Overview
Super Bowl XLIX is an upcoming Nation Football League (NFL) championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots scheduled for February 1st, 2015 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Background
Halftime Show
On November 23rd, 2014, the NFL confirmed that pop artist Katy Perry would be performing during the halftime show. That day, the Pepsi YouTube channel uploaded a promotional video for the upcoming performance (shown below).
Season Championship Winners
On January 18th, 2015, the New England Patriots won a landslide victory (45-7) against the Indianapolis Colts at during their American Football Conference (AFC) Championship game. The same day, the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Green Bay Packers (28-22) in their National Football Conference (NFC) Championship game. The winner of each were selected to compete in the Super Bowl to become the 2014 NFL champion.
Notable Developments
#DeflateGate
Following the AFC game, accusations that the Patriots used deflated footballs to gain a competitive advantage over the Colts prompted an investigation by the NFL. In response, many Twitter users posted jokes and photoshopped images mocking the investigation with the hashtag #DeflateGate.
Skittles Commercial
On January 26th, the Skittlesbrand YouTube channel uploaded a commercial featuring Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch answering questions from reporters in front of a Skittles backdrop (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video gathered more than three million videos and 1,400 comments.
Media Day
On January 27th, a Super Bowl media day was held for players to answer questions about the upcoming game at various press conferences. That day, Twitter users joked about Tom Brady’s messy hairstyle worn during a press conference (shown below).
During another press conference, Marshawn Lynch replied to each question with the answer “I’m here so I won’t get fined” (shown below). A video of the conference was subsequently submitted to the /r/videos[2] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 4,800 votes (93% upvoted) within 24 hours. That day, The Daily What[1] published a round-up of notable media day incidents.