On Sunday, Feb. 3rd, the New England Patriots, and the Los Angeles Rams took the field to battle for the Super Bowl LIII champion title.
To some, it was no surprise the Patriots went home with their sixth Super Bowl title.
What was a complete shocker was the lack of comedic commercials and mediocre halftime show performance by Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi.
Super Bowl advertising cost companies nearly $5 million for a 30-second commercial.
This year’s notable ads were Bud Light and Game of Thrones mashup, Pepsi’s feature of Cardi B and the National Football League’s (NFL) celebration of the upcoming 100th season.
However, a vast majority of the commercials were a disappointment to some viewers who prefer the more witty and “laugh out loud” variety.
The other highlight of the Super Bowl is – of course – the halftime show.
This year, Maroon 5 took the stage as the headliner, performing hits such as “Girls Like You,” and “She Will Be Loved.”
Frontman of Maroon 5, Adam Levine, came into the performance slightly off key and the first song selection was not very popular.
Of all of the hits that Maroon 5 has had over the years, the group should have started the performance with a more recognizable song.
“I’ve listened to Maroon 5 since middle school, so naturally I was excited about their Super Bowl performance,” said Destiny Brooks, senior industrial and systems engineering student. “Unfortunately, it didn’t meet my expectations. I wanted so much more due to being a fan of their music… Following the act of queen Beyonce, you should be nothing short of amazing.”
Once Levine found his pitch and got into a more recognizable song, the crowd joined in quickly as expected. Moments later, the crowd is teased with a flash of SpongeBob and everyone in the stadium goes crazy as Travis Scott comes onto the stage with his smash hit “Sicko Mode.”
Atlanta native, Big Boi, also joined in on the halftime activities by rolling down the field in a decked out Cadillac, sporting a fur coat, and rapping his hit song, “The Way You Move.”
Unfortunately, due to the given time slot to perform, Travis was rushed on and off the stage very quickly in order to allow for Big Boi’s performance.
Although the transition into the former Outkast was also poor, the group’s hit song sounded very good on stage.
The NFL’s attempt in trying to mix two cultures was the downfall of the halftime performance.
Maroon 5, a pop band, rap star Travis Scott and Big Boi sounded very strange when announced, and the performance was anticlimactic.
Overall, the performance lacked strong transitions between artists and displayed a lack of preparation and cohesiveness.
“I feel like they tried to satisfy African-Americans by getting a couple black artists, but they ended up trying to mix two cultures together but it really didn’t work,” said Karson McLeod, a junior architectural engineering student.
For the final moments of the performance, Levine sounded good and sang some of their best hits but decided to strip which drew live fans crazy, but at home, viewers were not too impressed. The entire performance definitely had its flaws due to how everything was pieced together from start to finish. Adam didn’t have a strong start, fans were teased with a SpongeBob tribute, Travis didn’t have his signature sound, and worst of all the badly placed gospel choir tainted the performance.
Maroon 5 by themselves would have been a great act on their own, and along with including the SpongeBob tribute with the range of Adam’s voice, the reviews of the performance may have come out much better.
In the midst of NFL protests from entertainer friends of Colin Kaepernick, what may be the only way to secure better halftime entertainment may come from Kapernick once again being offered a position in the league.
Hopefully, the NFL learned from this performance, and in the future instead of multiple acts, the league will work to obtain one strong headliner to please all audiences which will ultimately bring the great entertainment that fans are used to back to the Super Bowl.
