There are lots of other things you could do instead.

Things could be going better for flash sale sites: "It's a classic case of investors and entrepreneurs not really understanding how an industry operates." [The Verge]

How are we supposed to know if Netflix's expensive original TV show, "House of Cards," is a hit or a miss? Good question. [Vulture]

Twitter was mentioned in 50 percent of Super Bowl commercials. That's a lot of free advertising. [Marketing Land]

Speaking of: Did Oreo have some poor designer on call last night? Because when the lights went out halfway through the game, the company's Twitter team was ready with an appropriate ad. [BuzzFeed]

Generally speaking, Twitter users went bonkers during the blackout. That's when tweets for the event peaked, at 231,500 per minute, most of them terrible jokes about Bane. [CNET]

Former CNET staffer Greg Sandoval, who left out of concern over interference from corporate overlord CBS, has landed at the Verge, the site that broke the news of Mr. Sandoval's departure. [New York]

(Photo: Instagram/Mazy)

Airbnb Is a Belieber Early this week, CEO Brian Chesky tweeted out a photo of Justin Bieber, whose startup cred apparently extends to Airbnb renter. The Instagram shot was taken by Mazy Kazerooni, cofounder of #DominateFund, Ben Parr's still hush-hush, celebrity-focused micro-VC. Gee, wonder who their LPs are?

Friday flashback This week the revamped Digg got an unexpected celebrity thumbs-up: Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame (infamy?) tweeted at developer Robert Tolar Haining, "I love Digg. Great job and beautiful interface." "Why thank you sir!" Mr. Haining replied, because what else are you going to say when Fred Durst compliments your UI?

Curtain's up This week, Facebook sibling/musical theater devotee Randi Zuckerberg attended and spoke at TedXBroadway. More importantly: She got to meet Lt. Sulu himself, George Takei:

With @georgetakei at #TEDxBroadway! He was so great talking about theater & social media, I don't even have to speak! twitter.com/randizuckerber…

— Randi Zuckerberg (@randizuckerberg) January 28, 2013

Not even gonna front like we aren't jealous.

Devastating It seems Monday was a rough day in the Business Insider office. We speak not of Henry Blodget's regaling the Internet with tales of his air travels, nor of the site's tussle with the Awl over the nature of parody. No, we speak of the fallout from Sunday's episode "Downton Abbey." "Still kinda shaken by last night’s Downton," tweeted deputy editor Joseph Weisenthal. "Sybil?" Mr. Blodget responded with understanding and sympathy, before adding that it had been "brutal."

It's hard but we'll all get through this somehow, just like the Granthams. Stiff upper lip!

Panty Drop Off Softbank principle and devilishly stylish VC Nikhil Kalghatgi got a little surprise in the mail this week. Turns out some silly prankster decided to send him "3.9 kg of panties." Though he declined to reveal just how many pairs of panties equal 3.9 kg, he invited one lucky user to DM him on "Thonger, the all panties Twitter." Sassy.

(Photo: Twitter)

It's all Greek to me I don't think that word means what you think it means.

(Screenshot: Twitter)

The Coworker Is Right WeWork resident Asi Lang guessed the right price on stage with Drew Carey, while his fellow coworkers watched on TV from 175 Varick Street. Between this and all the Foursquare questions on "Jeopardy," game shows seem to have a Silicon Alley bias.

Oh you fancy huh Appcelerator head of partnerships and occasional Betabeat columnist Spencer Chen has some sick Super Bowl plans. Too bad TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler has better ones. Suddenly we feel gloriously populist for our plans to watch it in our PJs on a normal-sized TV.

(Photo: Tumblr)

The commercial Groupon would rather you forget.

The average cost of a 30-second Super Bowl spot is up this year from $3 million in 2011 to $3.5 million, which means advertisers are even more desperate to make those millions count. Even though 100 million people are expected to tune in live to the game, there are other eyeballs to grab. According to Reuters, for example, "Consumer research forecasts that 60 percent of fans watching the Super Bowl will also be tied into a second screen such as a smartphone or tablet."

Thus, in what sounds like an Alex Blagg sketch waiting to happen, advertisers are rolling out the social media strat.

It's true that for some reason--that always seemed a little strange to us--the Super Bowl elevates the act of people trying to sell you things into art or entertainment. Hence, brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Audi, are just trying to build on the fact that fans will already be talking about their commercials on social media and, they hope, organize the response to try to measure it.

According to Reuters, Twitter hashtags are the obvious choice:

"Coca-Cola's TV commercials, which will air during the first-and second-quarter breaks, will center around its computer-generated Arctic polar bears watching the game. The bears will then be brought to life on Twitter, Facebook and on a dedicated Website doing such things as responding to fans and commenting on the game. They will even have their own Twitter hashtag --#GameDayPolarBears -- for fans to follow."

Pepsi is taking it one step further with a commercial featuring "X Factor USA" winner Melanie Amaro--first time we've ever heard of her!-- singing "Respect." Using the Shazam app, viewers of the commercial can download a free video of the performance onto their phone. Whereas Volkwagen is also going to hashtag route:

"This year, Volkswagen's Audi is hoping to win more creative kudos with a spot that taps into the "Twilight" teen vampire pop culture phenomenon. The 60-second spot, which will air during the first break in the game, will highlight the new 2013 Audi S7 and its LED headlight technology, which has unfortunate consequences for a party of young vampires.

Audi hopes to continue the conversation about the ad via the Twitter hashtag #SoLongVampires."

Hopes being the operative word. If Occupy Wall Street has taught us anything, it's that you can try to institute a universal hashtag, but that doesn't guarantee it'll stick. Take Groupon's unpopular Super Bowl spot last year, which featured Timothy Hutton segueing between the Tibetan people's political struggles and $15 off at the Himalayan Restaurant in Chicago. Groupon might have gone with #GrouponSuperBowl, but most viewers went with #FAIL.

The Superbowl appeared as a "Promoted Trending Topic," an experiment in a new form of advertising for Foursquare. Users who posted their team could get a badge upon checking in (Dens: Packers; Naveen: Steelers).

Foursquare's international userbase came out to play with people checking in from Japan, China and Thailand; Guangzhou user GummEr 木 is mayor.

ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries