Titillation Factor

(Okay, I couldn’t resist.)

Aside from showing off one of her mammary glands, Janet Jackson demonstrated something else: that she’s lost ability to judge the tastes and preferences of the average consumer of entertainment.

Who watches the Super Bowl? Why, just about everyone; young, old, rich, poor, conservative, liberal. Your great-aunt (or at least mine) is checking out the clash of a given year’s titans, as is your impressionable eight-year old. It’s not the MTV crowd, so, if you’re an entertainer and you get the grand invite to perform during the Super Bowl’s vaunted halftime show, you adjust your performance accordingly; according to the aforementioned demographic. You do this if you’re smart, forward-thinking, if you have competent advisors and if you’re savvy enough to listen to them.

Janet Jackson--in her decision to follow through on flashing millions of viewers--showed that she lacked some combination of these factors in her life.

Well, at least we know now that she is definitely related to Michael.

UPDATE: Someone with similar bad demographic judgment received a hit from a Patriot.

The other talking point on Monday was the failure of the [Super Bowl] venue's security procedures after a streaker held up the game for several minutes prior to the second-half kickoff.

He was ultimately knocked down by Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham and taken away by security personnel. The incident was not televised.

(Thanks to one of Donald Sensing’s commenters.)