New Media Strategies
Super Bowl ads play it safe
By Dean Goodman | February 6, 2006 - reuters.com
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Warning. Starring in a Super Bowl commercial can be more bruising than playing in U.S. television's most-watched event.
Among the slapstick offerings in the football championship on Sunday, a dinosaur crushed a caveman, a husband fell through a roof, a doctor appeared to kill a patient, and a man was beaten up by a cell phone.
And monkeys are always good for a safe laugh as Internet job search company CareerBuilder.com demonstrated for a second year.
An early straw poll gave the thumbs-up to two ads from Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., said Pete Snyder, CEO of New Media Strategies, which monitors Internet blogs. In one, three men hide a beer-stocked fridge; in the other, a sheep streaks across a football game between the firm's Clydesdales mascots.
The falling husband was another of Anheuser-Busch's spots. The beer company had about 10 overall.
Also scoring well, according to Snyder, was a Sprint Nextel Corp ad in which a phone is tossed at a man to prove that "crime deterrent" is one of its many features.
On the other hand, guffaws greeted the spot for Gillette's five-blade Fusion razor, Snyder said. The Procter & Gamble Co. unit's sci fi-oriented ad boasted earnest scientists extolling "the miracle of fusion."
Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network broadcast the game, which the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 21 to 10, with a 30-second spot costing as much as $2.5 million (1.4 million pounds), up from $2.4 million last year. It was vital, therefore, for advertisers to deliver an unforgettable message.
Playing It Safe
Ellis Verdi, president of the DeVito/Verdi agency in New York, said the offerings were "somewhat lacklustre" for a second year.
Mark DiMassimo, CEO of DiMassimo Brand Advertising in New York, said the commercials were lighter than in past years, but "It was very much a family Super Bowl, so people are still very careful."
"Careful" was the watch word last year, with advertisers on their best behaviour amid the outcry against media indecency that resulted from Janet Jackson's breast-baring during the half-time show in 2004.
This time, during the Rolling Stones' half-time show, two words were censored, though it was not immediately clear if singer Mick Jagger did it himself, or whether it was done by nervous producers.
During "Start Me Up," the line "you make a dead man come" was cut short. A barnyard reference to "cocks" in the new song "Rough Justice" also mysteriously disappeared.
FedEx Corp. depicted a disgruntled caveman kicking a prehistoric beast, and being promptly flattened by a giant hoof.
Those were fairly easy to understand. Perhaps more perplexing were some of the sexier ads.
The advertiser that generated the most controversy last year, domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, was back with another titillating spot. A year after 2005 Super Bowl broadcaster Fox scrapped a second scheduled airing of its parody of the Janet Jackson scandal, the firm revisited both events with tantalising shots of a woman's blouse strap coming undone.
Verdi said people probably think GoDaddy.com is a porn site.
He and DiMassimo both liked Toyota Motor Corp.'s spot for a wave-tossed truck, and General Motors Corp.'s Godzilla-style Hummer ad.
Also receiving thumbs-up was Unile ver Plc/NV's poignant commercial for Dove soap telling adolescent girls that it's OK to have freckles or a few extra pounds. While it's common for Super Bowl commercials to target women, they often have a masculine edge. Dove's "campaign for real beauty" unashamedly oozed with estrogen.
© Reuters 2006