Super Bowl LII: All Glory Is Fleeting?

Following up on Super Bowl LII: Correlation and Causation?

The SBI or Super Bowl Indicator: 

In January 2017, the Patriots (AFC) won = a bear market for 2017? Hardly. This year, the Eagles (NFC) won = a bull market for 2018? TBD. 

The SBI has been correct 40 out of 50 times, as measured by the SP500 Index, for a success rate of 80%. 

Moral of the story? Correlation between disparate political and sporting events does not equal causation.  Ahhhh, not so fast Joe, do they?  Faithful readers know my Nattering better by now. 

As promised yesterday, we deliver on your moment of Presidents, politics, stock markets, causation, correlation and Super Bowl Zen....

1. On Tuesday, November 6, 2012; 129.2 million votes were cast in the Presidential election won by Barack Obama over Mitt Romney.

2. On Sunday, February 3, 2013; At some point during the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII won by the Ravens over the 49ers, 164.1 million total viewers tuned in.

Four years later...

3. On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 136.6 million votes were cast in the Presidential election won by Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.

4. On Sunday, February 5, 2017; at some point during the FOX broadcast of Super Bowl LI won by the Patriots over the Falcons, at least 170 million total viewers tuned in. 

Of the related 190.8 million social media interactions, 175.5 million were on Facebook and 15.3 million on Twitter.

This year...

On Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, 45.6 million total viewers tuned in to watch POTUS Trump deliver his first State of the Union address. 

Of the related 21 million social media interactions measured, 41% occurred on Facebook, 7% occurred on Instagram and 52% occurred on Twitter.

Since peaking at 114.4M with SB XLIX in 2015, average viewership has declined to 103.4M with Sunday's SB LII. As opposed to average viewership, total viewership, or the amount of U.S. viewers who watched at least some part of the game during the broadcast, is on the rise, with last years SB LI garnering a record 172M

Last Sunday, February 4, 2018, roughly 188.5 million Americans watched or tuned in at some point during the Super Bowl LII broadcast, which was the TENTH consecutive Super Bowl to reach an audience of over 150 million Americans (Nielsen historical average.)

Your moment of Zen...

Ponder for a minute, because in the grand scheme of things, all of the above is an example of sobering data that NO ONE will pay attention to.  

As witnessed by Super Bowl viewership and related social media interaction dwarfing Presidential elections and State of Union addresses, there would seem to be more public interest in... 

Flacco, Ryan, Brady, Foles, Belichick, Jackson's breast and Timberlake than...

Obama, Romney, Clinton, Ryan, Trump, the State of our Union, the Constitutional crisis which has been unfolding over the last decade, and the recent acceleration of populism that will shape its very future. 

Perhaps our Presidential elections, congressional sessions and SCOTUS deliberations need half time shows, lots of honey shots with scantily clad cheerleaders, and fabulous sports babe reporters wearing short tight dresses?

In any event, pun intended, when your gladiators are paid in the hundreds of millions, and billions in public funds are diverted and perverted in use, to build coliseums for housing sporting events... 

while our education, healthcare, animals, poor, children, starving, homeless and the planet suffer, you know exactly where that societies priorities are, and where it is headed in no uncertain terms.  

This Super Sunday, we hope all enjoyed the game, our union and their freedom, while they still could.  And now this friendly and still prescient reminder...

 
"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. 
The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.” - Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

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