• Business Insider, Tuesday, January 4, 2011 11 AM

Let us repeat 16 times: college football -- oh what the hell, college itself -- exists for one reason only: advertising. Forget the education; you are in college to be subjected to marketing. Soon they'll start branding lectures. "The Punic Wars, a lecture by Dr. Flax, presented by Lockheed-Martin."

It's just a matter of time, folks. Back to football. It seems that the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla., is about, um, Capital One. One reporter at the game couldn't get around the Capital One branding, including branded bags taped to every seat filled with branded odds and ends.

For me, the greatest branding Capital One ever got was within that truly frightening viral video by those two Bank of America dweebs singing passionately to U2's "One" about how "we have Bank One ... on the run ... what's in your wallet? It's not Capital One." Sorry Cap One, you'll never play that down. Why not hire those two guys and have them do the halftime show?

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