How Super Bowl Ads Changed Consumers

This year, right here on CBS, the spots are going for a shade under $4 million for 30-seconds. Why? Because it’s the only live TV event watched by over 100 million fans – i.e., consumers — as much for the ads as the action.

Over the years, watching for the spots has become part of our national DNA.

It’s coming on 30 years since Apple introduced its Macintosh computer to the world with that shocker of a cinematic spot. It set the bar for Super Bowl commercials to come, that whole other game within the game.

From a technological perspective, the Apple spot was predictive. The Internet has revolutionized the process — for advertisers.

Back In 1999, a Victoria’s Secret ad told viewers to go to what was then known as the World Wide Web to watch video of a racy fashion show. That little directive blew up the Internet — or at least crashed their website for a week.

Over the years, Super Bowl spots have chronicled the dot-com bubble and the dot-com bust. The formula for getting attention has become pretty standard: animals, babies, baby animals, men getting groin injuries, celebrities, supermodels with cleavage — female AND male.

And the pioneering 1984 Apple spot predicted it all — that sledgehammer shattered the Big Screen into tiny pieces.