The mandatory Super Bowl commentary

So everybody that has anything to do with advertising has put in their two cents on the commercials on this year's Super Bowl. Because of this, I feel that I need to put something out there. But I don't want to talk about any specific ad or discuss which brand did the best and worst. I want to talk about a couple things that I've noticed about the Super Bowl, its commercials, and the hype surrounding it.

1. I was part of a discussion on Monday morning with my class at the Adcenter that was about the Super Bowl commercials. The thing about Adcenter kids is, we can't talk about anything except advertising, and we never say that anything is good. Everything sucks. Every single ad in the Super Bowl.

While I'm not saying that I thought the Super Bowl had a good year as far as the commercials are concerned, I don't feel as cynical as some of my classmates. The Super Bowl is the only time that the commercials are just as important (if not more important to some people) as the game. Therefore, you are going to have a better chance on Super Bowl Sunday to make a really funny ad that actually isn't strategically saying anything, but still have people remember your brand. This is because of the competitive nature of our society. We all are figuring out in our minds "which brand won the Super Bowl?" On any other night, some of the brands we saw on the Super Bowl would have been laughed at, but forgotten. But on Super Bowl Sunday, we make a mental note that the really funny commercial with the slapstick humor was Bud Light, not Miller Lite. Even if the commercial doesn't say anything at all about the brand, it worked.

So what does this all mean? It means that advertisers can be lazy on Super Bowl Sunday and just make everyone laugh. Whether they make a groundbreaking, strategically funny ad, or just throw up some hysterical, ridiculous situation that says nothing, they will end up with a positive result.

I hope that when I'm working, I don't let my agency get lazy and make an ad for the Super Bowl that doesn't say anything about my brand. But on that one day of football and commercial glory, I won't knock the advertiser who does.

2. I'll never watch the Super Bowl with advertising people. As a sports fan, and especially a football fan, I would be doing a disservice to myself to get caught up in a conversation about an ad and miss a great play. You can watch the commercials on the internet as many times as you want after the game is over.

I watched the game with non-advertising people (normal people??), and I still got caught up in an advertising conversation. So I can't imagine how much of the game I would miss if I watched with my advertising peers. If you like sports as much as I do, do yourself a favor next year and focus on the game. The ad conversation can wait.