Q1: How would you assess this year’s
Super Bowl – from the commercials to the halftime show to the game itself? In
this changing media environment, is the Super Bowl as influential as a showcase
for advertisers, performers, and the NFL as it was in the past? Limit:
11 responses
Mackenzie Rowe (1/3)
ReplyDeleteAside from the unbelievable finish to a game that I would argue few thought the Patriots would win as of the third quarter, I feel as though it is becoming more apparent that the NFL has struggled over the past year or so. According to Fortune, the NFL saw an overall drop in ratings of approximately 8% over the past season, something that is almost unheard of in the modern day culture (Huddleston, Jr.). I personally feel as though the only “quality” offering that the Super Bowl gave this year was the halftime show, and that’s really not saying much as I am not a huge Lady Gaga fan. That being said, I suspect that her selection as the halftime show performer may be what kept viewers engaged, at least through the first half. With the game being as abysmal as it was throughout the first half, I would not be surprised to learn that many would have clicked off had it not been for Gaga’s massively hyped up halftime performance. Looking at preliminary data from Reuters, it appears as if this theory may have some merit to it. According to data released by Nielsen today (Monday), the broadcast drew only 111.3 million viewers, which is argued to be the smallest audience for an NFL title game in four years (Baysinger). As a point of reference, Nielsen also released that Lady Gaga’s halftime performance drew 117.5 million viewers – more than the game itself, and more than last year’s broadcast audience of 111.9 (Baysinger).
Mackenzie Rowe (2/3)
DeleteFrom a commercials perspective, I feel as though fell flat very quickly. While there were a few cute ads, such as the Google Home ad which featured a very adorable dauschund and several precious children, and several more charged ads, such as that put forth by Airbnb, there were also many ads that just missed the mark. It was disappointing to see such a sad array, especially when one considered the high price advertisers were investing in this year’s game – prices edging over $5 million for a 30-second spot, with at least an additional 25% of that cost spent on further marketing ploys (Maheshwari). From viewing these ads, such as Go Daddy and the Turbo Tax ad featuring Humpty Dumpty, you could tell the intent and purpose was there but it simply was not conveyed. A few companies that I feel did a good job, given the overall low quality, were Honda with their CR-V evolution ad featuring assorted celebrities in their high school “years” and the Kia Niro commercial that featured Melissa McCarthy taking on all the world’s crises. While they may not be worthy of “all-time favorite Super Bowl ad” status they did make me smile, and my roommates enjoyed them as well. That all being sad, I find no reason to feel sorry for Fox in any way about the quality of the ads harming their reputation, or anything similar, as they still brought in approximately $509.6 million in ad revenue according to research firm iSpot.TV (and had extra time for ads with the game extending into overtime!) (Baysinger).
Mackenzie Rowe (3/3)
DeleteOne interesting note worth making about the ads, in particular the content, is the fact that Netflix chose to debut the teaser trailer for the second season of Stranger Things during the Super Bowl. I thought this was an excellent strategic move on Netflix’s behalf, given the popularity of both the series and the Super Bowl itself, and I will be interesting to see if there is any data that can indicate how this second season may do, perhaps through social media engagement. I think that this demonstrates how important other services aside from cable TV have become to the American public, and as VP of Marketing for Mar Chocolate said, “Television advertising continues to be an important part, but on its own it’s not enough anymore” (Maheshwari).
Overall, I would argue that I enjoyed the ads and the halftime performances of past Super Bowls considerably more, and perhaps even the game play itself in years past, but I will say that the last six minutes or so of the fourth quarter were probably some of the most intense, yet exciting, moments I have experienced watching any sort of sports game in at least the last ten years.
Baysinger, Tim. “Despite overtime finish, NFL Super Bowl draws lower TV ratings.” Reuters 6 Feb. 2017. Web.
Huddleston Jr., Tom. “Super Bowl Advertisers Hope To Score Touchdowns Before the Big Game.” Fortune, 30 Jan. 2017. Web.
Maheshwari, Sapna. “$5 Million for a Super Bowl Ad. Another Million or More to Market the Ad.” New York Times, 29 Jan. 2017. Web.
