In case you've been on a different planet for the past 50 years or so, television networks, record companies, and food manufacturers all look for a common denominator in an attempt to sell their product and will find any means necessary to expose people to that product.

While I don't necessarily agree with what happened with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake on Super Bowl Sunday, people are still talking about it two weeks later. There is still a strong fallout (pun intended) over the halftime events about whether or not the act was staged and who knew about it ahead of time.

I agree that there's a time and a place for that sort of thing and the Super Bowl halftime show wasn't it. It shouldn't have happened during halftime of a football game at 8 p.m. on network television when small children could be watching.

People argue that it might not be any different from watching HBO or an R-rated movie. But the difference is people, myself included, choose to watch HBO and we didn't choose to watch what happened on stage.

What we watched two weeks ago is besides the point now. The fact of the matter is the idea that people are still talking about it. Very few outside of the New England area may remember the score, but they'll remember Timberlake and Jackson's actions for a long time.

I think that might have been the point.

People across the country have been complaining that what Timberlake and Jackson did was immoral and wrong. However, we're still talking about it, aren't we?

According to an Associated Press article, Lawmakers met on Capitol Hill Wednesday to discuss what is wrong with all of the indecent programming on television today. CBS and MTV vowed that they knew nothing about it. Jackson and Timberlake have already apologized.

"Clearly, there was a wide gap over what was appropriate," NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Wednesday. "We should have recognized it earlier. We gave the keys to the car to someone else to drive without assuring they knew how to drive the car safely, and they crashed."

The halftime show drew more than 200,000 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. One family dropped their billion-dollar lawsuit on Monday, which originally claimed they suffered emotional damage by witnessing the one-second act.

Not that I condone it, but these things happen. Sometimes they're blatant. Sometimes, they're mere mistakes. It's still wrong, but whether or not it's intentional, it happens.

"It's a red herring," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in the Associated Press article Wednesday. "There is no ambiguity with the indecency standard. It's existed for 30 years."

The FCC has fought the indecency issue for years. They've battled the World Wrestling Entertainment for years. The Opie and Anthony radio show was cancelled several years ago.

But like it or not, the shock value of it all is what has made the halftime show and similar events such an issue.

I'll be honest. I stayed up all night two weeks ago to go to Wing Bowl at the Wachovia Center. It was my third year going. It wasn't exactly the chicken wing eating contest that led me there, but the mere spectacle and hype that the sports radio station has built around the event.

People will do anything to gain attention and companies will go to the extreme lengths to fill their venues and put on a show.

Fans lined up starting at 2 a.m. to get into the Wachovia Center two weeks ago for Wing Bowl, which didn't start until 5:30 a.m. I was fortunate enough to get box seats so I didn't have to wait in line.

Maybe I'm in the wrong field, but I saw an even more ingenious marketing campaign this week for a lacrosse game on Valentine's Day. Where and how marketing departments come up with certain campaigns is incredible.

"Love Stinks Night" at the Philadelphia Wings lacrosse game on Saturday night is a plan to get people to attend the game on Valentine's Day. According to the Wings' press release, it's a night for those single people who don't feel the need to go all out on Valentine's Day. The night features "testimonials from jilted lovers," a "heartbreak pinata," "sappy movie moments," a divorce lawyer, black carnations, and "8 Minute Dating."

I'm sorry, but that's hysterical. Sheer curiosity just might be worth the price of admission.

Yet, once again, entertainment and sports comes down to marketing and television ratings.

I guarantee you that all of the local television stations and newspapers will have a story recapping the events at the lacrosse game. It fills the seats.

The Sixers filled a capacity crowd of Santa Clauses at a game in December. The Sixers also attempted the world's largest wedding ceremony last Valentine's Day with roughly 200 people getting married at center court at halftime during the game.

Again, people don't remember what happened in the game. They remember 15,000 people in Santa Claus outfits and 200 people getting married in Allen Iverson jerseys.

Large corporations like television networks and sports teams will do anything to make a quick buck and to create a buzz. And we, as a nation, tend to soak it all up.

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Kevin Leitzell can be reached at kleitzell@phoenixvillenews.com.