Hasselbeck vs. Roethlisberger. Salute to past MVPs. Bettis’s retirement. Steelers victory. Super Bowl XL had a lot going on. Some watch for the game, some for the halftime show (no comment), and others watch just for the commercials. How about those commercials? $2.5 million for 30 SECONDS per commercial. Ouch!
Now here’s the part where I rant and rave about how wasteful it is for a company to spend millions of dollars just for one commercial to air on one day. Or is it? Actually, I think it is advertising money well spent.
Advertisers nowadays are having trouble reaching consumers. How often do we change the channel or get up to use the bathroom or grab a drink during commercials? All the time. We even change the radio station when we hear anything that even sounds like an ad. The newest venues for advertising are telemarketing, through phones and fax, and internet pop-ups or similar webpage advertising. And let’s be honest here, how often do we pay attention to those?
So if you were an agency or company, do you think it would make more sense spending $5 million on advertising for the entire year in hopes that someone, somewhere was actually paying attention or taking that $5 million and making one memorable, spectacular commercial to be aired on during the Super Bowl where you can guarantee 90 million viewers? I think the answer to that one is clear.
But, and a big ‘but’ it is, if you’re going to spend that much money on a commercial, make it magnificent. Now, personally, after seeing the monstrosity that was the Whopperettes, I will never eat at Burger King again. It’s the principle of the matter. If they can waste that much money, they certainly don’t need my $6 for a large number 4. I deem that one the worst Super Bowl commercial this year. A very close second goes to Gillette Fusion. That was definitely more commercial than product. I thought the commercial was going to reveal some new technology that made cars fly or something with the way they set it up. Then I come to realize that they were unveiling a new razor!?! What?
But, there were a couple of really good ones. There was the early FedEX commercial with the cavemen. The Sprint/Nextal “crime deterrent†phone. The MacGyver Mastercard commercial. The Bud Light magic fridge. The careerbuilder.com monkeys and jackasses. And a few others.
And of course, I can't sign off without mentioning ABC’s shameless plugs of all their hit shows. But then again, can you really blame them? Besides, they were successful. I thought I was going to claw my eyes out if someone didn’t tell me what a ‘Code Black’ was. So there I was, watching Grey’s Anatomy for the first, and last, time.
By Eman Penn
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