Carly Knowles
ReplyDeleteThe Super Bowl is practically the most-watched television event each year. It’s even captivating for people who don’t usually enjoy watching football because it’s more than just a championship game. There is a great deal of hype built around it, including the overly expensive commercials and highly anticipated halftime show. However, there was an 8% ratings drop for the NFL games during this season and also less interest shown in companies buying Super Bowl spots for advertisements (Huddleston). The reasoning for this is unknown, but I believe there are several factors that have played a part, such as digital media, costly commercials, and competition.
Being a Giant’s fan, I was not as invested into who won the game because I don’t support the Patriots or the Falcons. But, I do love watching football and thought Lady Gaga’s halftime performance was epic. However, I have noticed that the Super Bowl commercials have not been as great the past few years. There are usually a few memorable ones, but there weren’t any that stuck out to me on Sunday. As stated before, the NFL ratings were lower than usual this past year, and it also makes sense that the Super Bowl ads struggled as well. In early December, the network ad said spots for the event were 90% sold out. This may sound like a lot, but usually the Super Bowl spots are sold out by September. These statistics suggest that companies are not rushing to advertise (Calkins and Rucker).
There are many theories for the decline in these ratings. According to Baltimore Ravens owner, Steve Bisciotti, in Are Too Many Commercial Breaks Really Behind the NFL’s Declining Ratings? “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that nobody wants to see two minutes of commercials, come back, kick the ball and then go to a minute-and-a-half of commercials” (Schwab). I believe this relates to the fact that the cost of commercials for a Super Bowl spot have increased tremendously. As stated in Why Super Bowl Ads Are a Tough Sell in 2017, “In 2010, Super Bowl Ads were selling for about $2.5 million for a 30-second spot. This year, Fox is reportedly asking for $5 million to $5.5 million. That is at least double the cost in just a few years” (Calkins and Ducker). There is a lot more planning that goes into the ads now because of the advanced social media. For most brands, they also buy space on sites such as Facebook and You Tube to advertise their content (Calkins and Ducker). With digital media growing, that leads to more competition to get their advertisements shown on all media platforms, but the expensive costs make it difficult.
In my opinion, I think this year’s Super Bowl was extremely beneficial to Lady Gaga and the actual game itself. Beyoncé’s performance last year was not pleasing to most, and many thought it was offensive. But, the reviews on social media of Lady Gaga displayed a great amount of appraisal for her. It all depends on how well the performer delivers and how exciting the game is. It seemed as if the Falcons were going to end up champions last night, but the Patriots made history with an unexpected comeback.
The Super Bowl remains a captivating marketing platform, but the topic of conversation around the possible reasons for the NFL ratings declining is very interesting. I believe that companies are shying away from buying a spot for the Super Bowl Ad because of how expensive it has become and don’t think it’s worth it.
Works Cited:
Calkins, Tim, and Derek D. Rucker. "Why Super Bowl Ads Are a Tough Sell in 2017." Fortune.com. Fortune, 17 Jan. 2017. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
Huddleston, Jr. Tom. "Super Bowl Advertisers Hope To Score Touchdowns Before the Big Game." Super Bowl 2017: The Big Cost to Market Super Bowl Ads Before the Game | Fortune.com. Fortune, 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
Schwab, Frank. "Are Too Many Commercial Breaks Really behind the NFL's Declining Ratings?" Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 19 Jan. 2017. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
This year’s super bowl was extremely interesting. In years past I typically only wanted the game for the commercials and half time show however, this year the game was the best part of the broadcast. It seems to be that the years of fantastic commercials are behind us and that is because of viewership. Over the past two years super bowl views have gone down. “Last year, it drew nearly 112 million viewers, just shy of the record 115 million people who watched the game in 2015.”(Huddleston) Last nights game had the “Patriots make the largest comeback in super bowl history, brought in an average audience of 111.3 million viewers for Fox, according to Nielsen.”(Pallotta). I believe that the reason that so many viewers ended up watching was to see the comeback the Patriots were making. If the Falcons had kept winning like in the beginning of the game I am not confident that that amount of viewers would have been reached.
