Coming down off Super Bowl week is challenging. We go in with blazing goals to get a lot done in little time, then suddenly … screeeech! I wish I’d have hung around California for the NBA All-Star game. And World Cup. And the weather. The All-Star game is a mega-produced spectacle, but having been a part of the event in the past, it’s a treasure trove of publicity ideas and opportunities.
So much accomplished yet so much left untouched. Time passes much too quickly — especially in a business that lives and dies by the clock.
Since this is a longer-than-normal edition of SIDEbar, I’ve summarized the PR parts here 👇🏼. I welcome and hope you take time to read or skim beyond them.
PR nuggets you can use from this issue:
• Own the screech: Use post-event silence to finish the publicity plays that got buried during the chaos.
• Manifest the narrative: The game gives you a stage; strategic publicity is how you claim your spot in history.
• Vibe vs. Value: Stunts get views but emotional resonance makes publicity stick.
• Master the drip: Don’t wait for the next traditional news cycle. Start your 12-month publicity feed the moment the clock hits zero.
• Conscience > Medals: Passion builds a legacy that outlasts any trophy or “perfect” PR campaign.
Last Week Today
Super Bowl LX
The game? Meh. Defensive highlights in the first half carried over for one team. The New England Patriots obviously have room to grow. But for all the criticism, let’s remember, only two teams get to the finish line. Whether by funky turns during the conference playoffs or dominant play, the Seattle Seahawks and Patriots were the last teams standing for Super Bowl LX. Thirty teams were on their couches watching.
People in the title game can own their spot in sports history with imagination and strategic publicity until the end of time. Is the imagination part overblown? The kids call it manifesting. You make the call.
Halftime
Bad Bunny had me at palm trees 🌴(I’ve scribbled hundreds). AKA Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, Bad Bunny hooked me with the vibe and the football he carried with the words, “Together, we are all America …” Then came a scoreboard message that spoke of power — love over hate. From this seat, those are memorable and emotional messages we will repeat. They make us feel. That’s performance and publicity that sticks.
And call me a romantic — speaking of which, there was a real wedding 👰🏻♀️ 🤵♂️during BB’s performance — but Benito’s performance also shared that we can hold traditions close while we blissfully blend cultures with a big dash of dance. Peace, joy and love in a world that needs it more than ever. Yes, that’s a lot to unpack from a 13-minute show. That’s why these things take nearly a year to produce.
The “focus was on joy, pride in Puerto Rican culture and pan-American unity, with Bad Bunny declaring ‘God bless America,’ followed by listing every nation in South, Central and North America,” wrote Allison Carter, editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com.
🏈👇🏼We’re onto LA 🏈👇🏼
Super Bowl LXI pregame started four nights ago
ESPN believes it’s never too soon to kick off a new season. Get ready for the Disney-owned company to drip-feed publicity for its first-ever Super Bowl broadcast during the next 12 months. It started with The Handoff after NBC’s Super Bowl LX postgame show.
We can’t blame the network for being excited. But we can also mark this as the start to the longest Super Bowl pregame show — EVER. Look for creatives like you’ve never seen. Consider ESPN your Super Bowl (Re)Imagination Station.
🥇👇🏼And, now, the Milan Cortina Olympic Games … 🥇👇🏼
Bold and more meaningful than a medal
In case you woke up Monday in a post-Super Bowl daze, the Winter Olympic Games kicked off amidst the football hype last week.
Earlier this week, a friend and I wondered how we could make a positive difference in our own small ways to support freedom of speech, press and hell, life. Ukrainian slider Vladyslav Heraskevych showed one way. He took his country’s injustice to the Olympics’ skeleton track – at least before he was disqualified. His helmet featured portraits of Ukrainian athletes killed in the war that Russia started. The International Olympic Committee said the pictures violated its prohibition on political speech.
“There are things more important than medals,” Heraskevych said.
This threw the oft-criticized IOC back into crisis mode. Sports Illustrated columnist Pat Forde described the issue as it’s always been. “…nobody is going to suggest that politics don’t hover over every Olympic Games.” (His words before that were more powerful – you can read Forde’s piece here: https://www.si.com/winter-olympics/ukraine-vladyslav-heraskevych-writes-new-chapter-protest-tradition-skeleton)
This was not a publicity stunt. It was a conscious move by Heraskevych to return his country’s hardships to the fore in a world so overstimulated that many people forget what Ukraine endures daily.
We fight in our own ways. Some more powerfully than others.
What I’ll be looking for during the next week: The Olympics are big spectacles and bigger business. Athlete publicity beyond the games can be fleeting if not downright challenging from the start. There are so few Lindsey Vonns, Michael Phelpses, Usain Bolts and Simone Bileses. How will management for Olympic athletes make sure medal winners capitalize on their successes and are recognized beyond the Games?
©2026 Gail Sideman; gpublicity.com; SIDEbar
###
