Super Bowl So Whats

For football fans and marketers alike, the Super Bowl is one of the high holy days of the year. 100 million people watched one of the most thrilling nail-biter games in SuperBowl history, but during the commercial breaks, there was absolutely nothing to see! The heart of the Giants won the day on the field, but on-screen, there just wasn’t much to talk about.

I was embarrassed for my industry. How have we come to this? I try to put myself in the advertiser’s target’s shoes, but this year, I just found I still couldn’t find the good in this year’s sad batch of commercials. I’m certain that these companies will survive (and even thrive), but what a waste of nearly $3MM (each!). Here are my questions:

When Charlie Brown ends up with the Coke, are we supposed to take from that commercial that luvable losers drink Coke?

Is there really no redeeming benefit to be portrayed for Bud Lite? How can you get up every morning and sell a product that would spend millions to say nothing? Is the fact that “you can’t breathe fire” and “it doesn’t make you fly” really all they have to say?

Who actually approved the Panda spot for salesleads.com (or was it salesgenie.com)?

Why is it that I (a female) am still, after all these years, not considered a viable target for GoDaddy.com? (I know that I am not the target because, if I were, they would never run the offensive commercials that get approved and aired every year and in the case of this year’s spot, wasn’t even clean enough to air on TV! If you can’t get something to clear Standards & Practices due to sexual content, you shouldn’t even be thinking of airing the spot to begin with.)

Who at CareerBuilder.com thought that a disgusting pumping heart would empower Americans to follow their dreams of doing meaningful work? It’s my understanding that CareerBuilder fired their agency last year for failing to make it in to USA Today’s Top 10 Admeter list. Perhaps they ought to be looking in the mirror to find the fault – you know what they say, garbage in, garbage out!

Well, which ones did you like, Rahna? The Clydesdale in training was noteworthy, and the E-trade spots were memorable. The Hyundai ad was straightforward, clear and interesting, although not worthy of Monday-morning water-cooler conversation. Overall, a big disappointment! For anyone who’s interested, here is the link to the admeter scores from this year’s Big Game: www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2008admeter.htm?csp=34