ReplyDeleteIn the past years I think it has become more obvious that the super bowl does not have the fan base it once did and so advertisers are more skeptical to put out ads. “The average cost of a 30-second commercial ad for the Super Bowl crept up to $5 million this year, according to ad buyers, form an estimated $4.8 million last year”(Mahshwari). The price of an ad went up while viewership went down. Companies are not feeling the need anymore to invest big in the super bowl for the 30 second slot, piece of making the commercial and marketing it. It is a huge amount of money to spend when they may not get the return they once would have. Companies that used to invest a lot in ads are backing off from the traditional 30 second slot. This year Doritos choose not to take part in the traditional past time.
The super bowl is not what it once was. It has become a time of over eating and drinking. So many viewers join in for the party aspect and hardly even watch the game. While others tune in for the halftime show. Last year Beyoncé was a huge hit at super bowl 50 while this year Lady Gaga gave an incredible performance. The performer is what most people tune in for and they get a lot of social media action also. Overall over the last years the NFL has lost viewers due to fans streaming on different devices or just keeping up with game highlights on social media. I think the audience of the super bowl has gone down dramatically over the years and will continue too. It is just too costly to keep going at the rate it is. The networks either need to charge less for commercials or come up with new ways to pull in the viewers.
Huddleston, Jr. Tom. "Super Bowl Advertisers Hope To Score Touchdowns Before the Big Game." Super Bowl 2017: The Big Cost to Market Super Bowl Ads Before the Game | Fortune.com. Fortune, 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
"$5 Million for a Super Bowl Ad, Another Million or More to Market the Ad." New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web.
Game, The. "Super Bowl LI Overnight Ratings Are Big -- but Not as Big as Last Year's." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
The super bowl is annually the single biggest event on television. Although “Sunday’s game drew 111.3 million viewers on Fox, a high enough total to tie it for fourth place among the most-viewed programs in TV history but lower than last year’s 111.9 million (Koblin, NYT),” the sheer reach of the sporting event continues to be a lucrative event for advertisers, performers, and the NFL alike.
ReplyDeleteThis year’s game was interesting for a variety of reasons. Many cultural trends came to a junction for the super bowl this go around. Starting with advertising, you saw many key companies abstain from their usual super bowl spots for 2017. Frito Lay’s Doritios brand snack was a notable absence. Heinz, Butterfinger, and Taco Bell were also sidelined. I have a few theories as to why companies may be deciding to abstain. These brands might feel like they’ll get a better value by diversifying their advertising budget on new platforms like instagram and snapchat (Taco Bell has had many featured snap chat ads). The price has never gone down for placement, and at a whopping $5 million for a 30 second spot, exposure certainly isn't a fear of brands, but the added expense of pre and post game promotion and production costs certainly are. Although, there are certainly many benefits to a super bowl spot. Pregame hype online is something that’s relatively new, and ad agencies now routinely decipher how many days before the game to release the ad. “Social media is also far more developed as an industry than it was several years ago, making it harder for agencies to maneuver their way into online buzz without buying a spot, as Old Spice did in 2010 (Maeshwari, NYT).” For this reason, the super bowl proves to be a great venue for debuting a new product to large target markets. The ads themselves took on a more progressive tone, presumably due in part to the election of Donald Trump and his recent policies about immigration. It’s never bad for business to pitch a message of inclusion and preach social causes. There was an ad for Audi about equal pay for women. The ad simply ended with a young girl getting into an Audi—I’m not sure how getting into an Audi solves the problem of unequal pay, but the very fact that it has made next-day conversation is proof of its effectiveness.
Lady Gaga’s performance even had a political tint to it. By opening with “This Land is Your Land,” a well-known protest song that’s been performed since the 1940’s, Gaga was subtly objecting to the recent executive developments and political climate in America, without outright objecting them midway through her performance. I thought her performance was the best halftime show in recent memory, and the video of it has surpassed 10 million views on youtube just shy of 24 hours later.
