Super Bowl LII

Overview

Super Bowl LII is the championship game for the 2017 NFL season. It took place between February 4th, 2018 between Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Eagles defeated the Patriots 41-33.

Background

The game took place between the New England Patriots, led by quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick seeking their sixth Super Bowl victory, and the Philadelphia Eagles, led by backup quarterback Nick Foles, who took over late in the season for starter Carson Wentz, and head coach Doug Pederson.^[1]Both teams finished the regular season 13-3 and were the number 1 seeds in their respective conferences in the playoffs. The Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Championship game; the Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game. The Eagles won their first Super Bowl championship in franchise history by defeating the Patriots 41-33.

Developments

Game Memes

Brady Trench Coat

Prior to the game, Tom Brady arrived to the game and was photographed in a large trench coat. Twitter user @HelloCullen tweeted several jokes about the image. His most popular said he looked like actress Tilda Swinton in a trench coat trying not to be recognized (shown below, left). Twitter user @gilbertjasono said Brady looked as though he were about to assassinate fictional character Jason Bourne, gaining over 600 retweets (shown below, right). The jokes were covered by The Daily Dot.^[11]

Brady Dropped Pass

During the game, several moments were joked about online. In particular, a failed trick play run by the New England Patriots in the first half which resulted in an incomplete pass to Tom Brady led to jokes (shown below, left), especially after the Eagles ran a similar play and scored a touchdown with a pass to quarterback Nick Foles (shown below, right).

Online, Twitter users joked about Brady's dropped pass by creating photoshops of the moment. A tweet by @onlyabl photoshopped the Super Bowl Trophy into the picture, gaining 87 retweets and 310 likes (shown below). Other users referenced a comment from Brady's wife Gisele Bundchen after the Patriots loss in the 2012 Super Bowl where she said "my husband can't throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time." A tweet from @ViceSports referencing her comment gained over 120 retweets (shown below, left).

Justin Timberlake Halftime Performance

Justin Timberlake performed the halftime show at Super Bowl LII. Notably, it was his first performance since his Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show appearance which ended with a "wardrobe malfunction" in which he tore part of co-performer Janet Jackson's outfit, revealing her breast.

The performance generated mixed reviews online. It came a few days after the release Timberlake's critically panned Man of the Woods and critics noted that the performance painted Timberlake in a needy light. There was no reference to the Janet Jackson performance fourteen years-prior. Writing in The New Yorker,^[4] Amanda Peutrisch noted that the performance seemed geared towards cell-phone usage:

Timberlake started out in a bunker somewhere deep below the stadium, performing his new single, “Filthy,” to a crowd waving a crop of illuminated mobile devices in the air. This, it turned out, was foreshadowing: in lieu of any proper guests, cell phones would be Timberlake’s co-stars… “Let me see you put your cell phones up, Minneapolis! Let’s light it up tonight,” he hollered, in what might be the bleakest stage banter I have ever heard.

In their review The Washington Post^[5] said the question "Do you like me?" seemed to radiate from every song, and "suddenly, the answer is no." In addition to being plagued by poor sound, a tribute to Prince by Timberlake led to criticism as Timberlake and Prince were known to not get along. Prince, a Minnesota native, was projected onto a screen and Timberlake sang along to a recording of Prince's "I Would Die 4 U." Prior to the concert, there were rumors Prince would appear as a hologram; Prince had previously decried the practice of reviving deceased performers in holograms as "demonic." At the end of the concert, Timberlake began singing "Can't Stop the Feeling" in the crowd next to an awkward-seeming teenager, in a moment that became a meme in its own right. A viral tweet from @onlychyld showing video from inside the stadium during the performance seemed to suggest the crowd was not enjoying the performance.

Notable Commercials

Ahead of the game, several companies released the commercials they aired during the Super Bowl.^[2] Of note, M&Ms ran a commercial featuring Danny Devito as a humanized version of their red M&M character (shown below, left). Bud Light uploaded a commercial in their Dilly Dilly series featuring the king from the commercials giving his subjects a rallying talk (shown below, right).

Additionally, Amazon ran an ad featuring CEO Jeff Bezos based off the concept that Alexa lost her voice (shown below, left). Skittles created a series of surreal ads starring David Schwimmer (shown below, right).

One commercial series that grew popular prior to the game features actors Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman lip-syncing raps from Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliot, respectively, on behalf of Doritos and Mountain Dew. The video reached the top of /r/videos with over 28,000 upvotes.^[3]

During the game, several commercials drew notoriety online. Tide ran a series of ads starring David Harbour of Stranger Things which ran on the premise that any ad featuring clean clothes could be seen as an advertisement for Tide laundry detergent. This was executed by having several commercials appear as though they would be ads for different products, only to have Harbour interrupt and say it was a commercial for Tide (examples shown below).

Other commercials sparked backlash and controversy. One of the more infamous commercials of the night was presented by Dodge RAM, which played an excerpt of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Drum Major Instinct" Sermon over footage of a truck (shown below).

The commercial was harshly criticized for going against the virtues King preached, even in that very speech.^[6] A since-deleted video created by Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs played alternative text from the sermon which indicted advertisements in general. The text of the speech reads:

Now the presence of this instinct explains why we are so often taken by advertisers. You know, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion. And they have a way of saying things to you that kind of gets you into buying. In order to be a man of distinction, you must drink this whiskey. In order to make your neighbors envious, you must drive this type of car. In order to be lovely to love you must wear this kind of lipstick or this kind of perfume. And you know, before you know it, you’re just buying that stuff. … I got to drive this car because it’s something about this car that makes my car a little better than my neighbor’s car. … I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I’m going to continue to say it to America.

Another ad which generated backlash was presented by Hyundai. In their ad, they had Hyundai owners at the U.S. Bank Stadium trip a metal detector. They then took those owners to a room where they played video featuring cancer survivors informing them that Hyundai donated part of its profits to cancer research. After the video, the Hyundai owners met the cancer survivors. Rolling Stone^[7] called it one of the worst ads of the evening.

Philadelphia Riots

After the Eagles championship win, Philadelphia fans celebrated with mass riots. Around the country, internet users followed along with the riots by listening to the Philadelphia City Police Scanner, which is available on Broadcastify.^[8] A popular thread by Twitter user @ronaldradvegan^[9] documented moments from the scanner. Philadelphia fans climbed poles throughout the city despite the police dousing them with hydraulic fluid to prevent exactly that.^[10] Notably, Eagles fans destroyed the awning of the downtown Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton hotel by climbing on it and jumping off it into the crowd. Twitter user @KrisKohlstedt^[11] documented the event by calling it "A play in three acts," gaining over 14,000 retweets and 39,000 likes (shown below).

Search Interest

External References