The successive second half comebacks by both teams kept football fans riveted to the action in Sunday’s Super Bowl—but the interstitial action in the TV spots was much less compelling.
There seemed to be less flash and comic ingenuity than in Super Bowl spots of recent vintage.
“There certainly weren’t any groundbreakers, that’s for sure,” said independent media analyst Gary Arlen, who noted that the game and Bruce Springsteen’s halftime show left the ads in the shadows.
“It was a strange bunch of commercials because it was mostly branding,” Arlen said.
He observed that there were an inordinate number of spots plugging shows for the home network, NBC, presumably because of its dismal standing in the broadcast network ratings race.
Results of an annual survey conducted by HCD Research confirmed that consumers were under whelmed by the ads that punctuated the big game’s action.
While top-rated Super Bowl spots in last year’s HCD survey scored above 80 points out of a possible 100, none of the ads in the top spots on this year’s survey scored higher than 77 points.
A Budweiser spot featuring a lovesick Clydesdale chasing after his circus mare mate to a soundtrack of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was the top-ranking ad in HCD’s poll, followed by another Bud spot that showed a Clydesdale playing fetch with a tree branch. A third Bud spot telling the story of a Clydesdale that migrated from Scotland to America finished among the top five.
The other top scorers in the HCD survey were the Coca-Cola spot showing a swarm of bees, a group of grasshoppers and a flight of birds hijacking a Coke bottle from a napping picnicker and the Bridgestone spot with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head behind the wheel.
“They weren’t as glitzy as before, so they didn’t catch viewers’ attention,” said Glenn Kessler, president and CEO of HCD Research. “The interest levels were much lower and they were also much less likely to talk about them.”
While top-rated Super Bowl spots in last year’s HCD survey scored above 80 points out of a possible 100, none of the ads in the top spots on this year’s survey scored higher than 77 points.
HCD based its results on a national online sample of 2,000 participants who rate their impressions of the ads based on several parameters, including emotional reaction, memorability and “watercooler buzz” value. HCD also uses an automated response system to gauge the level of each viewer’s interest at quarter-second intervals during the ads, which the survey subjects view outside of the game’s context.
While the ads may have carried less flash, Kessler said the current economic malaise might have dampened responses to the messages.
“They did basically the same kind of goofy, silly ads this year as last year. You could argue it’s because of the economy,” he said.
Doritos “Crunch” spot, in which every bite of a Doritos chip prompted some physical anomaly—a woman’s clothes flying off and bills spontaneously flying out of an ATM—ranked in HCD’s top 10, along with a GE ad featuring a scarecrow dancing on power lines to Ray Bolger’s rendition of “If I Only Had A Brain.” A Denny’s “Serious Breakfast Ad’ showing a waitress inadvertently interrupting a Mafioso meeting, an NFL ad featuring Usama Young and his father and a Pedigree Adoption ad featuring ill-chosen pets rounded out HCD’s top consumer picks.
Animal ads were abundant, as usual, with Castrol contributing one with featuring chimpanzees as “grease monkeys” and Monster.com pitching one about job dissatisfaction with a moose head leading to its hind parts on the other side of a wall where an underling’s desk was its perch.
“Animal ads always work,” Kessler said.
A celebrity fest was also in full swing, with Bob Dylan, Muhammed Ali, MC Hammer, Conan O’Brien, Ed McMahon, and Go Daddy girl Danica Patrick, among others, in attendance.
Arlen noted that the two Go Daddy ads were the most effective in directing viewers online, where they could see the conclusions to the domain name company’s typically salacious spots—and get a 10% discount for online addresses.
“The tease was a perfect tease,” he said.
One of the game’s oddest ads featured actor Alec Baldwin describing video Web hub— co-owned by NBC—as part of “an evil plot to destroy the world.”
“TV softens your brain—like a ripe banana,” said Baldwin, explaining what really didn’t require any explanation.
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