Super Bowl commercial recap

http://news.excite.com/news/uw/010130/business-165

By Carrie Lauer

The Post

Ohio U.

(U-WIRE) ATHENS, Ohio — Super Bowls and advertisements go together like chips and salsa and pizza and beer.

An estimated 800 million people in 201 different countries turned on the tube at 6 p.m. Sunday to watch one of the biggest sporting events of the year – the Super Bowl. The Baltimore Ravens pummeled the New York Giants, but the other competition went on when the clocks stopped.

The Super Bowl is the highest-rated television show of the year, and 90 percent of viewers watch the game through live telecast (http://www.superbowl.com). And advertisers bank on this.

Some may spend $2.3 million for every 30-second ad spot they run, but the number of people they reach by advertising during the Super Bowl pays off in even bigger numbers (http://www.usatoday.com). The Super Bowl also generates high revenue for the station that airs it. This year, CBS earned an estimated one-day television income record of more than $200 million.

Those figures add up to an advertiser’s dream.

“It’s an incredible venue for a company to get its message out and a very effective marketing tool,” said Carla Boyd, spokesperson for FedEx. “There is no other time during the year when you have an audience close to a billion people. It is a broad brand-building opportunity, and the return is immeasurable.”

“It’s a showcase for everyone in the advertising business, from the advertiser and ad agency to the products,” said Melvin Helitzer, Ohio University journalism professor. “Agencies pick their best people to work on the ads. Everyone in the agency wants to be the one to write the copy and design the ads that become recognized worldwide.”

The Super Bowl has been notorious for showing some of the funniest, most talked-about ads for years. And once again, the ads delivered. Super Bowl airtime has practically become the academy awards for advertising.

“Close to 60 percent of the people just watch the game for the ads,” Boyd said.

Some of the more memorable ads from Super Bowl XXXV include a new look at the E-Trade dancing monkey and the new Snickers Cruncher candy bar. The Snickers ad showed various people on the street stomping on wind-up dolls that were making those remarks nobody likes to hear.

Volkswagen’s humorous ad for the new GTI created chuckles as well. Two men are trying to retrieve something they’ve lost in a tree above them. A Volkswagen GTI falls out after one man throws his shoe in attempt to free the lost item. One man tells the other, “Let the clutch out sooner next time.”

Budweiser created much hype with its new addition to the “true” campaign this year.

“I really liked the Budweiser ad of the preppy white guys (How are you doing?),” sophomore Joe Parsons said. “It was funny how they showed personality and cultural differences from the black guys saying ‘Wassup.'”

Sophomore Jenny Greufe also favored the Budweiser ads.

“I really liked the ad where the aliens asked the dog, ‘What did you learn on Earth?’ and the dog replied, ‘Wassup?’,” she said. “I really liked the original ‘Wassup’ ads, and thought this one was funny as well.”

Aside from the well-known names, there were some newcomers this year. Some of the more interesting ads include monsterjobs.com and Cingular, the company that believes in “self-expression.” Target had a new look and feel to its ads, and Dr. Pepper received laughs as well.

With all the money spent on the Super Bowl and all the hype that stems from it, one might begin to wonder how exactly did this craze get started?

“In 1984, when Apple computers introduced Macintosh, it was so successful, the Super Bowl spot alone literally put the name ‘Macintosh’ on the map in the personal computer market,” said Cassandra Reese, OU associate journalism professor.

Something must be working. It does for Bob Dole.