Commercial Analysis: What Happened to the Super Bowl Ads?

If the Super Bowl is supposed to showcase the pinnacle of advertising genius for the year, then I am sorely underwhelmed by the current crop of advertising associates. For all the excitement about Super Bowl commercials, I found the majority of them to reflect not only a recession-induced lack of money to put into advertising, but a panic-inspired apathy towards the old tradition of producing good stuff. The only really notable exception being Hulu's entry into the traditional TV ad market. More accolades for Hulu and disdain for everyone else below.



Let's start with the good stuff (aside from some of the movie teasers that were revealed). The marketers behind Hulu are geniuses for advertising in the Super Bowl. They are actually advertising on the most watched hours of TV to incite people to leave the TV behind and come watch their content on the internet. This ad tactic has the delicious flavor of irony about it.



Now for a reality check: NBC has a significant stake in Hulu, so the network wins whether you stick to the TV or head for Hulu. Impressively subversive, nonetheless. The real trick would be to get that commercial to air on CBS. Oh, and one more reason I liked the Hulu commercial: I've been looking for an excuse to believe Alec Baldwin is an alien. Excuse found.

There was one more great moment in marketing innovation yesterday. It could be found in the Doritos commercials, which were produced by regular people in a video-submission contest Doritos ran earlier. Why is this genius? Doritos paid the same amount for a Super Bowl ad slot as everybody else, but didn't pay for an expensive ad production. And furthermore, the regular Joe on the street proved capable of making funnier commercials than any ad agency.



So what happened with all the other decidedly non-genius ad slots? Well, most of them were filled by generic NBC ads for Heroes and Chuck. Sorry, but this is a huge disappointment for those of us looking for more traditional Super Bowl commercial fare. It was nice of NBC to throw together a football-inspired spot for Heroes, but it wasn't that great. In fact, it was bordering on lame. And they brought Elway in just to say "uh oh"?



The most glaring absence from the Super Bowl ad lineup was humor. The funniest commercials of the year have traditionally come from Super Bowls. Looks like we have a dreary 2009 to look forward to. Hyundai skipped humor and even levity by going straight for the "if you lose your job" marketing ploy. That's inspiring. Pepsi tried to score with MacGruber/Pepsuber, but failed miserably. Godaddy, predictably, went for the blatantly sexy advertising, but who in the world convinced Danica Patrick that a Godaddy commercial would be a good career move?



Ugh.

Overall, this year's Super Bowl was a huge disappointment for those people more interested in the commercials than the game (basically everyone outside of Pittsburgh this year). We knew the recession would slash ad budgents, but who knew it would also take a toll on creativity. Maybe the government should be working on an imagination stimulus for the ad agencies.

Update: I was convinced by my managing editor to include the Mean Troy Polamalu commercial as a win for Coke Zero. On further reflection, I'm willing to agree with her. It managed to be pretty funny (watching a long-haired Polynesian football player tackle a pudgy man will always be funny), and the best part about it is that it catered to Super Bowl commercial nostalgia, which is essential because there was nothing in this years selection worth remembering and reminiscing over next year.



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