Braaten: Super Bowl ads don’t live up to hefty bill

by Brenna Braaten | February 10, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

As long as my schedule allows me to watch it, I actually look forward to the Super Bowl every year. And while the game is fun, especially if it’s close, I’m mostly excited about the ads. 

Let’s face it: The ads make the Super Bowl what it is. Quality football games can be seen at other times, but there is only one game that prompts advertisers to shell out $3 million for a 30-second spotlight on their products. And when else do people look forward to watching a commercial?

So, with all the hype that these commercials bring, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who was disappointed with the between-game programming.

The commercials were lacking this year. It’s bad when I’m struggling to remember what commercials I saw in the first half of the game as I’m watching the second half. That doesn’t do much to help business. 

No one is going to buy something if they remember the punch line of the commercial and not the product. And I couldn’t even remember the joke.

The problem stems from the fact that we, as a culture, are inundated with ads. According to the Consumer Reports Web site, the average American is exposed to 247 commercial messages a day. That’s a lot, and some studies suggest greater numbers than that, some estimating roughly 3,000.

With that many advertisements, something has to be pretty spectacular for it to stick with people.

The Super Bowl ads didn’t do it this year. There was nothing new or exciting. It’s time that advertisers pay attention to the fact that their approach isn’t working.

One problem I had was the sexist nature of many of the commercials. I laugh when something is genuinely funny, even if it’s a bit sexist — I’m generally a good sport. The Super Bowl caters to men, but a lot of women watch, too, and that has to be taken into account.

But the commercials on Sunday made many of my friends (the girls outnumbered the guys in my house 2:1) feel uncomfortable.

Take the two GoDaddy.com commercials, for example, that basically featured good-looking women stripping off their shirts before cutting to plug to “see more” online. There was a Bridgestone tire commercial in which a roadblock stops a driver and someone yells, “Your Bridgestone tires or your life.” After apparently mishearing, the driver kicks out his wife and drives off.

I never felt degraded during other Super Bowls.

Also, there was a surprising lack of anything original. We saw many men, and occasionally women, without pants (or even less clothing) and some less-than-impressive animal gags.

The USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter revealed that Doritos earned the second-most popular spot with an ad that had been submitted to the company in a contest. So one of the best commercials came from the viewers, not the people who make ads for a living. Funny, huh?

Perhaps it’s time for a change in advertising. Consumers aren’t receptive to what’s out there; we just don’t care to pay attention. That means companies are spending a lot of money on something that isn’t working well.
Who knows what the next big thing in advertising will be? Maybe we’ll all rely on augmented reality. Maybe we’ll go the route of “Futurama” and have ads “beamed” directly into our heads and dreams. It could be anything.

For now, though, I’ll just change the channel when the commercials come on.

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