For the last few days, I’ve been following the search for Corey Smith and his companions after their boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico. Today that search officially ended. This story hit me doubly hard as as Smith not only played for my favorite NFL team, the Detroit Lions, but he also was an alum of my university, the North Carolina State University. I understand the rationale behind calling off the search. You can get hypothermia after days in even the warmest waters. I understand the rationale, but something about the circumstances seem odd, and giving up the search seems like just plain giving up. It’s times like these that I wish I knew about search and rescue and had all the time and resources necessary to keep up the search, but I don’t. It’s a helpless feeling.

Swimmer Michael Phelps has been caught in a picture with a smoking device of some sort. Apparently this is a scandalous act, so much so that he’s losing the endorsement of Kellogg’s. According to the public relations folks at Kellogg’s, it’s not the image they want to portray, and besides what will the kids think? Here’s what they’ll think — adults are full of bullshit about everything! Adults tell you that if you smoke weed, you’ll never amount to anything. You know — you won’t do something cool and respectable in your life like become President of the United States, the Governor of California, a Supreme Court Justice, etc. How does that jibe with fourteen career gold medals now?

Anyway, good luck on trying to tell kids not to do anything else that might be considered a bad habit or even impure, especially masturbation. John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes, was so obsessed with such things that he took a note from Rev. Sylvester Graham, the inventor of the graham cracker. Bland foods supposedly prevent self-stimulation. I’m sure that’s not the image that Kellogg’s would want to portray.

Now, I know Graham’s stated purpose for the graham cracker was to curb masturbatory tendencies, but maybe graham crackers could have been used to keep Phelps off the bong. I’d pretty sure that Michael Phelps would probably want to eat one (or many more) boxes of graham crackers or corn flakes after smoking out. Maybe instead of letting him loose as a Wheaties shill, they should have made him eat a few bowls. Bowls of cereal, that is, not anything to do with Mary Jane. Heck, I’d bet that if they kept him on, Wheaties’ sales would go through the roof, making it the new stoner snack of choice. Move over, Baked Cheetos.

It’s times like this that I’m glad my preferred cereal is Original Fiber One by General Mills. Not only does each 60 calorie, 1/2 cup serving give you 57% of your daily fiber requirements, it still allows you to masturbate and enjoy a jay afterwards. Well, it doesn’t explicitly state that on the box, but I’m almost sure that’s the case. And better yet, a diet high in fiber may prevent ass cancer. So have an entire cup of Fiber One and give your health 114%. Avoiding ass cancer –I’d take that over a gold medal any day.

I knew that there would be some mention of Superbowl commercials in tonight’s brand management class. Eh… I always hear people making a big deal about watching the commercials, sometimes only the commercials, even going so far as foregoing the big game itself. I guess it’s obligatory for marketing people to be interested in these sorts of things.

I learned shortly after beginning formal marketing studies that there’s more to marketing than promotions. It’s important to understand your company, customers, competitors and distribution channels (the 4 Cs). Only then can you concentrate on the 4 Ps of the product, pricing, place and (then and only then) promotion. I keep finding that there are extensions to this marketing mix. Services marketing adds three additional pieces (people, process and physical evidence), while Web 2.0 marketing adds four more (personalization, participation, peer-to-peer and predictive modeling). Anyway, the point of the matter is that there is more to marketing than quirky commercials and slick ads. My interest in commercials is how well they fit into the overall scheme of an entire marketing plan.

That’s not to say that I wasn’t interested in watching this year’s Superbowl commercials at all. It’s just that I was much more interested in the game itself. A few of the commercials this year stood out. Probably the most noteworthy one in my mind was the Doritos commercial that involved the guy and the snowglobe that he said was a fortune-telling crystal ball:

It was really quirky, and the Doritos people usually come up with something good every year.

I also thought that it was an important statement that some of the commercials capitalized on the current state of the economy. The ones I remembered included Hyundai…

…and Cash4Gold…

It was also good seeing Ed McMahon back in the pitch business after his recent bout of medical and money problems.

I also had the opportunity to get stoked for a couple of the upcoming movies. Particularly Angels & Demons…

…and the movie remake of The Land of the Lost…

Normally I don’t go for remakes, but I go for almost anything with Will Ferrell in it.

I’m sure there were some other good ones, but those are the ones that I particularly remembered. Correction, those are the ones that I remembered that I viewed favorably. I also remembered my disappointment in this year’s GoDaddy commercials. I’m a staunch GoDaddy loyalist, so I would be one of the ones to turn in just to see their commercials. I’m sure that part of it is due to the desire to push the limits butting heads with standards and practices. Kind of like the punchline to the standards and practices discussion in the Gee Whiz episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force — standards and practices ensures that a really funny idea is turned into a totally lame or mediocre end-product. But GoDaddy’s come out with a few good ones that are on their website (and a few that didn’t make it).

For the rest of the best Superbowl commercials, you can check out YouTube (or any number of sites whose commentators are blathering on-and-on about silly commercials).