Correlation v. Causation, Redux

While admittedly a slight departure--despite its timeliness--from traditional ELS Blog protocol, this post hopes to illustrate the "correlation v. causation" tension in a novel manner by drawing from, of all things, a recently-leaked Super Bowl 50 advertisement. The ad begins with an observation: "Data suggests 9 months after a Super Bowl victory, winning cities see a rise in births." The remaining wonderfully clever--and long--ad (here) then sets out to intentionally conflate correlation and causation. Regardless of one's interest level in football or Super Bowls, worth a look.