Here’s an open secret about Super Bowl advertising: In general, it pretty much all sucks.
I know, the conventional wisdom dictates that Super Bowl advertising is supposed to be creative, clever and mind-blowingly amazing; the countless people who proudly say they watch the Super Bowl “for the ads” supposedly attests to this.
But the truth is, most advertising is predicated on getting broad appeal from whatever target audiences the advertiser is trying to reach. Considering the massive audience the Super Bowl draws—in fact, last Sunday’s game was the most-watched broadcast ever in American TV history—there’s a lot of appealing to the lowest common denominator going on.
That usually means dumb humor and cheap attention-grabbing tactics masquerading as edgy and controversial under a veneer of non-existent creativity. Add in the fact that most advertisers’ target audience when throwing up an ad during the game is composed of young (and youngish) adult men, and you’ve got a recipe for a bunch of lazy, dick-swinging commercials.
Here’s the bottom line: Watching the Super Bowl for the ads is a farce that almost assuredly makes advertisers and the suits at whatever network has the Super Bowl that year cackle with laughter.
Every year, advertisers and their agencies ride waves of entirely undeserved hype and goodwill from TV watchers (some of whom, to be fair, get to feel a smug sense of superiority by pretending to be astute media critics when they say they’re watching the game for the ads, unlike the Neanderthals who are watching it for—gasp—the football). Every year, the advertisers and their agencies, by and large, fail spectacularly to deliver.
And every year, the Monday after the Super Bowl, people put on their ad critic hats and bemoan how this year’s crop just doesn’t measure up to last year when they’ve pretty much never, ever measured up. And the nature of mass marketing and a viewing public conditioned not to give leeway to things that are too experimental, creative, or whimsical means they never will.
That’s kind of depressing, I know. So let’s watch some ads!
Snickers/Betty White
I think it’s kind of impossible not to adore Betty White (and Abe Vigoda’s appearance made me wistful for the days of Conan—more on that later), and for what it is, it’s pretty amusing. But this is yet another instance of a well-worn advertising cliché—“old person does young things”—and it makes me wonder how many more rapping grandmas and horny grandpas we’re going to have to suffer through before laughing at old people stops being funny.
CBS/Letterman’s Super Bowl Party
During the NBC late night debacle last month in which noted unfunny lying bastard Jay Leno euchred Conan O’Brien out of his job as host of "The Tonight Show," David Letterman was one of Leno’s most outspoken critics. While the Conan-Leno drama unfolded, Letterman delivered searing attacks on Jay Leno night after night, and it felt like one of the very few moments on TV where genuine, unpredictable emotion was spilling out in a real, raw way.
At least it seemed real. A few weeks later, Letterman apparently invites Leno to shoot a cutesy Super Bowl ad. Ostensibly, it’s an ad for Letterman’s "Late Show"—and I guess there’s something to be said about Letterman getting Leno to stoop to promoting his competitor’s show—but really, the ad is just another part of Leno’s PR rehabilitation, ahead of his return to "The Tonight Show."
Admittedly, I’m a pretty ardent member of Team Coco, so I’m probably biased. But if this was supposed to get me to watch Letterman, it completely backfired: I’ve been an occasional Letterman fan, in part because his jaded cynicism—while not amiable—always seemed authentic, and his Leno hate last month fell into that category.
Now we see him teaming up with Leno to promote both of their shows, which casts doubt on his authenticity. And if he doesn’t have that, it makes me wonder what’s the point of watching Letterman—who’s not nearly as funny or relevant as his Comedy Central competition, or as inventive or creative as he was three decades ago—if he’s just another opportunistic showbiz hack after all?
Dodge/Man’s Last Stand
This is very possibly the worst ad of the night, because Dodge seems to be saying that they’re the official car company of whiny, self-hating, emotionally cowardly men who apparently haven’t changed their views on relationships and women since the seventh grade—which isn’t exactly making me want to run out and buy a Charger.
In a way, though, you have to admire Dodge for their honesty in how contemptuously they view their consumers: Pathetic men who are dumb enough to think that they can solve their personal issues by buying what appears to be kind of a sucky car. Did the creative team imagine a bunch of whipped dudes standing up, fist held above their head in defiance, and declaring they won't take it anymore—where “it” is getting to work on time, cleaning a sink after getting hair on it, and being nice to your girlfriend’s mom?
You see advertising that’s transparently manipulative all the time, and you see advertising that’s transparently disdainful of the consumer all the time. But both in one spot? Bravo, Dodge.
Doritos/House Rules
Sure, it’s kind of funny. But would it still be funny if the actors weren’t black? No, seriously, imagine the same ad with all white actors. Doesn’t really quite work, does it?
