In yet another example of why you can’t trust everything you read, a Colorado man is trying to set the record straight so his phone stops ringing: despite an ad in Denver-area papers that indicated otherwise, he is not selling his house in exchange for a pair of tickets to Super Bowl 50. [More]
Super Bowl
Super Bowl Tickets Going For Record Prices In The Resale Market
By 1.26.16
If you’re planning on heading to California on Feb. 7 to catch the Super Bowl showdown between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers, be ready to have your bank account sacked. Tickets for the big game are currently selling for record-high prices.
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To Make Up For Outbreaks, Chipotle Wants To Cater Your Super Bowl Party
By 1.22.16
Since Chipotle’s foodborne illness issues came to light last fall, the company has tried to win back customers by sending its CEO on an apology tour, revamping its food service standards, and now it’s looking to customers’ wallets. [More]
Uber Will Get A Special Drop-Off And Pick-Up Area For Passengers Traveling To The Super Bowl
By 1.20.16
For the first time ever, Super Bowl ticketholders will be able to take an Uber to the big game: the ride-hailing company has put down a big chunk of money to snag a special drop-off and pick-up zone near Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, close to San Francisco. [More]
Taco Bell Will Reportedly Use Super Bowl To Announce Year-Old “Quesalupa” Idea
By 1.13.16
It’s been a year since we first got wind of the Taco Bell “Quesalupa” — or as Conan O’Brien put it, the “case of lupus” — and 11 months since the company began testing the vaguely taco-like object (complete with a soft, cheese-stuffed shell) in Dayton, Ohio. Now it looks like the Bell is set to unleash this menu item nationwide. [More]
Taco Bell Teases New Menu Item By Not Providing Any Details On It
By 1.7.16
What’s the best way to get people trying to guess your secret? By telling them you’ve got a secret and leaving the rest to their imagination. That seems to be the tactic for Taco Bell’s latest plan to drum up hype for a new menu item.
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The Going Rate For A 30-Second Super Bowl Commercial Spot Tops $5M
By 8.6.15
Even though last year’s slate of Super Bowl ads was largely regarded as ho-hum, and even though advertisers are increasingly subverting the “surprise!” effect of Super Bowl sunday commercials by relentlessly teasing their big-ticket spots online days in advance, the NFL’s big game is still TV’s biggest annual draw, and so the cost to be a part of it is going up again. [More]
Exec Behind Nationwide’s “Dead Boy” Super Bowl Ad Steps Down
By 5.6.15
Not too many ads from the most recent Super Bowl will be remembered years from now, perhaps with the exception of the Nationwide insurance commercial that was instantly dubbed the “dead boy” ad by the Internet, because… well, the star of the spot is an adorable moppet who also happens to be dead. Now the Nationwide exec who signed off the infamous commercial has stepped down from his top-level job at the insurance giant. [More]
Super Bowl Ticket Broker Files For Bankruptcy After Not Being Able To Provide Paid-For Tickets
By 5.5.15
A lot of people who purchased legitimate Super Bowl tickets months in advance through ticket brokers later found themselves watching the game on TV after those brokers claimed they were unable to get the tickets that were promised. One New York-based broker who is being sued by the state of Washington recently filed for bankruptcy protection as dozens of customers look to get refunds on their tickets and other related travel expenses. [More]
Katy Perry’s Attempt To Claim A Trademark On “Left Shark” Design Fails Like A Left Shark
By 4.22.15
The “Left Shark” phenomenon that overtook the world after Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show has long since exited the cultural dialog, and yet the battle rages on over whether or not the pop star can claim a trademark on the uncoordinated, anthropomorphic fish. [More]
Katy Perry’s Lawyers Go After Vendor Selling Figurines Of Super Bowl Phenomenon “Left Shark”
By 2.6.15
Whether you watched the Super Bowl halftime show live or were chained to the stove frying homemade mozzarella sticks for your friends, you probably know about “Left Shark” by now — the costumed figure to the audience’s left of pop star Katy Perry who didn’t quite seem to know the right dance moves, and subsequently charmed his awkward way into our hearts. But trying to capitalize on that phenom’s fame likely won’t end well, as one 3D designer found out this week. [More]
Should For-Profit Colleges Be Allowed To Spend Taxpayers’ Money To Put Their Names On NFL Stadiums?
By 2.5.15
This past Sunday — and for the second time in seven years — the Super Bowl was played at a stadium carrying the University of Phoenix name. The for-profit online school paid more than $150 million to slap its brand on the stadium, with much of that money coming from taxpayers. Some groups say that for-profit schools should not be allowed to make such splashy marketing investments at a time when there are so many questions about the quality of education provided by for-profit institutions. [More]
Ticket Broker Can’t Deliver Customer’s $4K Super Bowl Tix… Until Local News Gets Involved
By 2.4.15
Here’s the thing about buying Super Bowl tickets: You can get them for a relatively decent price — even through a broker — if you buy them early enough, before anyone knows which teams will even be making the playoffs, let alone playing in the big game. But you stand the chance of those tickets mysteriously vanishing when a ticket broker realizes he can get a lot more for them from last-minute buyers. [More]
You’re Just Going To Have To Guess The Phone Number Of This Hooters If You Want To Order Wings
By 2.2.15
It doesn’t matter whether Consumerist friend Chris was hungry for some Hooters wings last night or not. Because the thing is, Chris isn’t a mind reader, which is apparently what whoever composed the restaurant’s sign must think. [More]
Super Bowl Weekend Is The Big Show For Pizza Box Manufacturers
By 1.30.15 — Updated: 1.31.17
Did you know that there’s a pizza season? Pizzerias say that their business picks up in October, and the bump lasts through the NCAA tournament in March. 12.5 million pizzas are ordered on Super Bowl Sunday alone. Supporting all of that delivery business in a very literal sense is a crucial American industry: the factories that make pizza boxes. [More]
Dish’s “Reverse AutoHop” Will Cut Out Everything But The Commercials From The Super Bowl
By 1.29.15
Aside from the scrumptious gameday food, you could argue that for many people the best part about the Super Bowl is the commercials. But to get to those often funny, sometimes disappointing 30-second spots, you have to spend a majority of your time watching two teams you don’t really care about throw and kick a football down a long green field. To appease consumers who don’t care about the game but do care about the commercials, Dish Network is turning its commercial-skipping technology into game-skipping technology. [More]
GoDaddy Pulls Super Bowl Ad Featuring Danica Patrick Amid Puppy Mill Complaints
By 1.28.15
If GoDaddy wanted to find out how people feel about puppy mills, well, it’s done that, at the cost of one of its intended Super Bowl ads. After a tease of the spot hit the web, featuring a lost puppy who finds his way back to Danica Patrick, the driver for an online puppy business, the public lashed out at GoDaddy through social media. [More]
NBC To Stream Super Bowl To Convince People To Buy Cable
By 1.20.15
Rather than requiring that online viewers prove they have cable TV subscriptions in order to watch its live stream of the Super Bowl, NBC has decided that giving un-cabled Americans online access to the year’s biggest non-curling single-night sporting event is the perfect opportunity to convince people to ante-up for pay-TV. [More]
