I just finished watching the eight semi-finalists’ videos in the NFL and Frito-Lay's "Calling All Families" promotion and am still laughing as I struggle to decide which family to vote for.
I blogged about this consumer contest in August and encouraged fanatical football families to enter it for a chance to win a trip to the 2010 Super Bowl. The promotion really hit home -- nearly 1,000 families entered, and you can tell from the semi-finalists’ videos that they had a lot of fun participating.
"In all the semi-finalists’ videos, it’s clear that the families share a passion for their favorite NFL teams,” George Stroh, Frito-Lay's Director of Sales Planning & Execution, told me (pictured below with his wife, Jamie).
The NFL and Frito-Lay whittled down the original submissions to eight semi-finalists, and now you’re invited to visit the NFL's "Calling All Families" Web site, watch the videos and vote for your favorite. But you better hurry, since the first round of voting ends on Dec. 15.
The two families that receive the most votes will then go head-to-head, and fans will vote online from Dec. 16 to Jan. 3 to determine which family will be named the NFL's "most fanatical family" and win the Grand Prize -- a five-day trip for five family members to Super Bowl XLIV, complete with plenty of VIP pre-game and tailgating events.
Here's my take on the eight semi-finalists’ videos:
In two of the videos, the grandmothers steal the show. The first video I watched featured the Anderson family, Green Bay Packer fans, and I thought that it would be hard to beat Grandma Marcella. She was born in Green Bay in 1919, and is still going strong as an avid Packers fan. Then, I watched the Collins family’s video. They’re Dallas Cowboys fans, and I believe their grandmother could give Marcella Anderson a run for her money as the NFL’s most fanatical fan. (She'll definitely make you laugh.)
Kids also steal the show in several of the videos. The Boardmans are Dallas Cowboys fans, and their children do a fabulous job reciting a poem that helps them stand out as fanatical fans, even more so than their dad. (Sorry, dad.)
Football sparked love and marriage for two of the other couples. The Lugos are Philadelphia Eagles fans who planned their wedding around the football schedule. And, for Edward Vetalice, it was love from the start when on their first date the woman who became his wife took him to see his beloved Cleveland Browns play.
The Filettos remind me of my wife, Janis', wonderful family. They "have a lot of food and are really loud" while watching their favorite team, the New England Patriots, play. Dad even sports a Patriots tattoo. Equally fanatical are the three Hulbert brothers, who make a habit of traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast to watch the Oakland Raiders play.
All the families face tough competition from Barnes family -- 19 family members who once skipped a wedding anniversary party to watch their team, the Indianapolis Colts, instead.
I hope you'll enjoy watching the eight semi-finalists’ videos as much as I did, and that you'll vote for your favorite. If you're like me, it will be a tough decision.
View a photo gallery of the eight semi-finalist families.
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