I am one of very few red-blooded American males that doesn’t really care who wins football games. Oh, when the Patriots are good, I’ll watch them in the playoffs and root for them and be into it. But I just can’t justify burning hours of my life on end to see who wins a regular season football game, even if the Patriots are involved. I know, I know, I’m SO in the minority. But I just find it boring. That said, the Super Bowl is another issue entirely. It is a spectacle. A sparkly, loud evening of entertainment, eating, masculinity and for some, utter debauchery. All well and good. Oh yeah, there’s also a football game in there somewhere, too.
Which brings me to the ads, a whole sideshow in an of itself. Of course, if I was heading up a major brand, I wouldn’t buy airtime on the Super Bowl, as I explained last week. But put that aside for now. I’m less interested in the ads themselves and more interested in the after-effects. What I mean is this – which brands are smart enough to actually get users to follow up and do something? That is, after all, the intention in advertising, right? Who will enhance their website and tie it in to the commercial that they just paid for? We’ve seen a nice evolution in companies who actually do this, but surprisingly enough, there are still many who run an ad for the sake of running an ad. Just throwing it out there on TV as if nobody is on their couch with a laptop, typing stuff in after they see a commercial. Dumb dumb dumb. If you’re paying for an ad, do something cool on your website, for shit’s sake!
Which is why I always LOVE reading the Searchviews Super Bowl Scorecard, done by Reprise Media every year. They walk through each ad and give you the lowdown on how each advertiser did. Not on the actual commercial, but how they backed it up and the after effects of it. It’s always a great read. This year they’ve got it behind a registration wall (sigh) but it’s still worth a look if you’re a media nerd like me.
Oh yeah, the game. I didn’t watch it. Steph and I were on the last episode of Season 1 of Mad Men. Then we got caught up on 30 Rock. I did catch the last five minutes of the game, which is all I needed to see, really. Glad I missed The Who.
ripping on the Super Bowl, Football and The Who – WOW
I wouldn’t even know where to begin but in the spirit of not writing a diatribe on all of the above, just an FYI, although The Who played 3 songs we have all heard a million times, they rocked and in my mind there will never be another rock band that will even come close what they bring to the table, i think time has shown that.