Super Bowl XLIII: Ads promote that feel-good aura

And so it came to pass that a terrible hardship swept over the land, and heavy were the hearts of the people. First the money temples failed. Then the mighty house of Lehman  fell silent. And double woe unto them who had followed the evil counsels of Darth Madoff, who was sometimes called Ponzi.

Beholding all this, the people were sore afraid. Even the wise man Bernanke and his sorcerers feared that their magic rods were but  twigs against a whirlwind.

But there was one sacred consumer covenant that yet remained: the Super Bowl. Although many in number were the cynics who predicted that the sagging fortunes of the Street of Wall might cast a pall o'er the game, there arose a chorus of defiant voices insisting that the Great Contest of the Inflated Pig Bladder would again be a marvel to behold, like the rising of Excalibur from the lake.

"The Super Bowl will be as grand an event as it always is," hath said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "The NFL brings people together like nothing else. The Super Bowl will once again be an extraordinary day of national unity."

Sing, then, O Muse, of how the glorious battle betwixt the Metallic Fabricators of Pittsburgh and the Fierce Red Avians of Phoenix went forward.  Long live the eternal celebration of HDTVs, light pickup trucks, high-sodium snack foods, luxury-box suites and aging rock bands with a new album to plug.

-- Reed Johnson

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(SNEAK PEEK: Pedigree joins the 2009 advertising pack. Photo courtesy PRNewsFoto/Mars Petcare US)