The Answer: Bleh
The question: "Swankette, what did you think about the Superbowl?"
My interest in the Superbowl is about 25% football and 75% advertising. I probably wouldn't give a damn about the game were it not for my college education. My senior year of college Winter term was a KILLER - a pretty intense course load including lots of group projects that sucked up lots of time. Friends were having a Superbowl party which I was fairly confident I would have to skip because there was just too damn much homework to do. But I was taking Advertising that term. And hell if I can remember who the professor was, but he assigned us to watch the Superbowl - specifically the advertisements. Salvation was mine! And since the ads get exponentially worse/less important as the game progresses it was perfectly acceptable for me to slam back the beers, because as the buzz set in the ads became less important.
Since that time I know I've watched the Superbowl every year. Usually I watch the whole darn thing, but am more interested in the ads than in the game. One year a few friends and I got together and although we were technically "watching" the game it was all about the commercials. Only time of the year you might hear someone yell, "Hurry up getting that beer and get back in here, the commercials will be on in a minute!"
Yesterday I was watching with a large group of football fans. They probably cared 95% about the game and 5% about the commercials. We TiVoed the game at home so that I would be sure to catch all the commercials without disrupting the goings on at the party. By halftime we were fast-forwarding through commercials (Seriously, folks, you need to go get yourself a TiVo if you don't have one yet.), and when we got home that night I didn't bother to watch any of the ones I missed. They were THAT dissapointing.
Two were particularly pitiful in my eyes. Not only because they were lame ads, but because they were ads I expected so much more from:
One: MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. This is a campaign that has some serious legs in it. Lots of twists and turns and new ways to approach it. But what sort of crazy product placement is going on when you've got the logos from every food product ever known to man showing up in your commercial? And then Mr. Clean is doing the dishes? Maybe I'm not up on my cleaning products, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Clean doesn't belong anywhere near the dishes. BLECH!
Two: Anheuser Busch. I expect little, if anything, from the Bud Light ads. I never got the whole "Whassup?" thing. No problems with those ads (although they did suck) But I had some serious issues with the clydesdales ad. Clydesdales are to Busch what the bald eagle is to America. Just look at the animals - they ooze majesty and respect. Last year they toed the line, with the donkey that wanted to be a Clydesdale. I let them get away with it then because who WOULDN'T want to be a Clydesdale? But then this year they took the question too far with giraffes, elephants, and all other manner of animals applying for the job. Yet Busch was still able to do the touching ad with the troops coming home. Not sure what that one had to do with beer, but why couldn't they have melded the two together somehow? I was even OK with the cheese factor of the 2002 ad, with the Clydesdales kneeling down in respect to what happened on 9/11. Just a little respect, that's all I want.
The game - well, that was so boring I've already forgotten it.
My interest in the Superbowl is about 25% football and 75% advertising. I probably wouldn't give a damn about the game were it not for my college education. My senior year of college Winter term was a KILLER - a pretty intense course load including lots of group projects that sucked up lots of time. Friends were having a Superbowl party which I was fairly confident I would have to skip because there was just too damn much homework to do. But I was taking Advertising that term. And hell if I can remember who the professor was, but he assigned us to watch the Superbowl - specifically the advertisements. Salvation was mine! And since the ads get exponentially worse/less important as the game progresses it was perfectly acceptable for me to slam back the beers, because as the buzz set in the ads became less important.
Since that time I know I've watched the Superbowl every year. Usually I watch the whole darn thing, but am more interested in the ads than in the game. One year a few friends and I got together and although we were technically "watching" the game it was all about the commercials. Only time of the year you might hear someone yell, "Hurry up getting that beer and get back in here, the commercials will be on in a minute!"
Yesterday I was watching with a large group of football fans. They probably cared 95% about the game and 5% about the commercials. We TiVoed the game at home so that I would be sure to catch all the commercials without disrupting the goings on at the party. By halftime we were fast-forwarding through commercials (Seriously, folks, you need to go get yourself a TiVo if you don't have one yet.), and when we got home that night I didn't bother to watch any of the ones I missed. They were THAT dissapointing.
Two were particularly pitiful in my eyes. Not only because they were lame ads, but because they were ads I expected so much more from:
One: MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. This is a campaign that has some serious legs in it. Lots of twists and turns and new ways to approach it. But what sort of crazy product placement is going on when you've got the logos from every food product ever known to man showing up in your commercial? And then Mr. Clean is doing the dishes? Maybe I'm not up on my cleaning products, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Clean doesn't belong anywhere near the dishes. BLECH!
Two: Anheuser Busch. I expect little, if anything, from the Bud Light ads. I never got the whole "Whassup?" thing. No problems with those ads (although they did suck) But I had some serious issues with the clydesdales ad. Clydesdales are to Busch what the bald eagle is to America. Just look at the animals - they ooze majesty and respect. Last year they toed the line, with the donkey that wanted to be a Clydesdale. I let them get away with it then because who WOULDN'T want to be a Clydesdale? But then this year they took the question too far with giraffes, elephants, and all other manner of animals applying for the job. Yet Busch was still able to do the touching ad with the troops coming home. Not sure what that one had to do with beer, but why couldn't they have melded the two together somehow? I was even OK with the cheese factor of the 2002 ad, with the Clydesdales kneeling down in respect to what happened on 9/11. Just a little respect, that's all I want.
The game - well, that was so boring I've already forgotten it.
posted by Swankette at 9:34 PM
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