Memorable Super Bowl ads connect emotionally

Read more at: Detroit Free Press

Perhaps the only thing that can match the gridiron action during the big game are the costly Super Bowl ads that run in between the championship plays.

Hours before Sunday’s kickoff, an ad for the 2012 Volkswagen Passat called “The Force” was already an Internet sensation.

The spot, featuring a child practicing his Jedi training around the house in a Darth Vader costume, had landed nearly 13 million page views on YouTube before the 6:30 p.m. start of the game.

“A great Super Bowl commercial is emotional. It tugs on your heartstrings like the classic Budweiser ones with the Clydesdale horses or the Coca-Cola commercial with (Pittsburgh Steelers’ legend Mean) Joe Greene,” says Bob Horowitz, Juma Entertainment president and executive producer of CBS’s 2011 “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials” special.

“The other way to succeed with the audience are comedic spots,” he says. “It’s great when they’re right-off-the-bat hilarious, but what’s even better for advertisers is when it’s a delayed reaction and the joke delivers with a big boom and resonates with people who are laughing about it at the water cooler” today.