This super bowl solidified many of the trends that may be ailing the NFL, such as a political divide amongst its fanbase, rising costs, rapidly changing preferences for viewing, and an overall disdain for regular season advertising. The latter has been a longstanding complaint about the NFL. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that nobody wants to see two minutes of commercials, come back, kick the ball and then go to a minute-and-a-half of commercials,” Bisciotti told the Ravens’ website. “I’ve thought that was absurd since I was 20 years old,” wrote Frank Schwab for Yahoo Sports. I hope the NFL is planning on seriously addressing these trends. Nobody wants to watch 12 minutes of actual gameplay bombarded by three hours of ads.
Works Cited
ReplyDeleteKoblin, John. "Super Bowl Delivers Thrills, but No Ratings Record." The New York Times, 6 Feb. 2017. Web.
Maeshwari, Sapna. "$5 Million for a Super Bowl Ad. Another Million or More to Market the Ad." The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2017. Web.
Schwab, Frank. "Are Too Many Commercial Breaks Really behind the NFL's Declining Ratings?" Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 19 Jan. 2017. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
This years Super Bowl was absolutely historical. There was obvious hype about the game but even non-football fans gathered around to watch the event unfold because of the commercials and half-time show. There was a lot of excitement during the game because it appeared that the Patriots were getting destroyed the entire time until the end where they shocked everyone by coming back and winning the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteThe outcome of the game amazed everyone and that was not something that was really up for debate although people may have their opinions about the two teams. However by talking to different friends and going on social media it appeared that many people viewed that the commercials were sub par. The advertisements seemed too concerned about being politically correct so they could not really do anything funny and instead they all appeared to be sentimental which really changed the media environment. With $5 million as the average price for a 30 second ad, it is a shame that they were not enjoyed by more people (Huddleston 1). Because advertisements cost so much money, this year companies spent millions of dollars marketing their ads (Maheshwari 1). The cost of the advertisement slots are so high because companies realize that this is the largest time and nowadays one of the few times where people are not only watching live television but are excited to be disrupted by the advertisements. The public expects great things because they know the cost of the slots for the ads even though Fox did not end up selling all of their slots until just a few days before the game. This may have something to do with how companies feel the relevance of ads have changed and because of the expensive price tag on the spots (Crupi 2).
Many people really enjoyed Lady Gaga’s performance. Her performance was so great because of her enthusiasm and the show that she put on for everyone. Many people who are not necessarily Lady Gaga fans enjoyed the show because she did not get political which many celebrities have been doing recently. She let the focus be on the tradition of the game and the show as an experiential part of the event.
ReplyDeleteThe Super Bowl is obviously influential because of the amount of people that watch it and how it has adapted into a strong part of the American culture where many people treat it like a holiday and celebrate with family and friends. However, how some celebrities use the outlet of social media to tweet about the game has ruined how influential the showcase actually is. One way that the influential showcase was ruined was when the Patriots won and President Trump actually found a way to make it about himself. The Wall Street Journal tweeted that the Patriots had a less than an 9% chance of winning, Trumps son tweeted that it looked just like the election and they came back and won just like Trump did! This led people to think that the Patriots are cheaters and Trump supporters, which takes away from Tom Brady's true greatness. If people can't recognize that they're witnessing the best player in the world, it will be too late when they finally realize they won't see another player like Brady ever again. It is actions like this that ruin the showcase of Super Bowl events.
Works Cited
ReplyDeleteCrupi, Anthony. "Fox Is Down to Its Last Few Super Bowl Spots," Adversiting Age 30 Jan. 2017. Web.
Huddleston, Jr., Tom. "Super Bowl Advertisers Hope To Score Touchdowns Before the Big Game," Fortune 30 Jan. 2017. Web.
Maheshwari, Sapna. "$5 Million for a Super Bowl Ad. Another Million or More to Market the Ad." New York Times 29 Jan. 2017. Web.
Schwab, Frank. "Are Too Many Commercial Breaks Really Behind the NFL's Declining Ratings?" Yahoo Sports 19 Jan, 2017. Web.
Trump, Donald, Jr. Twitter. Web.
