A tale of two companies. It was the best of advertising. It was the worst of advertising.

This whole Super business really gets my socks in a knot. The whole idea that you can only use the words super and bowl in the same sentence if the you have been blessed by the NFL. Of course the NFL deserves to be paid for certain rights associated the promotion and playing and airing of the actual football game. But to say that nobody can mention that a certain big game is taking place and using the name of that big game.

Here are graphical excerpts of two e-mails I received recently. One must be from an NFL partner:

And the other from just another company trying to sell stuff:

I always laugh when I see the big game mentioned. Is it someone who wants somehow to steal from the NFL? Of course not. I guess it doesn’t matter much that they can’t say anything about how super the game is going to be when they watch it on their new high-definition TV. I just have to laugh, is all.

A tale of two companies. One famously pushes the envelope every year with their ads, trading sex for publicity. I don’t care much about that. I get my domains elsewhere much cheaper, thank you very much. When I want a domain, I don’t go with anybody’s daddy.

The big game company is one I am happy to have a relationship with. Good products at great prices. I guess I won’t see their name on my TV screen tonight. But the next time I want to buy some of these or some of these — definitely when I’m buying one of these, I’ll get a super deal.