I believe the distinction is that if you advertise that your bar is serving Bud Light, it means that you purchased products from Anheuser Busch. So they’re cool with you.
But if you’re advertising that your bar is a good venue for watching the Superbowl on a big-screen TV, the NFL isn’t getting any revenue out of you. You’re using their product name for free to promote your business.
You’re not violating they’re trademark, they just want people to think you are.
The name of the game is the Super Bowl. You can call that game the Super Bowl. What you can’t do is suggest that you are somehow affiliated with or a sponsor of the Super Bowl. “Corner Sports Bar will have the Super Bowl playing on five 80” TVs!" Not infringing, but they’ll still probably get cease and desists and angry letters. “Corner Sports Bar, your official Super Bowl headquarters!” Probably infringing, as it suggests there is a relationship or endorsement between the Super Bowl and Corner Sports Bar. “Come watch the Corner Sports Bar Super Bowl on February 2!” (which is actually a pick-up game of flag football in the parking lot). Is almost definitely infringing.
I am not a trademark lawyer, I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not your not-lawyer, either. Even thinking about mentioning the Super Bowl in advertising is going to get a you an angry letter, even if the NFL can’t back it up with actual law, they still have more money than you. Don’t buy into these over reaching rules that sports leagues want you to believe. You can refer to the Super Bowl. You can describe a game of major league baseball without permission of the MLB.
Do the owners of other sports trademarks guard them as zealously? Can my bar advertise an event centered around the Cotton Bowl, or the Olympic games (“Watch all the events from the Games of the XXXII Olympiad at Moe’s Tavern”)?
I don’t know about the Cotton Bowl, but the Olympics are incredibly vigilant about protecting their trademarks. To the point where cities bidding for the Olympics have to include their plans to immediately force any businesses using the name “Olympics” or the 5 rings without permission to take them down.
The IOC absolutely is at least as zealous, if not more so, about stopping people from using the word “Olympics” or the rings logo.
Of course, “Olympic” is a Greek word, and there are many (non-sports-related) businesses in the U.S. named “Olympic,” some of which have successfully fended off the IOC’s legal concerns.
Many Superb owls at: Reddit - Dive into anything
Extraordinary Canary.
I would have the same objection to that type of enforcement. If my bar says “Come Saturday to watch the Olympics!” and I am actually showing the real Olympics, then I am communicating a true statement that should be protected speech. If I am chasing my dog around the area behind the bar and calling that the Olympics, then I am violating their trademark.
There was a gay olympics but they were forced to call it gay games.
Fender threatened a guy who was selling a bass for calling it “similar to P-Bass.” Everyone who would buy it knew he meant similar to Precision Bass.
You’re a lawyer, right? Shouldn’t you know this shit already?
(Mods, this is NOT an insult, I’m genuinely curious as to how a lawyer would NOT know this)
I don’t deal in trademark law. Just because a person is a lawyer doesn’t mean that he or she knows everything about every aspect of law.
What does Superman pour his Wheaties into every morning?
A Super Bowl, upper case. He can do that because there is no such event established to exist in the canon of the DC Universe.
Okay, I don’t actually know that for certain, but it would be a tidy solution to the dilemma you pose.
I remember Tony Randall on the Carson show promoting a new show he was on. Carson did not want to say it was on ABC so Tony asked him to say the alphabet and he stopped him after C. 
Do you mind if I ask what your specialty is?
Back then, there seemed to be an unwritten rule (or maybe it was a written rule 
) about not mentioning the other TV networks by name; on shows like Carson’s, one would often hear him refer to his guest as “starring on a show on another network.”
That doesn’t seem to be the case any longer; if one watches, say, the NFL or the NCAA tournament on one network, they will now readily mention on which networks other games will be appearing, even if those networks are under different ownership.
Used to be an unwritten rule to not mention other brands in commercials. They would say Tide is better than Brand X for example.
Criminal defense.
I remember those days. The first I can think of direct brand naming was Coke V Pepsi commercials.
The Lanham Trademark Act of 1946 combines several aspects of trademark law, unfair competition law, and consumer protection law.
So there are several different types of violations that get lumped under “trademark” violations, such as—
Trademark infringement (including passing off and reverse passing off)
Trademark dilution
Trademark counterfeiting
Trade dress infringement
False advertising
False affiliation, connection, or association
False designation of origin
False description
False representation
Cybersquatting
When the NFL goes after bars, those actions are based on the idea that bars are creating a false association between the NFL’s services and the bars’ services. This is also known as “free riding.” The idea is that you can’t use the reputation of the NFL to promote your business. So if you have no affiliation with the NFL you can’t use the NFL’s trademarks to promote your business.