Super Bowl report

Baltimore Ravens players mill around the Superdome after the lights went out during the second half of the Super Bowl on Sunday in New Orleans. Moments after Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones scored on a 108-yard kickoff return, lights lining the indoor arena faded, making it difficult to see. Officials stopped play about 90 seconds into the third quarter, and the delay lasted more than 30 minutes.

Baltimore Ravens players mill around the Superdome after the lights went out during the second half of the Super Bowl on Sunday in New Orleans. Moments after Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones scored on a 108-yard kickoff return, lights lining the indoor arena faded, making it difficult to see. Officials stopped play about 90 seconds into the third quarter, and the delay lasted more than 30 minutes.

Monday, February 4, 2013

— Surge halts game for 34 minutes

The Super Bowl was halted for 34 minutes because of a power failure Sunday, plunging parts of the Superdome into darkness and temporarily silencing the TV announcers in the biggest game of the year.

The Baltimore Ravens were leading the San Francisco 49ers 28-6 when most of the lights in the 73,000-seat building went out with 13:22 left in the third quarter.

Auxiliary power kept the playing field from going totally dark, but escalators stopped working and the concourses were illuminated only by small banks of lights tied in to emergency service.

Philip Allison, a spokesman for Entergy New Orleans, which provides power to the stadium, said power had been flowing into the stadium before the lights failed.

“All of our distribution and transmission feeds going into the Superdome were operating as expected,” Allison said.

He said the outage appeared to originate in a failure of equipment maintained by stadium staff. It occurred shortly after Beyonce put on a 12-minute halftime show that featured extravagant lighting and video effects.

On the CBS broadcast, play-by-play announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms went silent. Sideline reporter Steve Tasker announced the problem of a “click of the lights” to viewers. Later, the halftime crew anchored by host James Brown returned to fill the time with football analysis. Brown said a power surge caused the failure.

“We lost all power up here at the press box level,” Nantz said after power was restored.

He and Simms were off the air for most of the 34-minute outage.

The failure occurred shortly after Jacoby Jones returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a 108-yard touchdown, the longest play in Super Bowl history, the push the Ravens to a commanding lead. But the momentum totally changed when play resumed.

The Niners scored two consecutive touchdowns and nearly pulled off a game winning drive in the closing minutes. They had first down inside the Ravens 10, but Baltimore kept them out of the end zone to preserve a 34-31 victory.

The blackout, it turned out, became more of a footnote than a spark to the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.

Still, it was a moment like no other in the title game.

The public address announcer said the Superdome was experiencing an interruption of electrical service and encouraged fans to stay in their seats. Some fans did the wave to pass the time.

Players milled around on the sidelines, some took a seat on the bench, others on the field. A few of the Ravens threw footballs around.

Superdome spokesman Eric Eagan told The Associated Press that the stadium’s technical staff were working more than hour after the outage to determine what caused it but still didn’t know.

Once the game resumed, CBS said all commercial commitments for the broadcast were being honored.

The network sold out its allotment of advertising at $3.8 million per 30-second spot.

“We lost numerous cameras and some audio powered by sources in the Superdome,” said Jennifer Sabatelle, vice president of communications for CBS Sports. “We utilized CBS’ backup power and at no time did we leave the air.”

Mayor Mitch Landrieu called the power outage “an unfortunate moment in what has been an otherwise shining Super Bowl week for the city of New Orleans.”

Beyonce dazzles

The rumors turned out to be true.

Beyonce did, indeed, reunite Destiny’s Child during the Super Bowl halftime show Sunday in New Orleans.

Mostly, however, the 31-year-old entertainer used the showcase to illustrate all the reasons why she left the band in the first place.

Beyonce shimmered with pure star power throughout the show, delivering the kind of charisma and stage presence that other dance-pop icons only wish they could summon.

It all looked so easy for Beyonce, despite the fact she was pretty much in constant motion throughout the show, dancing and singing with passion and style in front ofa packed Superdome crowd and a TV audience of megamillions.

Beyonce opened the show with an abbreviated version of her great 2003 single “Cra zy in Love,” moving quickly into a snippet of “End of Time.” Then Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland appeared in a flash and the Destiny’s Child reunion was on. The three reached into their back catalog for the smash “Independent Women Part I” and then veered into Beyonce’s solo songbook for the hit “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”

Then the brief reunion was over, as Beyonce closed the show with her own power ballad “Halo.”

Ads going long

Super Bowl ads this year morphed into mini soap operas.

Dwayne “The Rock” John son shrugged off aliens so he could get more milk for his kids in a Super Bowl spot for the Milk Processor Education Program. Anheuser-Busch’s commercial told the story of a baby Clydesdale growing up and returning to his owner for a heartfelt hug years later, and a Jeep ad portrayed the trials and triumphs of families waiting for their return of family members.

The reason for all the drama off the field?

With 30-second spots going for as much as $4 million and more than 111 million viewers expected to tune in, marketers are constantly looking for ways to make their ads stand out. And it’s increasingly difficult to captivate viewers with short form plots involving babies, celebrities, sex and humor - unless there is a compelling story attached.

“A lot of advertisers are running long commercials to tell these stories that engage people often in a very emotional way,” said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. “These spots that tell stories really stand out in the clutter.”

Chrysler started the long format commercial trend last year, with a two-minute spot starring Clint Eastwood that became popular.

This year, Chrysler led the trend again with its two minute salute to troops and their families. The ad featured Oprah Winfrey reading a letter from the Jeep brand to encourage families to stay hopeful.

Wendy Ochoa, a high school teacher who lives in Novi, Mich., said the ad was emotional.

“It tugs on your heartstrings,” Ochoa, 44, said.

“How can it not?”

Anheuser-Busch also pulled at heartstrings with a spot about a baby Clydesdale growing up and moving away from his farm and his trainer. Years later, the horse remembered the trainer after returning for a parade. He raced down a street to greet him.

“The Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdale made me cry,” said Wendy Ponzo, 49, who was watching the game in Pont Pleasant, N.J.

Sports, Pages 17 on 02/04/2013