|
We interrupt this regularly scheduled program for the most watched television event of the year: the Super Bowl. It is the one day people
actually sit down in front of the TV specifically to watch the commercials,
which can be both comical as well as distasteful. There is an exorbitant
economic impact placed on these ads, sometimes to the tune of 3 million
dollars per spot, which can obviously make or break a company for years to
come.
The Budweiser Clydesdales are easily one of the most recognizable icons in
commercial history. It reminds one of the Holidays and Seasons Greetings
and to turn that frown upside down. Remember Pepsi's 1986 ad where Michael
J. Fox’s gorgeous new neighbor asks for a Diet Pepsi, but his last bottle
is empty? The actor Fox goes to great lengths to get a can of the soda,
leaping over cars, getting rained on and finally breaking his own window to
gain entry into his apartment just for the taste of it.
Do you remember when a flatulent handsome cab horse turns a candle into a
flamethrower and torches a guy's date just to be saved by the taste of Bud
Light? This reminds us all that there are many Americans willing to go to
war in defense of a good fart joke.
The best Super Bowl commercials tend to reflect simpler times, when people
enjoyed health care, drove American cars like it was the new religion, and
thought little of the hole in the ozone layer. Now is a time of great
financial hardship and moral lapses by high profile leaders featuring
movies of crash and burn amid post-apocalyptic proportions. Who will stick
their toes into the frigid waters of Tiger Woods and poke some harmless fun
while the time is ripe? One of the most high profile ads of Super Bowl
history featured little more than a bullet, a padlock and the words, "On
December 5th, 1973, at a rifle range outside of Los Angeles, a high-powered
.30-caliber rifle was fired at a distance of 40 yards, to try to open this
Master padlock.…” The results were definitely more entertaining than Super
Bowl VIII (Miami 24, Minnesota 7). The show, “Mythbusters” took this ad to
task and recently shot a bullet through a Master Lock and got similar
results. No dice. Now this may be a commercial within a commercial but,
Master Lock aint messing around!
Marshall do you want to get kidnapped? No, but I don't want to live with my
Mom either (no offense Ma!). Now you tell me...what does an inaction figure
have to do with deodorant?
Brand power, seen in commercials, is about engaging people and making them
feel better about a brand and sometimes taking it to the next level and
even making them feeling better about themselves. What the world needs now
is love sweet love. A Kenyan runner being chased by white hunters, drugged
and forced to wear a pair of shoes isn't helping anyone now is it?
Break was over 15 minutes ago, Mitch! Get back to work!
However and I now wish to make this known, I would not be opposed to
controlling Danica Patrick's actions via the internet strictly for the good
and benefit of all Mankind, but firing gerbils at a website address called
outpost.com? Two guys kissing over a snickers bar? Ethnic stereotyping? How
does this make our fledgling economy or wide round world (it is not flat!)
appear sound in times like these? It doesn't...
When I grow up, I want to climb my way up to middle management. This may
be true and these types of sentiments have scores of corporation's lining
up to spend $3 million for a 30 second advertisement. Now with the recent
economic crunch, ads for a Super Spot are falling for only the second time
in it's history, but they are still the most expensive on Television.
Brother, can you spot me a dime?
One of the finest of all time?
1. Coke — “Mean Joe Greene” (1979)
Apple spent more money and the frogs were cuter, but there’s no beating
Mean Joe Greene (even though this advertisement technically debuted just
before the Super Bowl). Greene meets a kid in a stadium tunnel after the
game. The kid offers Greene a Coke, and the player smiles and gives him a
jersey. You’re crying just thinking about it, right? No worries. It's the
new style and men can cry given the appropriate situation and don't let 'em
tell you any different.
Incidentally, nearly all the 62 slots have been sold for this year's Super Bowl bout between the Colts and the Saints.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