This year’s Super Bowl will be a game that forever goes down in history. Not only was it the biggest comeback in a Super Bowl game, but it was also the first Super Bowl to go into overtime. Aside from the historical value of the game, the media content surrounding the game is most likely something that will not be remembered. The halftime show was horrendous and the commercials were sub-par.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this week’s readings, an average 30-second Super Bowl commercial costs approximately $5 million. In addition to that $5 million, some companies spend close to an additional 25% in promotions before the ad airs (an additional $1.25 million). I am aware that the large companies have hefty marketing budgets, but I cannot rationalize why companies would spend somewhere near $6 million dollars for a 30-second ad in this year’s Super Bowl. Although the highly anticipated event draws a consistent large viewership – 115 million viewers in 2015 – some companies who are known for having the best Super Bowl commercials, such as Doritos, decided not to make a Super Bowl advertisement for this year. After watching the ads, I am confident that companies like Doritos made the right decision.
I want to be clear that I do not think the ad space is overpriced. With a consistent viewership of over 110 million per year, a $5 million dollar slot is not entirely unreasonable, especially when the viewers are engaged with the commercials. The Super Bowl is arguably the only day that viewers choose not to ignore commercials, so the 5 million dollar demand for ad space is reasonable. That being said, if a company is going to spend a large chunk of money for Super Bowl ad space, the commercial better be worth it. Unfortunately for most companies who invested their time and money in commercials this year it was a waste of money. There were only two companies that spent their money well; Snickers and Buick. The Buick commercial was successful due to it just being downright funny, entertaining, and memorable. The Snickers commercial was extremely weird, but it was worth their money for one reason –Mars (the company who owns Snickers) became the first company to air a live ad and they may have just changed the game. Everyone else got way too political and it was not a smart strategy from a marketing perspective. It is an unwritten law that Super Bowl commercials are supposed to be lighthearted and fun. It is imperative for other companies to learn from this year’s mistakes. I never want to see another discussion provoking political advertisement during the Super Bowl again. It caused me a bunch of unwanted political arguments with people in the room and can be detrimental for a company if loyal customers do not share the same views.
The Super Bowl is still influential as a showcase for advertisers and the NFL but some years are simply better than others. This year was a bad year for the media content and halftime show that surrounded an excellent game that will be talked about for a very long time. Regardless of how good or bad the media content was this year, the result of this year’s game would have outshined the commercials and halftime show ten times out of ten.
Huddleston, Jr. Tom. "Super Bowl Advertisers Hope To Score Touchdowns Before the
Big Game." Super Bowl 2017: The Big Cost to Market Super Bowl Ads Before
the Game | Fortune.com. Fortune, 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Maheshwari, Sapna. "$5 Million for a Super Bowl Ad. Another Million or More to
Market the Ad." New York Times, 26 Jan. 2017. Web. 5 Feb. 2017.
Schwab, Frank. "Are Too Many Commercial Breaks Really behind the NFL's Declining
Ratings?" Yahoo! Yahoo!, 19 Jan. 2017. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Since it was first played in 1967, the Super Bowl has become much more than just a game. It has become the most watched televised event of the year and a reason to throw a party. It has also become a prime time for companies to display advertisements, or so it always was. Every year people gear up for the first Sunday in February for many reasons; getting together with friends, an excuse to throw a party, the infamous Super Bowl commercials, halftime, or just because they really love football. This year’s Super Bowl was definitely one for the books, but only in the sense of the game itself, and maybe the Halftime show because Gaga was amazing.
ReplyDeleteSuper Bowl LI saw the largest comeback in Super Bowl history and was also the first Super Bowl game to go into overtime. The first half was quite boring and I though, ‘Here we go again another blow out,’ but the Patriots came back to win in the second half and we had a game. I was not able to watch the commercials live because I was watching the streamed version off of fox.com, but in the moment I had heard they were nothing special from multiple people. I had to see for myself, and to my disappointment, the rumors were true. This year’s ads really were nothing special. There were one or two that I thought were really great (Mr. Clean and the Kia/Melissa McCarthy for example), but I remember a time when it was really difficult to choose which ones were my favorite. The sub-par ads could be related to the drop in ratings the NFL has seen or because companies have decided that its no longer worth the 5 million dollars is costs just to secure a 30 second spot. This past season the NFL saw a surprising 8 percent drop in ratings, “It's possible that combination of slumping ratings and the exorbitant cost of just 30 seconds of air time during the Super Bowl could cause some advertisers to think twice about opening their wallets for the Super Bowl,” (Huddleston).
