the watchmen? If the technology exists to collect this kind of data for commercial reasons, it would be unsurprising if the security services were not keenly interested in the data too. But who decides what sort of activity is deigned ‘hostile’ or ‘subversive’. And where does individual freedom lie? The prospect of governments being able to track citizens through software such as Carrier IQ, without our knowledge, is a hellish vision of the future. What better way for security agencies to monitor terrorist activities? And that’s a good thing, right? Security agencies can already gain access to electronic data retrospectively, in order to obtain convictions. MPs calling for a suspension of social networking sites during times of disorder are opening up issues of privacy, policing and state control that need addressing urgently. We don’t want riots and terrorism, but we don’t want software installed on our mobile phones, which collect private communications without our knowledge either. Big Brother could be just around the corner, and we need to support Senators like Al Franken who are keeping a close eye on this issue.

Those are my thoughts; do you agree or disagree?

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Recently during a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon while working, I turned the T.V. on for background noise.  Since I was tired of my music library, my thought process was that the T.V could provide something to tune out while I worked.  See mom, I still do that; it worked in high school and it works now! Well, for the most part; read on to see what I mean.

After a couple of minutes of bouncing around on various channels, I settled on Smokey & The Bandit on one of the movie channels.  Talk about a classic movie!  Well, classic for my generation, not classic like Gone With The Wind or something of that nature.  Other than watching a few scenes, I mostly worked while reciting  famous lines from memory; most of them compliments of Jackie Gleason's character, Sheriff Buford T. Justice.  Also laughed at myself for remembering a lot of the lines.

Watching and listening to the movie sparked thoughts of goals and how Sheriff Justice was a master at goal setting and goal pursuit, even if he never reached his goal; catching Smokey.

Think about it:

• He had one single goal in mind; catching and arresting Smokey.
• Nothing kept him from pursuing his goal; not being out of his legal jurisdiction (comfort zone); not dealing with unexpected circumstances like losing the top of his car (roadblocks), nor having his not so smart son with him (dealing with others).
• He never lost focus of his goal, catching Smokey; not matter what happened along the way or what roadblocks he encountered.

How may times do we stop pursuing a goal because we are out of our comfort zone, we have roadblocks or we struggle with others?

Those are my thoughts on how a hilarious movie character reminded us that we need to keep pursuing goals, no matter what.  Your thoughts?

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As we welcome the new month of September, ideas are running around in my head this morning that I wanted to put on paper before they were pushed out by the busyness of the day.