Game break time for commercials
February 25, 2016
Every year, an obscene number of people watch America’s biggest sporting event: the Super Bowl. While a total of 111.9 million people watched the Superbowl this year, a significant amount of them had tuned in for another reason, the commercials.
The advertising aspect of the Superbowl has always been considered intense, to say the least. Accounting for inflation, a 30-second advertisement cost $273,000 in the first Superbowl. That cost has skyrocketed today, with Superbowl XLIX demanding $4.5 million for the same length of television time. Although the official statistics for this year, Superbowl 50, are not yet available, they were projected to be at over $5 million for the spot.
So it begs the question, why are they such a big deal?
It’s entertaining enough, and sometimes you get to see some good movie trailers.
— Noah Campbell
“It’s entertaining enough, and sometimes you get to see some good movie trailers,” senior Noah Campbell said. “Or just fun advertisements. I remember last year they advertised the Age of Ultron commercial and I loved it.”
However, while some fans do enjoy the commercial aspect of the event, others take it from more of a purist angle.
I don’t really like them because I’m not a big fan of the people who only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and the half time show,” senior Ben Olsen said.
Olsen’s statement reflects a minority in a poll taken by USA Today two years ago. From 1,000 randomly surveyed, 29 percent stated that they did not look forwards to the commercials more than the game. However, the remaining 71 percent (a huge majority) still looks forwards to these brief snippets of culture.
Among viewers, several stand out every year. One that received positive feedback was the Heinz’s commercial, which featured a swarm of wiener dogs.
“The wiener dog commercial was my favorite because I love my wiener dog,” Olsen said.
Loading ...Another popular one among viewers was the joint commercial between Marvel and Coke, which fans of both products enjoyed.
“It was Marvel themed,” Campbell said. “Ant Man stole a mini coke from Hulk, then there was a big chase and I like to think that it’s actually canon that Hulk rampaged over a small can of coke.”
On the other hand, some commercials received negative feedback due to their overall strange nature.
“The oddest one by far was a Mountain Dew Kickstart commercial,” Campbell said, “They were advertising ‘three awesome things’, and they had a puppy monkey baby come in and force the Mountain dew into the guy’s hands.”
Mountain Dew’s commercial reached a consensus online of being a strange creation, where the line between cute and terrifying was all too easily crossed.
Yet for others still, they don’t even need to expose themselves to the commercials of the Superbowl each year.
“It’s kind of a subjective thing,” sophomore Eleanor Wilhelmi said,”but I’d say, no, there are better ways you could spend your time. There is much more interesting content that’s not just jamming a product down your throat.”
So whether the game itself is the key focus of the day, or it has shifted to commercials, whether the commercials have held on to their charm or simply become to strange for watchers, the commercial aspect of the Superbowl remains the tradition it has always been: one focused on the quirks and creativity of American advertising.
