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Monday, February 2, 2009

Media / Money Super Bowl 43: The Ads

Posted by Grant Brissey on Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 9:28 AM

Twenty-five Super Bowls ago, Apple Computers announced the upcoming release of the Macintosh.

January 22, 1984: The Apple Macintosh personal computer is introduced to the world in a now-legendary TV commercial aired during Super Bowl XVIII.
The 60-second spot featured a female athlete running through a dystopian landscape inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, to throw a sledgehammer at a TV image of Big Brother, meant, in this case, to represent IBM. It ends with the promise, "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."

Needless to say, the commercial helped change the personal computer market forever, but it's also largely credited with transforming the Super Bowl into one of the greatest advertising vehicles in the world.

The Super Bowl is, by far, the biggest advertising event of the year in the United States. The game attracts almost 100 million viewers, a rather astonishing number given that there are only about 300 million people in the country. More than that, people really watch Super Bowl ads. Indeed, some studies suggest that many people watch the Super Bowl more for the advertising than for the football game. This is particularly the case among women.

This all makes the Super Bowl an unrivaled marketing opportunity. For an advertiser who wants to reach a large portion of the U.S. population at one time, nothing even comes close to the Super Bowl. The next biggest media event, the Academy Awards, gets only about one-third as many viewers and generates much less advertising buzz.

All of this explains why Super Bowl advertising commands such a high price. In 2008, the official price of a Super Bowl ad was $2.7 million for 30 seconds. This was up from $2.6 million in 2007 and $2.5 million in 2006.

Despite the high price, advertisers usually line up to pay it. Indeed, many companies fight ferociously to prevent their competitors from buying space. Anheuser-Busch, for example, has a long-term contract guaranteeing category exclusivity. Pepsi this year signed a deal that blocked Coke from the first half. Super Bowl spots historically sell out well in advance of the game.

This year, however, it appears that demand for Super Bowl advertising spots is relatively weak. A week before the game, NBC still apparently had about 10% of the advertising spots left to sell.

From Pepsi's terrible MacGyver parody, to the relatively acceptable Hulu spot, to these, what were the best/worst/most symbolic advertisements of Super Bowl 43?

Via Wired and Forbes.

Comments (25) RSS

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The MacGuyver parody - MacGruber - has been an unfunny skit on SNL for quite some time.

That said, I was largely unimpressed by the ads. The only one I remember strongly are the Budweiser Clydesdales (both Daisy's romance and the immigrant), and Bridgestone's alien tire stealing (though, really, Jump Around?).

I seem to remember Pepsi largely annoying me, and finding Coke's really cute and well done despite being from the Idiocracy future (all nature loves Coca-Cola!).

Posted by TheMisanthrope on February 2, 2009 at 9:35 AM

My favorite was the Doritos ad, wherein by merely munching a chip, a lucky lad sees a lady in her undies, gets free cash from the ATM and turns a copy into a monkey. Then, when the chips are gone, he gets hit by a bus. Depraved as it may have been, it had the group I was watching with in stitches.

Posted by Double Dip on February 2, 2009 at 9:37 AM

the macgruber/pepsi ad was actually a skit on saturday night live the night before. they just re-ran as an ad the next day. this offends me, of course, but i also respect the boundary blurring going on therein. so fuck pepsi & fuck their advertising consultant.

and fuck springsteen for saying "i'm going to disneyland".

Posted by maxsolomon on February 2, 2009 at 9:44 AM

Cash for Gold was by far the best.

Posted by Hosono on February 2, 2009 at 9:46 AM

Oh come on. The best ad was without question the 1-second Miller High Life ad.

"High Life!"

Posted by Anthony Hecht on February 2, 2009 at 9:49 AM

Why did the 3rd generation immigrant horse still have a thick as fuck accent?

I liked the careerbuilder.com ad a lot.

Posted by Office Manager on February 2, 2009 at 9:52 AM

Apparently I was too drunk to notice anything new or funny. I do remember getting WAY too excited during the 3D part. But I guess everyone turns into a 10 year old after a few shots, right? Right?

Posted by c to the andice on February 2, 2009 at 9:53 AM

Yeah, High Life! was cool. How much do you have to pay for 1 second of SB ad time?

Posted by Da Mayor on February 2, 2009 at 9:54 AM

Bob Dylan selling Pepsi! Love it! One more reason for the old fucking hippies to hate him.

