Give me commercials...not tears during a football game!

            I feel like this week I’m almost obligated to talk about the Super Bowl and the commercials.  It seems like no matter your view of football, you watch the Super Bowl.  Even if your favorite teams arch nemesis is playing after knocking yours out of contention you watch the Super Bowl.

            Companies pay millions of dollars for the spots.  Sometimes they only play the spots once during the game and we never see them again.  Other times the same ad will play for months after the game.  The one consistent thing about these commercials is that they are designed to make an impression.

            Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s to some extent my memories of Super Bowl commercials were some of the iconic ads.  The Bud Bowl with the animated bottles and cans, Budweiser Frogs, Diet Pepsi, Crystal Pepsi, and many more.  The ironic thing is I wasn’t old enough to drink alcoholic beverages until the late 90’s.

            The majority of these ads were hilarious and cleverly written.  The years where the teams were terrible or it was a blowout early on they carried the event.  Recent years these ads have changed and are starting to backfire on the companies themselves.

            Companies such as GoDaddy.com didn’t exist when I was a kid.  But I can only imagine my parents reaction to the scantily clad women they use to sell their products.  I also remember hearing that the CEO of Info USA wanted his ads to be so terrible that they were all you could talk about the next day at work.  The focus seems to have shifted from humorous and fun to an expensive game of pitch.

            This year I watched the game with my girlfriend.  Or, more appropriately she watched the game and I watched the ads.  (After playing football for years I lost the love of the game and don’t watch regularly)  Several times during the game I looked over at her to see how this years ads were effecting her.  She’s not a “Creampuff” by any means but she was in tears almost every other commercial break.  I don’t remember any of the deep belly laughs of my youth this year.

            Has the paradigm shifted to where the companies are focusing on making such a poignant impact on the consumers that they need to be so brutal?  Have we as a society walked away from humorous commercials and need to be clubbed with sentiment to be engaged?  From what I saw over this past Sunday there is definitely a school of thought that thinks so.

            Now I’m all for the power of making a bold statement.  The puppy that gets lost and then the Clydesdale sticks up for him takes you on a journey.  But does that journey do anything to contribute to their brand?  Does watching a puppy almost get devoured by a wolf make you want to drink Bud Light?  Its almost as if they’ve (Budweiser) been at it so long that they have lost sight of what these are for. 

            Also, how does the tearful sad or emotional story effect how you watch the game?  Your team is in the red zone about to tie the game with 3 minutes left to play and then they cut to a break.  The commercial is about prosthetic limbs and a little boys courage to adapt to his life with them and you’re left a sniffling mess thinking of your kids.  Without so much as a minute to collect yourself you’re back in the game…or are you?

            There is a fine line that needs to be walked with Super Bowl commercials.  The two that stood out as “appropriate” for me was the McDonalds commercial and the Dodge commercial.  Both of which were positive in nature and had that “warm fuzzy” feeling.  Both commercials gave a positive brand experience and supported their values.  Admittedly I got a little misty eyed at the McDonalds ad because it was such an affirmation in the human condition.  But other than being a little moved it was easy to segue back into the game.  The Dodge commercial with the 100 year olds made you feel good about being older.

            Any way you look at it the Super Bowl is going to be an emotional rollercoaster.  If you’re a company with a few million dollars burning a hole in your pocket for a few seconds worth of air time you can do what you want.  The risk of using such a highly anticipated event as the Super Bowl to essentially “manipulate” millions can be a risky venture.  The challenge is coming up with the next big idea that will become the fond memory of children in the future.