- When inviting guests, emphasize that you’re not throwing a Super Bowl party. You’re celebrating a day when millions of people watch a TV show that traditionally has been so boring, the only way to assure viewership is through exciting commercials, including a series that pits Anheuser-Busch bottles and cans against each other in a computer-simulated game that unfolds during the course of the so-called “real” game. Bud Bowl parties are not a vehicle for mass TV watching; they are intended as a vehicle for talking about mass TV watching. Be clear about this. After all, you wouldn’t want to embarrass one of the countless sportsaholics who actually believe that Super Sunday is all about football.
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- Be fuzzy on the starting time because it’s not easy to find out when the network airs the opening nanosecond of the Bud Bowl. Before my first Bud Bowl party, I called the TV station for the exact starting time and was told that commercial scheduling is “proprietary information.” In other words, not having bought the airtime, I didn’t have the right to know the schedule. So unless you have connections and can learn the time of the first Bud Bowl spot, you may want to tell guests “The party officially starts shortly after the Super Bowl begins.”
As host, you may want to break the ice by throwing out a question. For instance, “If Anheuser-Busch gave you the $800,000 it is wasting this year to buy each 30 seconds of airtime, how would you spend it?” A good follow-up is “How long do you suppose it will be until Super Bowl advertisers are paying $1 million for a half minute of air?”
