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Food For (Super Bowl) Thought

By: Briskman Stanfield

Pickles and pizza, chips, ‘guac,’ and wings — these are a few of (Super Bowl) partay-ers fav-or-ite things. In fact, they are considered top of the list must-haves for the big day’s event.

According to the Bloomberg News an estimated 34.9 million Americans threw their own Super Bowl parties in 2011, and 61.2 million people indicated that they had planned to attend a Super Bowl party.

Parties call for food and food calls for spending. As a result, ads are bouncing off the web pages offering consumers deals and discounts in food they’ll need to complete their festivities. The Super Bowl is such an eating extravaganza that according to the USDA it is considered the second highest day of annual food consumption after Thanksgiving.

Yet it’s not necessarily a day for eating food of great nutritional value. The average Super Bowl party kicks off the fun with the forbidden..."junk food."

In one of the latest SuperValu surveys with Harris Interactive, people admitted that their eating habits during game time aren’t "exactly healthy," with one-third claiming dips as their fave snack.

While there are various types of dip, one famous at many Super Bowl parties is guacamole, making avocado sales higher at this time of year more than its original annual peak period, Cinco de Mayo. But on a positive nourishing note, when not consumed in massive doses, the avocado is a fruit that happens to be very good for you.

Yes, Super Bowl is powerful and everyone wants a piece of the foodie action. One stand-out this season, way ahead of the competition and complete with their own Game Day Playbook, is Trader Joe’s. The company is offering a cleverly designed party list of food items in its timely flyer for shoppers to check off and take to a TJ market when it conveniently becomes a shopping list.

But Super Bowl day is also a break-out time to advertise for many classic products that haven’t been seen in months, such as Vlasic (18 months to be exact). Once again, because this time of year is the biggest sales period even a jar of "cured cucumbers" sweetly (and sourly) celebrates this "national holiday," as it was referred to by Greg Greene, marketing director for Vlasic.

And while it’s not a SB party without the pizza, Papa John’s, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL and the Super Bowl, is offering a free pizza to sports fans who correctly guess the winner of the pregame coin toss. On the flip side, Domino's, the company that never needs to advertise, still will not, yet expects to sell an additional 11 million slices on the big day without even trying.

This proves that the Super Bowl is a gigantic reason for sponsors to show at all costs what they’ve got, simply because food not only talks a good game, but it also brings home the bacon.