While I do not think the Super Bowl is not as influential as it was in the earlier 2000s, I still think it will hold precedent over many other large televised sporting events. I do not see a day in which a top-notch performer will turn down the chance to perform at a Super Bowl. With the past performers being some of the best of the best, I feel like it’s like a right of passage for artists or a goal of sorts. We may continue to see a pull back from companies for Super Bowl advertisements, but this could also be a smart decision for the NFL because the recent increase in commercial ad time may be a reason why ratings have dropped (Schwab). I think that as long as there is still an NFL, the Super Bowl will continue to be an influential, highly watched television event.
Huddleston, Jr., Tom. "Super Bowl Advertisers Hope To Score Touchdowns Before the Big Game," Fortune 30 Jan. 2017. Web.
Schwab, Frank. "Are Too Many Commercial Breaks Really Behind the NFL's Declining Ratings?" Yahoo Sports 19 Jan, 2017. Web.
If you watched the Super Bowl 51 this year you watched a historic event. It was the first time a team came up from a 0 to 21 lead the first half to win 34 to 28 the history of the Super Bowl. Lady Gaga put on an okay half time show which, might be not of public opinion, but just didn’t do what I thought it would. Lady Gaga was projected to make a political statement, which she somewhat did in the beginning, but for me, it fell flat. CNN reported that “Lady Gaga’s powerful Super Bowl LI halftime performance didn’t have any of the overt political statements that some people were expecting, but it did have a message about inclusion.” (Melas) With her supporting the LGBT community and the Vice President Mike Pence being in the audience she wanted that message to be shown by sing the song “Born This Way”. The only statement that she really made was when she jumped off the roof of the NRG Stadium to make her entrance, which is now a popular meme all over the internet.
ReplyDelete“Fox is charging advertisers about $5 million for each 30-second slice of its Super Bowl LI...” (Crupi) and for that, I thought that they should have been better than they actually were. Although, there were some really good teasers of some upcoming movies and surprisingly TV shows both on network cable and one from Hulu promoting an original show. There were some commercials that made a political statement like one on immigration and the Airbnb Super Bowl commercial. The Airbnb commercial made the top 9 commercials of the Super Bowl, with number one being the Wix commercial, followed by the Budweiser commercial (which I thought was a movie).
DeleteWith the ever-changing media environment, I think the Super Bowl is still an influential showcase for advertisers, performers, and the NFL as it was in the past. The Super Bowl is still the highest watched thing in television “…with an average draw of 114.9 million viewers.” But, at the same time, advertisers have started to give previews of their commercials before they aired on the Super Bowl. “Starting in January, public relations firms and executives at large brands offered the news media previews or exclusives peeks at their commercials, as long as they agreed not to publish the ads or information about them until a specific time.” (Maheshwari) An example of this would be the T-Mobile commercial starring Justin Bieber.
This year’s Super Bowl was fairly significant for Patriots fans and, more specifically, Tom Brady fans. Not only was this the first Super Bowl in history to go into overtime, the Patriots win gave Brady his fifth Super Bowl ring, making him the quarterback with the most Super Bowl wins in history (he was tied with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw with four). In terms of influence in the NFL, winning the Super Bowl has definitely allowed Tom Brady further cement his legacy as an important NFL player. While the actual football game is clearly the most important aspect, the Super Bowl also extends its influence to it’s halftime performers and the companies that run ads during the game.