Posted by Homegirl on February 2, 2009 at 9:55 AM

I didn't see very many of them, but I didn't hate the Coke ads (the Peter and the Wolf nature one was kind of cute). didn't like careerbuilder or MacGruber Pepsi. I thought cash4gold was pretty clever...

Posted by Julie in Eugene on February 2, 2009 at 9:57 AM

For all the hype about the Superbowl this year sucked the headcheese off a donky's cock. (And I am talking about the commericials, the game sucked too, but then how fun can football ever be)

I didn't see anything that was as original as the 1984 Microsoft commercial.

Posted by Publius on February 2, 2009 at 9:57 AM

Was the High Life ad the guy who yelled something? We were arguing about what he'd yelled, whether it was "Ivar's!" or something else.

That was money well spent.

The Hulu ad was cute, but the game and ads get more forgettable by the year.

Posted by ugh on February 2, 2009 at 10:02 AM

oh yeah, double fuck SNL.

Posted by maxsolomon on February 2, 2009 at 10:05 AM

The Superbowl commercial hype needs to be stopped. Frankly, most suck and the others are no better than any other good ads released during the year.

The fad has passed. Lets move on. Especially since the Superbowl games are actually entertaining recently.

Posted by Medina on February 2, 2009 at 10:15 AM

IVARS!

.5 seconds of glory.

The Jack in the Box ad with Jack getting plowed by the bus was also good.

Posted by dwight moody on February 2, 2009 at 10:30 AM

@3, that wasn't a skit on SNL - it was an ad, too. It was just placed to look like part of the program.

Most of the Super Bowl commercials sucked, but man - that post-game episode of The Office was the funniest thing I've seen on TV in years.

Posted by Explorer on February 2, 2009 at 10:35 AM

@16

Indeed. Dwight cutting the face off the CPR dummy and placing it over his own was hilarious.

Posted by Office Manager on February 2, 2009 at 10:38 AM

@ 8: Ads went for up to $100,000 a second this year.

Posted by Grant Brissey on February 2, 2009 at 10:41 AM

You can't go wrong with "man getting hit in crotch with snow globe". All of those godaddy commercials were all a little too geared to the "Axe body spray demographic". The fukking horses were lame as all hell. I never understood why budweiser bothered advertising. Everyone who drinks it already swears it is magic, and everybody who hates it really hates the crap. Nobody is on the goddamn fence about Budweiser.

Posted by Fortuna Mandolin on February 2, 2009 at 10:41 AM

I wish Don Hertzfeldt would submit some ads for the superbowl.

Posted by I am a consumer whore (and how)! on February 2, 2009 at 10:43 AM

the ivar's ad was played over and over and over after my Stupidbowl party saw it. i can't stop thinking how wonderful it was to see a gull sitting there only to hear "IVAR'S". fantastic.

second place, "HIGHLIFE". i wanted some crappy fried cod and even crappier beer after both of those gems.

caw!

Posted by birdy num num on February 2, 2009 at 11:18 AM

This was one of those times where the best part of the Superbowl was the game itself. I wish the ads for Star Trek and Land Of The Lost were longer. (I like how in Land of the Lost they kept the look of the Sleestaks exactly like they were in the TV show. They didn't try to go all Klingon on them).

Posted by elswinger on February 2, 2009 at 11:57 AM

High Life!

Posted by It gonn' rain! on February 2, 2009 at 3:20 PM

Stuffy Seattleites hating MacGruber!? Shocking!

Loved that shit. I love MacGruber. The time he gets high on meth and shoots a ping pong ball (or was it a cue ball?) out his ass for cash is classic.

The movie ads were pretty damn cool, too. Made me pissed that there is a recession and I can't afford to see any of them in the theater (unless Obama gives me some of that sweet, sweet stimulus).

Posted by Sam on February 2, 2009 at 3:54 PM

I have 6's same question; the horse's accent is thick enough to deflect bullets, but his great-grandpa was the one who came across to America? And then the horse is talking about how much he loves this country, etc? No. I don't want horses with accents, I just want a beer. Dammitall Budweiser.

My favorite was definitely the Dorito's where eating them has different effects, I nearly peed my pants when he ate a chip and the woman is suddenly almost naked.

Posted by A on February 3, 2009 at 12:16 AM