Friday, February 10, 2012

Which commercial won the Super Bowl?

         Did you like the Super Bowl commercials this year? I must be getting corny because I enjoyed the one where Jay Leno outwits Jerry Seinfeld to get the first new Acura. It had the fun and pizazz that a Super Bowl spot should have.

         I said fun and pizazz. Not salesmanship. Super Bowl ads have come to have a different objective. They're sort of a big contest to be "most-liked". Sort of like Miss Congeniality at the Miss America pageant. Humor and name recognition are the name of the game. We all know this and we all play along.

         One of the commercials was open source. Crowd source is another term for it. The Doritos spots originated in a consumer contest; amateurs wrote them. I personally found them a little creepy, and professionals I talked to were disappointed, but the public absolutely loved them.

        Maybe the most provocative was the Teleflora commercial. The "give and you shall receive" message from the Victoria's Secret model, coupled with the wish for a "happy Valentine's night" got mixed reviews. It upset a lot of women, and got the attention of more than 50 million men.

        The Chrysler commercial with Clint Eastwood deserves a blog of its own.

        Probably the brightest idea of the year was the decision by some sponsors to put their commercials on the Web the week before the Super Bowl. The curiosity they created got an extra 5,000,000 people to watch them.

        Pick your own favorites. In a year I'll ask you which ones you remember. I suspect there will be a number of them --- they were designed to be "high concept" commercials.

       I'll also ask how many times you sent flowers via Teleflora.

     

1 comment:

  1. I'm not a sports fan at all. I watch the Super Bowl, a few games of the World Series and some basketball, but only NBA games that Ivan is producing because we look for him behind the scorers table. That said, I watch the Super Bowl every year for the overall entertainment value ('fun and pizzazz'); commercials, half time show, pregame hype. I don't eat Dorritos anytime so a good commercial isn't going to turn my tastes but I found their commercials among the most entertaining. I enjoyed the car commercials, because I'm a car guy, but I'm not rushing out to buy and Acura or a Fiat 500 either. I did think the Fiat commerical should have ranked up there with the best of them. It was creative and I thought did a good job of "selling" the product. it was Italian, eye catching and irresistable. A year from now, maybe even next month, I probably won't remember any of the commercials. I don't think it really matters anyway. In today's global, instantaneous information society the internet provides an endless source of advertising for the big purchase when you are ready to buy and I think most spontaneous small item purchases (Dorritos and Coke) are still based upon past experience and habits and TV ads are just mild refreshers not product changers.
    You most of all, I am sure, see the difference between the effect of Dinah Shore telling you every Sunday night to "See the USA in your Chevrolet" and some guy wrestling and alligator to promote Verizon 4G.

    ReplyDelete