Has Web helped diminish buzz around advertising’s biggest Sunday?
Eric Deggans |
Jan. 26, 2010 8:01 a.m.
Now that we know Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts will face off against a nearly-five-years-past Katrina New Orleans Saints in next month’s Super Bowl, it’s time for talk to turn toward the big game’s real issue:
The commercials.
Yes, diehard NFL fans may react with the same horror reserved for news that their mother-in-law will be in town for the big game.
But — as industry surveys constantly remind us each year – the Super Bowl is the ultimate sports bandwagon, attracting an inordinately inexperienced football audience more interested in the commercials between plays than the actual game itself.
That may change this year, as the game becomes a showcase for two amazing stories; the quest by Manning to become a Michael Jordan-level, undisputed king of his sport, countered by the struggle for a team once known at the ‘Aints to show how far they’ve come since city residents were dying in their stadium.
At a time when NFL ratings never have been higher and games are filled with the kind of drama only well-played athletics can provide, is it any wonder the usual buzz for Super Bowl commercials feels a little, well, absent?
Less than two weeks before the big show, the talk isn’t about how large a fine Go Daddy.com is going to earn from federal authorities for their traditionally salacious sales pitches or which way Budweiser will choose to waste $100-million dollars pushing a beer everyone drinks anyway.
Instead, all of the Super Bowl ad buzz is about who isn’t in the game (Pepsi, FedEx and GM), the drop in price for ad time (from $3-million to between $2.5 and $2.8-million) and an advocacy ad from the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family highlighting how star University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow lived to lead the Gators because his ailing mother ignored advice to abort him during her pregnancy.
Never accuse CBS of not knowing how to move beer and hot wings.
Part of the problem, may be that we know too much.
When this whole business of Super Bowl ad watching first emerged, there weren’t too many other places you were going to see a Super Bowl ad besides the Super Bowl broadcast. A news story of two might highlight what was coming, but you never saw it in living color until the game got underway.
But these days, Web sites feature sneak previews of ads weeks before they debut (last year, Budweiser had 30 different outtakes from their new 1-second commercials online well before the game). Often big tickets ads will show up in the playoff games as well as the big championship – just another way to earn more marketing bang for your buck in a down economy.
And companies buying Super Bowl ad time now sell these commercials hard as the product itself – hiring marketing firms to spread word in the media industry on their ads well before game time.
Last year, thanks to YouTube, Hulu and advertisers’ own Web sites, I was able to fill my media blog with some of the funniest Super Bowl ads of the night days before the actual telecast. (my faves: the CareerBuilder.com ad featuring the guy in a Speedo picking his toes, and the Cash4Gold spot featuring Ed McMahon and McHammer).
This year, superbowl-ads.com already has previews of several ads, including a Diamond Foods spot featuring the world’s most flamboyant dolphin trainer (!?), and news that Boost Mobile is recreating the Chicago Bears classic 1985 novelty song and video, The Super Bowl Shuffle.
None of which fazes Bob Horowitz, president of Juma Entertainment, producer of CBS’ Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials special and unofficial booster for the big game’s big ads.
“There’s so much hype every year about the commercials being as important as the game (to viewers), and I believe it,” said Horowitz, waving aside notions that the big, expensive event ads of the past may be long past – with cheaper, kitschy spots like the Cash4Gold ad sticking in the public mind longer.
“Now, you find advertisers spending as much as the commercial’s budget with PR firms to extend the exposure of the spot outside that three-hour window,” he said. “After all, once you’ve seen what Go Daddy does, I don’t know how much farther they can take it.”
Which is a little depressing for the Super bowl ad watcher. I may actually have to check out the game this year.
Eric Deggans is TV and Media Critic for the St. Petersburg Times and a 1990 graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Village Voice, VIBE magazine, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times and many other publications. He also writes a blog on media, The Feed, at www.blogs.tampabay.com/media.
The commercials.
Yes, diehard NFL fans may react with the same horror reserved for news that their mother-in-law will be in town for the big game.
But — as industry surveys constantly remind us each year – the Super Bowl is the ultimate sports bandwagon, attracting an inordinately inexperienced football audience more interested in the commercials between plays than the actual game itself.
That may change this year, as the game becomes a showcase for two amazing stories; the quest by Manning to become a Michael Jordan-level, undisputed king of his sport, countered by the struggle for a team once known at the ‘Aints to show how far they’ve come since city residents were dying in their stadium.
At a time when NFL ratings never have been higher and games are filled with the kind of drama only well-played athletics can provide, is it any wonder the usual buzz for Super Bowl commercials feels a little, well, absent?
Less than two weeks before the big show, the talk isn’t about how large a fine Go Daddy.com is going to earn from federal authorities for their traditionally salacious sales pitches or which way Budweiser will choose to waste $100-million dollars pushing a beer everyone drinks anyway.
Instead, all of the Super Bowl ad buzz is about who isn’t in the game (Pepsi, FedEx and GM), the drop in price for ad time (from $3-million to between $2.5 and $2.8-million) and an advocacy ad from the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family highlighting how star University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow lived to lead the Gators because his ailing mother ignored advice to abort him during her pregnancy.
Never accuse CBS of not knowing how to move beer and hot wings.
Part of the problem, may be that we know too much.
When this whole business of Super Bowl ad watching first emerged, there weren’t too many other places you were going to see a Super Bowl ad besides the Super Bowl broadcast. A news story of two might highlight what was coming, but you never saw it in living color until the game got underway.
But these days, Web sites feature sneak previews of ads weeks before they debut (last year, Budweiser had 30 different outtakes from their new 1-second commercials online well before the game). Often big tickets ads will show up in the playoff games as well as the big championship – just another way to earn more marketing bang for your buck in a down economy.
And companies buying Super Bowl ad time now sell these commercials hard as the product itself – hiring marketing firms to spread word in the media industry on their ads well before game time.
Last year, thanks to YouTube, Hulu and advertisers’ own Web sites, I was able to fill my media blog with some of the funniest Super Bowl ads of the night days before the actual telecast. (my faves: the CareerBuilder.com ad featuring the guy in a Speedo picking his toes, and the Cash4Gold spot featuring Ed McMahon and McHammer).
This year, superbowl-ads.com already has previews of several ads, including a Diamond Foods spot featuring the world’s most flamboyant dolphin trainer (!?), and news that Boost Mobile is recreating the Chicago Bears classic 1985 novelty song and video, The Super Bowl Shuffle.
None of which fazes Bob Horowitz, president of Juma Entertainment, producer of CBS’ Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials special and unofficial booster for the big game’s big ads.
“There’s so much hype every year about the commercials being as important as the game (to viewers), and I believe it,” said Horowitz, waving aside notions that the big, expensive event ads of the past may be long past – with cheaper, kitschy spots like the Cash4Gold ad sticking in the public mind longer.
“Now, you find advertisers spending as much as the commercial’s budget with PR firms to extend the exposure of the spot outside that three-hour window,” he said. “After all, once you’ve seen what Go Daddy does, I don’t know how much farther they can take it.”
Which is a little depressing for the Super bowl ad watcher. I may actually have to check out the game this year.
Eric Deggans is TV and Media Critic for the St. Petersburg Times and a 1990 graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Village Voice, VIBE magazine, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times and many other publications. He also writes a blog on media, The Feed, at www.blogs.tampabay.com/media.
