This one’s for Paul.
We had been ready for Seahawks proprietor Jody Allen to pay tribute to her brother, the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, when accepting the Lombardi Trophy on behalf of the group he saved and she or he preserved for his or her hometown. It didn’t occur, so we’ll say it right here.
Jody Allen is getting well-deserved recognition for her position because the franchise chief. As Jerry Brewer wrote in The Athletic, she’s been an architect of the group’s success, worthy of emulation by different homeowners within the league.
“Jody’s been unbelievable,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald mentioned after the win final night time, pointing specifically to her position in guiding the group by final season.
What a outstanding household legacy, all the way in which round.
Up on the market? Forward of the Tremendous Bowl, stories circulated that the Seahawks would search a purchaser after this season. Including a championship could not instantly improve the group’s worth, however as Sportico famous, “it actually doesn’t damage.” We’ll be watching any tech execs that might step up for the 12s as a part of new possession.
Seattle’s massive win within the Valley: Positive, it was a win over New England, however because the blue and inexperienced confetti rained down within the coronary heart of Silicon Valley, it was onerous to not see a symbolic victory for the Pacific Northwest over the rival tech hub, particularly given the Hawks’ trouncing of the 49ers within the playoffs.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was amongst these celebrating the victory and congratulating our hometown champs, which made us keep in mind the time he once told a Seattle crowd, “Each time I am going to the Valley, I’m grateful that I’m right here.”
Listed below are details on the victory parade, set for this Wednesday.
A win for Floor: Microsoft’s tablets have grow to be a mainstay on NFL sidelines, serving to coaches and gamers assessment previous performs. This season, the corporate added new AI-powered options. “What a second for the Seattle Seahawks and Microsoft Floor,” mentioned Sandra Andrews, Microsoft Floor CMO, on LinkedIn.
Alexa+ will attempt to kill you? OK, so possibly solely in Chris Hemsworth’s creativeness, however the premise of Amazon’s Alexa Super Bowl ad — that its next-gen AI assistant is “scary good” — appeared to emphasise the “scary” half a bit a lot. Should you missed the upbeat decision whereas grabbing one other beverage from the fridge, you may need been left with the impression that Alexa is really AI’s killer app.
Possibly Ring is the true menace: In its own ad, the Amazon-owned safety digital camera firm mentioned it simply desires to assist discover misplaced pets through its “Search Celebration” characteristic that depends on AI to scan no matter’s passing by your own home, and faucet into neighboring doorbell cams.
Some viewers on social media shared that they had been “creeped out” by the tech, and a minimum of one privateness professional mentioned tugging at our coronary heart strings over a misplaced canine is a good way to make us willingly commerce our private information.
The “A.I. Bowl”? That’s what some are calling Tremendous Bowl LX after practically 1 / 4 of the commercials featured synthetic intelligence. The New York Occasions’ DealBook drew the historical parallel: the Crypto Bowl of 2022 (FTX went bankrupt by yr’s finish) and the Dot-Com Bowl of 2000 (Pets.com and others shut down months after the tech bubble popped).
The NYT pointed to comments by funding professional George Noble: “When a whole sector floods the costliest promoting actual property on the planet, it’s not a sign to purchase.”
See our earlier roundup of Super Bowl tech ads, on the off probability you’re not sick of all of the AI commercials by now.
Cease the presses: Particularly given the high-tech focus of the adverts, it was enjoyable to see an old-school newspaper entrance web page held up within the midst of the celebration. After all, that was a gimmick by The Seattle Occasions, with the generic headline, “CHAMPS,” and a inventory picture, within the spirit of the pre-printed hats and shirts anticipating a doable victory.
The precise front-page headline this morning is “REDEMPTION!” — not precisely impressed — however the Sports activities part got here by with an acceptable pun: ‘D’omination!
GeekWire’s Kurt Schlosser and Grants Go (Ore.) Day by day Courier editor Scott Stoddard — each former Web page One editors on the Seattle Publish-Intelligencer — settled on “D-HAWKS” in a post-game textual content alternate about their dream headline.
It’s such a very good feeling to know that the spirit of Mr. Rogers continues to be alive within the midst of all the things happening in our world. Woman Gaga’s rendition of “Gained’t You Be My Neighbor?” for Seattle-based Redfin/Rocket was one instance. Later got here an NFL ad with present and former gamers singing the just-as-classic “You Are Particular” with youngsters.
Each stood out as moments of calm within the industrial chaos.
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