Super Bowl Halftime Show 2012: MIA's Obscene Gesture Was Brilliant Career Move

Here's a question for you: Were you talking about musical artist M.I.A. before the Super Bowl?

No, probably not. In fact, you probably haven't talked about her since "Paper Planes" was a hit.

Well, you're talking about her today. And, like it or not, that makes her middle-finger salute to all of America a brilliant career move on her part.

So why did she do it? Was she literally flipping off all of America, tuned into the game? She's British, so I guess that's possible, though I doubt it.

Was she flipping off the NFL and NBC for the lavish, over-produced halftime show? Or perhaps she didn't want to do the performance in the first place and was flipping off her record label or management team for booking her?

Was she doing it to carve out her own little piece of Super Bowl infamy?

She succeeded if that was her cause, that's for sure.

Was she flipping the finger to those who promote television censorship? Was she trying to make some sort of artistic point by stirring America's pot?  

Rolling Stone has described her as "a well-known provocateur," after all—she may have just been doing it to get a rise out of people.

Or was it just a touch of adrenaline in the moment, as a source—a frantic manager, perhaps—has claimed. From Patrick Kevin Day of the Los Angeles Times:

"

Sunday night, a source close to M.I.A. said the performer had been struck with "a case of adrenaline."

"She wasn't thinking," the source said. "It wasn't any kind of statement. She was caught in the moment and she's incredibly sorry."

"

Yeah, I'm not buying that. She was so caught up in the moment that she waited until the camera was pointed directly at her before flipping the bird? That's how she releases her adrenaline, waiting for the prime time to flip off the camera?

You can do better than that.

Whatever the reason, she accomplished several things. She's certainly gotten a rise out of America, she's gotten a ridiculous amount of publicity and she's likely increased her street cred with the 12-to-25-year-old demographic who will love her for the sheer rebelliousness of her act.

And those are the people who will probably be buying her records in the first place.

What M.I.A. pulled is the most rock 'n' roll move we've seen in years. This was akin to Jim Morrison singing the lyric "Girl we couldn't get much higher" on The Ed Sullivan Show when censors requested he change the lyric.

With almost every television in America turned to that performance, each did exactly what they weren't supposed to do—something obscene.

I understand both why parents would hate what she did and why some younger kids probably loved her rebellious gesture. And like it or not, that's why it was so brilliant.

Because what else could get everyone talking like M.I.A.'s middle finger did? What could have gotten a rise out of America more than that?

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