Arts ^Entertainment
Wednesday, January 24, 1996 Page 9
the glassy eye
Mike Kluck
Ads make
Super Bowl
a winner
I’m sorry, but it’s too late.
For people who have a product to
sell and want to advertise it during
Super Bowl XXX, the most-watched
sporting event of the year, the dead
line has passed. Those advertising
spots were sold out two weeks ago.
But don’t worry, those people who
didn’t get their ads on television are
probably not too disappointed because
of the million dollars they saved.
Over the past few years, as more
and more Super Bowls have gone from
super build-up to super dud by the
second quarter, the only entertainment
fans watching the game have found
are the commercials aired throughout
the game.
That is why advertising executives
have made or lost careers on commer
cial gimmicks they have used to fill
that 30-second/million-dollar spot.
It is also the reason that Super
Bowl Sunday could be called pre
miere night for new commercials.
Last season, Pepsi scored big dur
ing the Super Bowl with its boy in the
bottle commercial.
For those of you who don’t remem
ber the commercial, a boy is using a
straw to get the last drop of Pepsi from
the bottom of the bottle. But in the
process, he sucks himself into the
bottle.
1 he commercial was also a success
for the video technology it used to
produce the commercial’s images.
But this advertisement was part of
a rebounding gimmick for Pepsi. Two
years earlier, Pepsi built up the idea of
having a three-dimensional commer
cial during halftime of the game.
But that one bombed as people
were unable to see the 3-D effects, and
another executive learned 3-D wasn’t
going to make a comeback.
Budweiser was one of the early
products to have huge success with
advertising for a Super Bowl com
mercial.
In the late ’80s, the “King of Beers”
introduced the nation to the pastime of
“Bud Bowl.” For weeks leading up to
the real game, Budweiser promoted
its advertising game to create sus
pense for the event.
Then, at various commercial breaks
throughout the Super Bowl game, the
“Bud Bowl” would take place. In the
beginning the Bud Bowl was com
plete with bottled coaches throwing
clipboards, the quart bottle (nicknamed
the Fridge) running in for a touch
down and trick plays.
As that year’s Super Bowl score
grew farther and farther apart, the
“Bud Bowl” became more and more
exciting until Budweiser produced a
dramatic come-from-behind victory.
As the years have gone on, the
“Bud Bowl” has dwindled in both
popularity and creativity.
Budweiser, realizing this drop-off,
again came up with a creative new
advertisement last year by using toads
to promote Budweiser. This ad has
taken off throughout the past year
with various creative versions being
added to it.
So no matter whom you root for or
how bad the score becomes in the
game, probably the best debate on the
day after the game will be who won
best commercial.
Kluck is a graduate student In journal
ism and a Daily Nebraskan senior reporter.
Old-time humor
81-year-old comedian likes to get the laughs
Travis Heying/DN
L.D. Focht, 81, spends part of his retirement years doing comedy. Focht said he believes comedy has done a lot for him.
By Gerry Beltz
Senior Reporter
George Bums, look out. L.D. Focht is coming.
Focht, 81, takes part of his time to do stand-up
comedy in and around Lincoln.
“I just fell into it,” he said.
Focht, a 1948 graduate of UNL in business
administration, said he First discovered his love
for evoking laughter after he retired from the
postal service in 1973.
“One funny thing about that,” he said, “my
Final title with the postal service was ‘Chief
Personnel Director,’ but I was never called that.
“I was called a lot of other things, but never
‘Chief Personnel Director.’”
It was a Nebraska summer to thank for Focht ’ s
desire to be a comedian, he said.
“One hot summer, I went out without wearing
a hat,” he said, “and I’ve been thinking funny ever
since.”
Focht has performed his impressions of Rodney
DangerField, John Wayne and W.C. Fields in a
plethora of surroundings, including senior din
ers, conventions, banquets, parties and even a
fraternity at UNL, he said.
“I’ll do an act at the drop of a hat,” he said.
Focht even took his act to the waves once,
when he filled in for the regular entertainment on
an ocean cruise.
“The emcee almost died, but I went up and
helped him out a couple of times,” he said.
“Eventually, someone in the audience yelled
out ‘Hey, get Leonard to tell another joke,’ so I
hopped back on stage and said, ‘and now, back by
popular demand...’”
Being a comedian has brought Focht no re
grets, he said.
“It really has done a lot for me,” he said. “It
loosens a person up and improves the personal
ity.
“It makes my day every time I go out. I’mkind
of a ham; I like to get the laughs.”
But when it comes to the younger generation
of comedians, Focht isn’t very impressed. Today’s
comedians lack the style of their predecessors,
including the likes of George Bums and Jack
Benny, he said.
“Some of them today are so rapid-fire,” he
said. “Their timing just isn’t as good as the old- *
timers.”
Focht did have some advice for those who
were thinking about pursuing his line of work.
“If you flub a joke, you have to have some
thing ready to throw in there to cover it up,” he
said. “If you’re playing the piano and hit a sour
note, it just kind of hangs out there.”
The usual fee for Focht’s 20-minute act is $25.
But that figure is negotiable and, in certain cases,
unnecessary, Focht said.
_ “Those people down at the senior diner don’t
have a treasury,” he said, “so I just perform for
free.
“I really don’t care if I get paid or not. If
anybody asks me, I’ll entertain ‘em.”
Any plans on quitting anytime soon?
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I’m 81 years old
and don’t feel a day over 90.
“It’s like George Bums said: ‘If I quit, I’d
die.’”
Benoit to play at Zoo Bar
Photo courtesy of Justice Records
Blues man Tab Benoit will bring his
guitar-driven style of jazz/blues/rock
n’ roll to the Zoo Bar tonight.
By Cliff Hicks
Music Critic ”
Southern shotgun-style blues master Tab
Benoit will blast out his jazz/blues hybrid tonight
at the Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St.
-Benoit is only 28 years old,
Concert yet with three ful1 releases un
Proviouf ^er ^is as wel1 as an aP"
ncvICW pearance on “Baywatch
rMignts, Benoit has been there
and done that.
Both his first and second
releases, “Nice and Warm” and
“What I Live For,” have gar
nered praise from many crit
_ ics. But the response to his
latest album, “Standing On The
oamc, nas oeen even oetter.
Ever since he learned to play guitar in his
hometown of Baton Rouge, La., Benoit has been
playing wherever he can, starting at weddings
See BENOIT on 10
UPC sponsors
juggling event
at Union tonight
From Staff Reports
Ron Pearson, juggler extraordinaire, will throw
-his stuff around the Centennial
University Room on the second floor of
Program the Nebraska Union tonight at
Council 8 D . . .
Pearson, who regularly ap
pears on the Encore channel
and will appear in the upcom
ing Leslie Nielsen film
“Spyhard,” combines juggling
and comedy in his perfor
mances.
- This event, sponsored by
the University Program Council, is free to stu
dents with identification and $3 for non-students.