• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, February 4, 2019

First of all, let me just say to all of you so-called football fans who thought the Big Game was “dreary,” no it wasn’t dreary. It was an epic defensive battle with a bit of excellent punting thrown in for good measure. 

You people probably don’t get soccer, either. 

OK, now that's off my chest, on to what some think is the most important part of the telecast: the ads. 

I was with a small gathering during the game, which happened to include the funniest person I know. Her vote for funniest ad was the T-Mobile spot about what’s for dinner. It had her howling. And she has an infectious howl which had the whole group yucking it up very quickly.  

Something about that ad struck a universal chord in a very funny way. 

That Kia ad about the small town in Georgia was beyond somber. It was downright depressing and rife with self-esteem and put-upon issues. The people in it looked so miserable. Nobody wants to hear that during the Big Game. Cheer up people, you have a big-league auto company in your town breathing life into your economy. 

I don’t think anyone would disagree the best spot in the game by far was the oh-Dilly-me-I’m-being-fried collaboration between Bud Light and HBO’s "Game of Thrones."

Love it or hate it, the “Dilly” series of Bud Light ads is a cultural phenomenon, and one that’s been riding on the coattails of another cultural phenomenon, “Game of Thrones,” since its inception. 

And the collaboration between the two was just spot on, bringing a dark twist with a number of unanswered questions about the future of the Silly Dilly ad series that only a collaboration with its inspiration from the get-go — "Thrones" — could have conjured.

Now, that’s real storytelling.