What do advertising and football have in common?
The Super Bowl.
Even those who aren’t football fanatics find themselves excited for the Super Bowl, if only for the commercials we all love. As usual, Super Bowl XLIV has some people talking more about the advertisements and less about the football teams.
When asked who faced off in last year’s Super Bowl, Kathleen Hoogland, an SMU track athlete, asked, “Uhm, can I have a hint?” but she was quick to respond when asked to recount an ad she remembered.
Every year, fans talk about the history of the Super Bowl but they are just as interested in the history of the ads. Curious about which ads will run, which ads will be pulled and why some are too controversial to air.
Notable Super Bowl ads date back to the 1973 Noxzema shaving cream ad, in which Farrah Fawcett literally creamed legendary New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath. Many remember the 1980 Coca-Cola commercial when an adoring fan offers a Coke to Mean Joe Greene.
According to a poll by MSNBC, the Apple ad that spun off George Orwell’s “1984” and aired that year was voted the best Super Bowl commercial of all time. The advertisement featured a jogger representing Apple throwing a sledgehammer into an image representing IBM to demonstrate a shift in the future of personal computers.
When asked what ad stood out to him in last year’s Super Bowl, SMU business major Chase Michalek said, “the E-Trade babies.”
Most people will be happy to hear that the usual suspects such as Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, Bridgestone, GoDaddy and E-Trade will return this year with a line-up of advertisements.
The price of Super Bowl ads is also a note of interest among some viewers. Super Bowl I in 1967, was the only time the game has been broadcasted on two networks. The cost of a 30-second spot was $42,500 on CBS and $37,500 on NBC.
Now, 44 years later, the cost has spiraled to an average of $2.6 million per 30 seconds. Last year’s ad revenue totaled $213 million.
According to CBS, it is estimated that nearly 98.7 million people watched last year’s Super Bowl. This year, the audience is expected to extend into nine figures: an all-time high.
If you do the math, advertisers are only paying 2.6 cents per person to air the ad.
“Today the media landscape is very fragmented and it is tough to ever reach this many people in one venue, and this diverse of a crowd in one venue,” Carrie La Ferle, a professor of advertising ethics at SMU said. “The Super Bowl is one of the most watched shows by women, men and children of all ages—so you have the potential to reach across many target audiences.”
Some anxious Super Bowl viewers are questioning whether or not CBS is going to air what La Ferle labels as “envelope pushing” advertisements.
There has been a lot of debate surrounding CBS’s decision to air the Focus on the Family advertisement featuring Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.
The ad recounts the story of Tebow’s mother who chose not to have an abortion when she was pregnant with him .
“I think this spot will get some chatter,” La Ferle said, “because of the controversial nature of the topic.”
CBS spokeswoman Dana McClintock told the Associated Press, “We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms.”
In the past, CBS has refused to air advocacy ads from organizations such as People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and MoveOn.org, a public policy advocacy group.
“PETA usually does some PR stunt where their ad is not run and then they hope people will go to their Web site to watch the ad that was not allowed to be aired,” La Ferle said. “The goal is simply to drive people to the Web site so they can learn about PETA.”
When people discovered that CBS has rejected a commercial for ManCrunch, a gay dating Web site, controversy ensued. A CBS spokesperson told CNN, “After reviewing the ad, which is entirely commercial in nature, our standards and practices department decided not to accept this particular spot.”
CBS has even banned one of GoDaddy’s commercials this year, claiming that it had the potential to offend a number of people.
According to the Phoenix Business Journal, “The spot features an effeminate former football star named Lola who designs lingerie for women and refers to a Go Daddy online retail portal.”
Although some fans have already watched the controversial advertisement on GoDaddy’s website, viewers will have to wait until game-day to see other companies’ ads—with the exception of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola is teaming up with Facebook and donating money to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
Coca-Cola fans can give a virtual gift to a friend through the social media site and donate a dollar to the cause.
As a perk, donors are able to watch a 20-second sneak peek of one of the two new Coca-Cola ads that will debut during this year’s Super Bowl.
Another change is that “Snickers wants to kiss and make up with Super Bowl viewers,” according to USA Today.
Three years ago, Mars Chocolate aired a spot in which two men are disgusted by an accidental kiss over a Snickers bar.
Gay advocates were offended–and the ad was pulled. Nevertheless, Mars is back this year with the promise of no kissing.
What are fans looking forward to in this year’s Super Bowl advertisements?
“Budweiser ads, follow ups to last year’s commercials and maybe even an E-Trade baby,” ophomore marketing major Louis Baugier said.
The New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts are set to kick off on Sunday Feb. 7.