This ad is predicated on reinforcing broad stereotypes about black people: Look at the black guy checking out the black woman’s ass! Look at the black guy trying to be all smooth and cocky when talking to the black kid! And look at that black kid resorting to violence so quickly! He’s even got the beginnings of talking all street-like: “Keep yo’ hands off my mama!”
Okay, to be clear, I don’t think the people who made the ad are racists just for making the ad, nor do I think you’re a racist just because you liked it. But it’s important to note that the actors’ race is an integral—and not incidental—part of the commercial, and the stereotypes in which the ad is trafficking doesn’t do too much good for those in the black community. And it’d be one thing if this ad were on BET, but it’s on CBS. This is probably cause for at least some pause.
It’s debatable whether you want to call the ad racist, but it’s inarguable that the ad is certainly racial.
Audi/Green Police
When I first saw this ad, I thought for sure it’d be an ad for big, honkin’ truck or SUV. The copy writes itself: “Do you see what happens when you let the bitchy little Priuses take over? Get yourself a real car.”
But no, it’s an ad for a purportedly green car. And the question is, why would Audi want to confirm the worst fears of the Al Gore haters and anti-environmentalists by illustrating the conclusion of all their slippery slope arguments? If anything, that would just strengthen their resolve to not capitulate to the tree-huggers. And if you’re an environmentalist, you can’t be pleased about being stereotyped as a Big Brother-loving, nanny statist, overbearing smug know-it-all. Nice going, Audi—you pleased no one.
Google/Parisian Love
We’ll close on what I think was the best ad of the night. This commercial from Google—actually a repurposed online promotional video—was decidedly different from almost every other ad: It was entirely sincere with no trace of irony; it was simple and quiet (as it was essentially a series of screenshots); and it was unabashed and unapologetic about being sentimental.
The attention to detail is astounding. Piano music plays in the background, starting off slowly and becoming more energetic and loud as the main character, the “user,” and his (or her—the commercial never explicitly says) lover fall more and more in love. Clever little sound effects are dropped here and there during the spot (a “learn French on tape” excerpt when the user searches for cafes in Paris, a spinning film reel when the user looks up information on a French film director).
The most moving part of the ad is at 0:34, when the user initially types in “long distance relationship advice,” hovers his cursor over it for a moment, and—as if the user mentally decided, at that moment, “Screw it, I love her”—deletes it and replaces it with “jobs in paris.” Super Bowl ads are imbued with a sense of trying to projecting manliness and toughness, but Google’s cute love story ad, strangely enough, featured a representation of one of the few genuine acts of gustiness of the night: someone uprooting their entire life to be with someone about whom they care.
Many people have asked whether or not Google—a company whose name is literally synonymous with Internet searches—even needs to advertise on TV. I don’t pretend to know Google’s thought process, but the advertising onslaught from Microsoft’s Bing search engine, coupled with Microsoft’s reported determination to grow both Bing’s profits and market share, certainly could’ve played a role.
But it also gave Google an opportunity to show off how to use its search engine in more useful ways than just simple web searches. At 0:10, the user runs a search for “cafes near the louve”—showing Google’s ability to correct spelling errors, then its ability to provide Yellow Pages-style results for local businesses. At 0:15, the user runs a search for “translate tu es très mignon”—highlighting Google’s ability to recognize what language a foreign phrase is from, then to immediately translate it into English. At 0:27, the user asks Google “what are truffles,” and Google is able to provide a direct answer to a natural language questions. And at 0:40, the user types in the flight number “DL 8601” and gets up-to-the-minute flight information. For many watching the ad, at least one of these features had to be new.
Regardless, I was just impressed by the fact that this ad was treating me like I was intelligent. Almost every other ad was attempting to appeal to my baser instincts—sex! violence! laughing at dumb people!—and this one was namechecking François Truffaut. And it was a particular stroke of brilliance to make a connection between Google searches and the search for love.
Just one curiosity about this ad: Before its Super Bowl debut, “Parisian Love” was actually an online promotional video for Google that had been on YouTube for nearly three months before the game. The original YouTube version features the user searching for flight “AA120” (at 0:37), an American Airlines flight; in the Super Bowl version, the user searches for “DL 8601,” a Delta Airlines flight. Did Google get a kickback from Delta or something? If so, that’s something pretty amazing—product placement inside an ad. We’re through the looking glass, people.
(If you’re curious about the Focus on the Family/Tim Tebow ad, which actually wound up being among the least-watched ads of the night, I wrote a 2000-word analysis of it earlier this week.)
