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Super Bowl Commercials
Maybe I'm getting old and cranky (it's okay; you won't be the first to say it), but I thought this year's Super Bowl commercials were pretty terrible. Of the 57 commercials aired, there wasn't one that made me think or feel something so strong I had to forward the spot to my kids or a friend with a note that said, “OMG. You gotta watch this.”
It's not like there wasn't a lot at stake. The slot for each 30-second spot cost around $7 million to reach between 100 and 115 million viewers. And, of course, the 45 and 60-second spots cost even more. And that doesn't even begin to count the millions and millions more dollars the advertisers spent on production and celebrity endorsements.
With all that time, money, and effort, is what we saw Sunday night the best they can do?
Think about the never-ending parade of celebrities you saw in the ads: J-Lo, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Snoop Dog, Sylvester Stallone, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Brady, Vince Vaughn, Wayne Gretsky, Willie Nelson, Martha Stewart, Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Mr. T, Chris Walken, Chris McCaffery, Chris Pratt, Kris Jenner, Tina Fey, Jack Black, Jack McBrayer, Jack Harlow, Hugh Jackman, Rob Riggle, Rob Gronkowski, Jane Krakowski, Glenn Close, Peyton Manning, Post Malone, Michael Cera, Cardi B, LL Cool J, J. Adams, JJ Watt, Matthew MacFadyen, Steve Carell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Aniston, Jenna Ortega, Kevin Hart, Eric André, Charlie D'Amelio, Fat Joe, Meghan Trainor, Rick Hoffman, Sarah Rafferty, Gina Torres, Benito Skinner, Heidi N. Closet, Emmanuel Acho, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Emily Blunt, John Cena, Dr. Clarence B. Jones, Marshawn Lynch, Kate McKinnon, Amy Schumer, Lil Wayne, Heidi Gardner, Danny DeVito, Dan Levy, Dan Marino, Bruce Smith, Terrell Owens, Scarlett Johansson, Lionel Messi, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman, Addison Rae, Martin Lawrence, Shannon Sharpe, Ken Jeong, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, Valerie June, Robert Kennedy Jr., Jeremy Renner, Tony Romo, Tony Hale, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Momoa, Jason Sudekis, Donald Faison, Zach Braff, Bradley Cooper, Common, Laura Dern, Gabriel Macht, Pete Davidson, David Schwimmer, David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Kanye West, and even Taylor Swift's BFF Keleigh Sperry.
Just imagine what they all cost!
The connections are even more challenging to make because plenty of the celebrities were in more than one commercial and shilling for entirely different products.
But regardless of all the expense, I'm willing to bet you can't connect more than one or two celebrities with the products they were selling because they had no logical or emotional connection to those products in the first place. They were simply people you recognized getting paid to sell stuff.
And no, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Kanye West don't even count because they were just selling themselves.
Super Bowl Commercials
Sure, The Farmer's Dog ad was sweet, and Dove's “Hard Knocks,” the Jes.us commercials, and The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism's spot discussed important topics. But since when is Super Bowl Sunday the right time to have a serious conversation with rabid football fans anyway?
As I said on national TV news a few days before the Super Bowl, the quality of these spots can all be judged by how much liquid you produced when you watched them.
A commercial was delectable if it made your mouth water.
A commercial was touching if it made you tear up a little.
And a commercial was funny if it caused you to pass your drink through your nose.
But if all the commercial did was give you a good excuse to get up and go to the bathroom, then that's about all it was worth.
Ah we miss the days when Steve Jobs was launching a product. Then you KNEW you were going to get a bodacious ad experience.
When you see an ad you want to be moved emotionally. I was moved to be annoyed.
I am a retired ad and brand guy (Y&R, Ogilvy, J&J and Estee Lauder) and I have never seen such a waste of money. Even the half time show was poor.
I’m glad it wasn’t just me, Chris.
Bruce, I have a question for you. Are you related to Studs Turkel? When I was in high school, I enjoyed his take on what the future holds. Regards, Jeff Rosenberg
Hi Jeff,
Not as far as we know. He spelled his name Terkel, not Turkel (although I suppose that’s not enough proof of separation).
I did suggest to a college English professor that Studs was my uncle, but that’s a whole other story…
Not only were the commercials filled with senseless dribble, they created a annoyance that was almost intolerable as they destroyed the continuity of the game. I turned the TV off before halftime. If these commercials appeal to our younger generation, may God help us!
I only recognized 5% to 10% of the “stars” you mentioned. A friend watched part of the game with me and recognized a few more.
Sorry Randall, but neither you nor I are the intended targets of the ads. Most of the advertisers you saw want consumers 18 – 34 years old and hire stars that are both recognizable and aspirational to those audiences. The fact that we don’t care about those stars means nothing to the advertisers.
I’m with you! Underwhelmed!
Agree!
I completely agree with the exception of the NFL commercials, especially the one with the boy in Ghana.
Totally agree with your assessment. Never saw so many bad commercials. Always thought the objective was to make the clients product more appealing. Most of these spots were about out-doing the other spots. Sure miss David Ogilvy
Well written Bruce. There was a time when having a celebrity represent your brand was one where you could associate the product with the celebrity. May I dare say, OJ with Hertz, Samuel L. Jackson for Capital One, Kelly Clarkson for Wayfair and numerous others I can associate; however, with that celebrity list you just showed us in your Post and the possibility of not associating celebrity with product, there is a point where it becomes ineffective because that industry has saturated that marketing strategy, it’s just too much! Like you said, if the commercial produced liquid in some manner, then you may have a winner!
my thoughts exactly.
I liked the NFL Commerical in Ghana about a young boy dreaming about playing professional football. The emotion that you can make your dreams come true made an emotional connection with me.
Fully agree!
Fully agree!
As you mention, my daughter in law starred in one of the commercials. I think you may miss the point. She wasn’t there to sell anything. She was there to perform on what has become the greatest TV platform event ever. Pre game commercial hype isn’t about who is going to spike their sales more. It’s about who’s appearing on whose behalf and the anticipated entertainment value. It’s about presence and how far producers can bend the arc.
Well the first commercial the NFL warned you that Gambling if you are out of control Maybe you should Rethink or seek help..Yes Chrispher Walken commercial was funny and he even made fun of himself. Maybe I was in a good mood but over all better than most years. Even the Christian message about Doing anything for others was compelling But most religious entities aren’t very Christian. VW’s add was a flashback on how far they have evolved. Over all I’d give them a B+.
You are so right. So much money was invested in promoting the celebrities….. I bet very little would be remembered if we did a day after recall on messages. Adelante!!!
I’m with ya, Cousin Brucie.
My rationale is that there’s sooooo much money involved that EVERYONE at the client has to review and add their two cents (or two million) opinions. We all know what happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen. What should be the best becomes the worst.
Love you, man!
And, the halftime show sucked!
Nice to see you on television again, Bruce. Sorry to say that I don’t know where to find SCRIPPS NEWS.
For what it’s worth, I agree with you about the quality of the Super Bowl ads overall, but I did like the Etsy ad in which the “Americans” pay the French back for the Statue of Liberty with a cheese board, and the French loved it!
Maybe more importantly, I remember a couple of days later that Etsy has a gift program where you can pick out a gift for someone and Etsy will send it to them.