A Year of Transition

The mix of advertisers during the Super Bowl can go a long way in describing the major trends occurring in the United States for any particular year. Fetching $2.5 million for a 30 second spot yesterday, advertisers reached well over 100 million viewers with their messages.

The advertising rate this year is the same or only slightly higher than last (depending which news report you look at), however, it has increased an average of eight percent per year in the last ten years. Rates actually declined for two years after the $2.2 million per spot demanded for the 2000 Super Bowl, often referred to as the dot.com bowl or the Bubble Bowl.

There was such demand during that time that rates increased by $300,000 from 1998 to 1999, then by $600,000 from 1999 to 2000.

In addition to regulars Budweiser, Pepsi, and FedEx, there were some pretty off-beat commercials five years ago.

The internet boom was at its peak, the Y2K scare had just passed and 30-seconds spots for Pets.com, Epidemic.com, and OurBeginning.com graced the airwaves as the Rams beat the Titans by a score of 23-16.

About.com provides a c0mplete set of links for most recent Super Bowl advertisements, many of them hosted at IFILM.com, which should be pretty busy about the time that you read this, but you can try anyway.

Last year, sub prime lender and recent class-action defendant Ameriquest Mortgage hosted the halftime show and provided a memorable horror movie spoof in one of their 30 second spots.

An unsuspecting girlfriend, it seemed, had entered her boyfriend's apartment only to find him momentarily distracted from preparing dinner - about to clean up a can of tomato sauce spilled by an adorable kitty.

Houston-based Cosentino USA, a distributor of quartz countertops was an advertiser last year as well. This was their first TV spot ever. Between production costs and airtime they spent nearly $3.5 million - double their advertising budget for the entire year prior.

That's a lot of countertops.

Ameriquest Mortgage appeared again this year with the slogan, "Don't judge too quickly. We won't". The judge and jury didn't get to judge, quickly or otherwise, as a $60 million settlement was reached last spring on behalf of borrowers whose loan terms differed from what was initially promised.

There are more lawsuits pending.

In the fall they laid off ten percent of their work force, but apparently still had enough cash in the till to fund two spots during Super Bowl XL for the tidy sum of $5 million.

Changing Times

This year seemed to be a year of transition with regulars Budweiser, Pepsi, and Fedex joined by Burger King, Toyota, and others - no real theme, other than perhaps a little more emphasis on consumer spending in general.

Sprint sponsored the halftime show. It seems kind of silly that we as a nation have become so enamored with ring tone, music, and now movie downloads for cell phones. Should we be proud of this? At least back in 2000, there was still the great potential for the internet and broadband communication changing the way people lived and communicated.

But, ring tones and movie downloads? That's progress?

There were ads for more fuel efficient automobiles - the new Toyota Camry hybrid and Ford Escape hybrid. There were also ads for redesigned vehicles that waste a little less fuel than the previous model - the new Cadillac Escalade and the Hummer H3.

The Hummer H3 commercial was probably the most disturbing commercial of the entire lot, as a giant robot mated with a Godzilla-like creature, ultimately giving birth to a cute little Hummer H3. Hummer owners and admirers probably enjoyed it.

The Gillette Fusion five blade razor was without a doubt the stupidest commercial (it actually has a sixth blade on the opposite side of the razor where the first five are housed).

The Onion's take on this marvel of American ingenuity is a classic.

A close runner up for this honor was a spot for Emerald Nuts - Eagle-eyed Machete Enthusiasts Recognize A Little Druid Networking Under The Stairs.

That must have been an interesting meeting when the green light was given allowing this to move from concept to production.

Ironically, there were a few public service spots mixed in with all the frivolity. One spot (United Way?) dealt with victims of the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast and another for the Dove Self Esteem Foundation for young women.

Apparently the Dove commercial was intended to address the quantity or quality of attention paid to little girls by their Super Bowl watching fathers - let's hope it had an impact. Both of these seemed out of place in a weird sort of way, as in, don't remind us of our problems on a day like Super Bowl Sunday.

GoDaddy.com, CareerBuilder.com, and Overstock.com were the only holdovers from an era not too long ago.