Comments on: Super Bowl XLII is over! Were the ads worth the $$$$? http://townplanner.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/super-sunday-is-over-were-the-ads-worth-the/ A blog about advertising, marketing, new media, your community and how they affect your business! Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:59:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: James Farquharson http://townplanner.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/super-sunday-is-over-were-the-ads-worth-the/#comment-12 James Farquharson Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:33:19 +0000 http://townplanner.wordpress.com/?p=16#comment-12 Agreed that most of the ads were really quite bad. I think anyone with even a passing interest in marketing has to wonder how companies willing to spend millions on an ad wouldn't have taken a step back for some of those....like the Careerbuilder ones, and thought "wow, that's a really crappy ad" (did they change ad agency from the ones with the monkeys, because those were great! What happened?) The key is that people now expect all superbowl ads to be funny, and funny is hard to do. I think marketing execs and their ad agencies fall into a sort of "groupthink" (similar to the Apple 1984 ad Scott posted) where they think the ad is great and, once past a certain point, have to convince themselves that it is funny and memorable regardless of what whispers to the contrary exist. My personal favorite was the eTrade talking baby. Especially the one with him talking about how he "underestimated the creepy-ness" of the clown performing behind him. Wow...talk about funny!! Works well with the message too. I mean, if a baby could do it (even one talking like an adult) can use it, so could anyone else. Thanks for the posting and glad to see your blog is up and running Scott. James Agreed that most of the ads were really quite bad. I think anyone with even a passing interest in marketing has to wonder how companies willing to spend millions on an ad wouldn’t have taken a step back for some of those….like the Careerbuilder ones, and thought “wow, that’s a really crappy ad” (did they change ad agency from the ones with the monkeys, because those were great! What happened?)

The key is that people now expect all superbowl ads to be funny, and funny is hard to do. I think marketing execs and their ad agencies fall into a sort of “groupthink” (similar to the Apple 1984 ad Scott posted) where they think the ad is great and, once past a certain point, have to convince themselves that it is funny and memorable regardless of what whispers to the contrary exist.

My personal favorite was the eTrade talking baby. Especially the one with him talking about how he “underestimated the creepy-ness” of the clown performing behind him. Wow…talk about funny!! Works well with the message too. I mean, if a baby could do it (even one talking like an adult) can use it, so could anyone else.

Thanks for the posting and glad to see your blog is up and running Scott.

James

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