by Dino Ocampo, Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Philippines
Like many of us in the local advertising industry, I couldn’t have cared less about the Packers and the Steelers, and was more curious about the ads. However, I thought this year’s Superbowl spots were notable not because of their quality, but because they provided an intriguing glimpse into the American zeitgeist (or at least, what marketers think is the American zeitgeist).
Around 60 ads were aired at a stunning cost of about US$3 million per 30-second slot. Most were mediocre and full of typical Superbowl ad
banality; a heavy reliance on violence (a baby slamming into a plate glass window?), bawdy humor (GoDaddy.com 1 & 2 ), pointlessly expensive production (Kia), and lots of borrowed interest from pop culture references (everything from David Bowie songs to Kim Kardashian to classic American TV shows). Of course, each batch of Superbowl ads needs to have at least one shining example of US ethnocentricity (with Groupon.com making fun of the potential extermination of Tibetan culture).
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On the other hand, Bridgestone’s “Carma” (The Richards Group) ad featuring a beaver that pays it forward and Coca Cola’s “Border” (Wieden + Kennedy) had simple, product-focused ideas that were executed with great charm. There were few sublime moments overall, but I was struck by three things in particular.
Volkswagen’s well-loved “The Force” (Deutsch L.A.) is a case of “head says no, heart says yes.” It doesn’t say much – if anything – about the Passat, and reliance on pop culture nostalgia is an easy and cheap trick, but damn if it isn’t superbly crafted, not to mention cute as the dickens.
I liked some Doritos (1, 2, 3) and Pepsi Max ads (1, 2, 3) and didn’t care for others, but the entire notion of crowd-sourcing marketing communications is fascinating, and illustrates how online culture and user-generated content is making an impact on traditional media. And it’s proven to work; USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter ranks the most popular ads each year. This year, three of the top ten ads (including the co-winner for best-liked spot) were consumer-generated. So if you want consumers to love your ads, let consumers make them; it’s a formula that makes sense, but is quite a foreboding notion for us ad industry professionals.
The third observation that struck me was almost half of the Superbowl spots were car related, making Superbowl XLV a sort of public signal that the US auto industry is alive and well (or at least, its hopes for a better year than 2010 are). The most overt example of this resurgence of the industry’s spirit is Chrysler’s “Made in Detroit” (Wieden + Kennedy) spot. It won’t win any awards, and I can’t say I truly liked the ad (because frankly, I disagree with its points), but it had arguably the biggest idea of this year’s batch of Superbowl spots. It’s insightful, stirring, unapologetically “local”, thought-provoking, made excellent use of Eminem’s association with Detroit, and made me question my perception of the Motor City. It’s lighting up the internet, with half of its viewers seemingly inspired by it, and half hating what it stands for. And ultimately, moving people to communicate about a brand is what brand communication is all about.
