It was the first ever Boob Bowl, played out before thousands of admiring Internet users during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII on Jan. 31. The stadium was Danni's Hard Drive (www.danni.com) and the turnout was waiting room only.
Danni Ashe, owner and operator of Danni's Hard Drive, said her publicist suggested a Super Bowl party. Ashe thought a halftime show would be more fun. Then she thought up "Boob Bowl I: The Superbowl of Breasts."
"Danni's Hard Drive basically deals in breasts so that was an easy one," she said.
"Forget beer bottles playing football. Forget the talking frogs. Forget everything but gorgeous women changing uniforms, getting rubdowns, stretching out, practicing plays--just like the pros."
Well, not exactly. In Ashe's version, no one scored and there were no passes. Each team had more than the regulation number of tight ends. But the only spread was the one between legs of players on the training table.
Ashe recruited two sides--Doria, Samantha Phillips and Holly Body on one and Ashley Renee, Carolyn Monroe and Jacklyn Lick on the other. "We didn't have time to hold tryouts so we recruited the best available free agents," she said.
Not that there was any real competition. Once halftime started, teammates worked cooperatively, first giving massages, then fondling and playing with each other in the shower. Ashe, very much a part of the action, served as coach for both squads.
The live Boob Bowl, broadcast on the Internet from a studio in North Hollywood, Calif., was able to accommodate up to 2,000 members of the Web site at a time. It soon became apparent that wasn't enough. Server capacity was stretched to the limit.
Ashe knew that might happen and was prepared. "Our members know we will archive everything so it will be there after the fact. If it's inconvenient for them to show up live, they'll watch it later," she said.
Boob Bowl I was far more than a publicity stunt, though it was reported on the font page of the trade paper "Variety" and was mentioned in wire service reports and in "USA Today." It was also more than just a way of keeping Web site members coming back for more and attracting new ones, said Ashe, a former exotic dancer who taught herself computer programming and Web site design.
The event nudged the growing Danni Ashe cyberspace business into a world where Internet meets television. In this case, it's a "cleavage convergence," Ashe joked. But she's absolutely serious about looking for new ways to transform her Internet enterprise into one that also embodies broadcasting and two-way communication.
"As a company, we are very focused on convergence," she said. "We are currently building a broadcast facility and plan to start developing a lot of very unique interactive programming. This is sort of our first attempt."
