Facts....Facts...Facts
A Few SuperBowl Commercial Facts
Sixty-nine SuperBowl commercials were aired during the 2001 game. Each 30-second ad cost $2 million just for airtime, who knows what production costs were. Of these 69 commercials, just 17 were captioned for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. That means that 52 commercials were not accessible to millions of people around the world. After spending millions of dollars to produce and air their ads, 52 companies chose not to spend a couple of hundred more to caption them. Last year is also known for its lack of branding. While almost everyone remembers a commercial with a cowboy herding cats across the American badlands, almost nobody could tell you what they were advertising, or even who the company was! This was of course in part due to so many dot-coms who didn't necessarily have a product to advertise in the first place trying to get their name out there, but forgetting the bit about their name. This year's SuperBowl commercials will be a bit of a reversion back to the big names and players. Expect to see a lot of familiar brand names, a lot of celebrity faces, and chances are, a lot of heavy branding.
This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God. vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.
And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.
But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these.
This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.
"Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:30) Jesus says that.
"Righteousness is this: that one should. give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives." The Koran says that. (2.177)
Thus sayeth the Lord: "Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard." The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.
That is a powerful incentive: "The Lord will watch your back." Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.
A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it. I have a family, please look after them. I have this crazy idea.
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.
Get involved in what God is doing-because it's already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what He's calling us to do.
I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to ten percent of the family budget. Well, how does that compare the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than one percent.
Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:
I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.. Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor.
What is one percent?
One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet.
One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water.
One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.
America gives less than one percent now. Were asking for an extra one percent to change the world. to transform millions of lives-but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us.
One percent is national security, enlightened economic self interest, and a better safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, one percent is the best bargain around.
These goals-clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty-these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a Globalised World.
Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices.
But I can tell you this:
To give one percent more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.
There is a continent-Africa-being consumed by flames.
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did-or did not to-to put the fire out in Africa.
History, like God, is watching what we do.
- Bono, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, Feb. 2, 2006
Sixty-nine SuperBowl commercials were aired during the 2001 game. Each 30-second ad cost $2 million just for airtime, who knows what production costs were. Of these 69 commercials, just 17 were captioned for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. That means that 52 commercials were not accessible to millions of people around the world. After spending millions of dollars to produce and air their ads, 52 companies chose not to spend a couple of hundred more to caption them. Last year is also known for its lack of branding. While almost everyone remembers a commercial with a cowboy herding cats across the American badlands, almost nobody could tell you what they were advertising, or even who the company was! This was of course in part due to so many dot-coms who didn't necessarily have a product to advertise in the first place trying to get their name out there, but forgetting the bit about their name. This year's SuperBowl commercials will be a bit of a reversion back to the big names and players. Expect to see a lot of familiar brand names, a lot of celebrity faces, and chances are, a lot of heavy branding.
This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God. vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.
And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.
But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these.
This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.
"Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:30) Jesus says that.
"Righteousness is this: that one should. give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives." The Koran says that. (2.177)
Thus sayeth the Lord: "Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard." The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.
That is a powerful incentive: "The Lord will watch your back." Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.
A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it. I have a family, please look after them. I have this crazy idea.
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.
Get involved in what God is doing-because it's already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what He's calling us to do.
I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to ten percent of the family budget. Well, how does that compare the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than one percent.
Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:
I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.. Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor.
What is one percent?
One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet.
One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water.
One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.
America gives less than one percent now. Were asking for an extra one percent to change the world. to transform millions of lives-but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us.
One percent is national security, enlightened economic self interest, and a better safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, one percent is the best bargain around.
These goals-clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty-these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a Globalised World.
Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices.
But I can tell you this:
To give one percent more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.
There is a continent-Africa-being consumed by flames.
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did-or did not to-to put the fire out in Africa.
History, like God, is watching what we do.
- Bono, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, Feb. 2, 2006
posted by Himself at
3:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home