Shanghai Super Bowl Spectacular

So this morning, Tim, Herbert and I took a cab over to Big Bamboo in Jinqiao. And by "this morning" I mean "barely after sunrise." BB was one of the many venues in town showing the Super Bowl. Kickoff was at 7:18 AM our time, so I was up at 6:30 on the dot. Ugh.

The place was packed with expats. There was a really good buffet of toast, eggs, tomato slices with cheese (a dish I've seen several times here), ham, bacon, sausage, muffins, and dumplings. Mmmm. I am really full from all the food and, combined with the small amount of sleep I got last night and the night befor, I might just to take a nap pretty soon :-)

I neither follow nor care about football, but I know that even in these situations it's more fun to pick a team to root for. Otherwise you have no emotional investment in the game. Because I wanted to pick the underdog, I picked the New York Giants and wound up pleasantly surprised when they came from behind to win with like 3 minutes left in the game :-) It was a pretty boring game. After the first 20 minutes, nothing much happened. ll the excitement came in the last 10 minutes when the Patriots (and then Giants) scored to close out the game.

We all know that one of the main reasons to watch the Super Bowl is the commercials. Unfortunately, our broadcast was being shown on Solar Sports, a Filipino sports network. Which means that the most exciting commercial we saw was for Alaska Powdered Filled Milk. The commercial involved a small child playing soccer (I mean, er, football) as his mom watched on, cheering. The kid has the ball, jukes past several defenders, and takes his shot. The opposing goalie dives valiantly but misses by half an inch, and the ball sails just past his outstretched fingers. The kid and his mom rejoice in celebration. At this point the voiceover explains how Alaska Powdered Filled Milk is directly responsible for this kid's skills. You see, APFM has phosphorous, calcium, Vitamin B, and other nutrients. These nutrients help eliminate the "growth gap", humorously depicted as two red silhouettes stuck in the middle of blue silhouettes on either end.

In the closing shot of the commercial, the same kid jumps skyward to head a ball. For a split second, he ages 20 years and turns into a muscular man, conferring upon him the extra power and head-butting skills that come with the transformation. As he drops down, he returns to his original age, and you can see a small milk moustache on his lips. Cut to mom cheering and then the jingle, which of course is in Tagalog except for the word "Alaska", so everyone in the bar would sing that last word.

We must have seen this commercial 20 times, which is why I can describe it in such detail. By the fourth or fifth time, everyone in the bar cheered loudly when the kid scored his goal. It was great. I was laughing so hard. And then everyone would chant "Pow! Dered! Milk!" when the logo showed up onscreen during the game itself. Hahaha. I will never look at Alaska in the same way again, which is interesting given that I've been to Anchorage and Fairbanks.