DeleteThis year in particular, the Super Bowl was definitely an influential outlet for Singer Lady Gaga. Forbes reports that while Lady Gaga “may not have been paid for the gig itself, it provided ample opportunity to make an impression – and money. Gaga had the chance to gain attention from those outside of her traditional fan base, which more important now than ever as she is set to announce a new world tour” (Berg). When looking at the Super Bowl’s effect on the artists of last year, we see that the performance is still extremely beneficial. After last year’s performance, Coldplay saw sales of its collective discography jump 365% in the U.S. while Bruno Mars and Beyoncé saw sales jump 80% and 31% respectively (Berg). These statistics show that the Super Bowl is still influential in providing artists with relevancy, and this relevancy that is provided pays out in other aspects of the performers career (such as album or ticket sales).
Just as entertaining as the Super Bowl itself is the commercials that run over the course of the game. Since companies spend an average of $5 million just to secure a 30-second commercial slot, advertisers aim to gain brand visibility and the nation’s goodwill (Huddleston). Despite the usual hype around the game’s unique commercials, some believe that the almost obnoxious amount of ads is leading to the NFL’s decline in ratings. Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti suggests, “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that nobody wants to see two minutes of commercials, come back, kick the ball then go to a minute-and-a-halt of commercials. I’ve thought that was absurd since I was 20 years old” (Schwab). While I do agree that this can pertain to most NFL games, the Super Bowl ads have a special, entertaining quality about them that allows them to actually be enjoyed rather than forgotten. One of the more unique ads that ran this year was the Snickers ad, which delivered the first ever air-live commercial on the Super Bowl (Huddleston). While this is certainly an impressive gimmick, I don’t predict that we’ll be seeing more live commercials anytime soon. According to Ace Metrix, which tracks consumer panel ratings of the commercials, the Snickers spot was one of the flops of the night (Wohl). What I also found interesting about some of the commercials was how “politically charged” them seemed (whether they were meant to be politically charged or not). One ad that comes to mind is Budweiser’s “Born The Hard Way” commercial. The commercial follows the immigration story of Adolphus Busch, who is one of the co-founders of the company that brews Budweiser (Steinberg). The commercial shows how Busch ventured long boat trips and dirty roads to finally get to America. While it seemed just to be a well-produced biopic of one of the company’s co-founders, many who took to social media believed the ad was Budweiser’s way of showing their support for Syrian Refugees and disapproving Trump’s immigration ban. A version of the ad was making its way around Facebook with an added caption along the lines of “When Budweiser disproves of Trump, you know you [messed] up”. Whether politically charged or not, the political conversations that were started online due to these kinds of commercials is something that is unique to this Super Bowl.
I think the politically charged discussions that resulted from the Super Bowl ads speak on the event’s influence in the current media environment the most. While controversial ads appear on television every now and then, the Budweiser commercial shows us that it’s entirely different when a controversial ad appears on the Super Bowl. Not only does the Super Bowl give Budweiser a massive audience, the fact that Budweiser would choose that particular ad to air in itself creates a statement about Budweiser. That, in my opinion, is a statement that cannot be made simply through the use of a viral video or regular TV ad. The online reaction to this advertisement shows that the Super Bowl is extremely influential in providing an outlet for political discussion.
DeleteWorks Cited
Berg, Madeline. "Super Bowl Halftime Show 2017: Twitter Reacts To Lady Gaga." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 06 Feb. 2017. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Huddleston, Jr. Tom. "Super Bowl Advertisers Hope To Score Touchdowns Before the Big Game." Super Bowl 2017: The Big Cost to Market Super Bowl Ads Before the Game | Fortune.com. Fortune, 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Schwab, Frank. "Are Too Many Commercial Breaks Really behind the NFL's Declining Ratings?" Yahoo! Yahoo!, 19 Jan. 2017. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Steinberg, Brian. "Super Bowl Ad Review: Madison Avenue Urges U.S. to Move Past Trump." Variety. Variety, 06 Feb. 2017. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Strauss, Karsten. "10 Great Media And Entertainment Companies To Work For In 2016." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 21 June 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.
Wohl., Jessica. "Snickers Extends Live Super Bowl Campaign With 'Apology' Offer." Advertising Age Special Report Super Bowl RSS. N.p., 06 Feb. 2017. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
The night before the Super Bowl Justin posted a teaser of the commercial on his Instagram Story. This was a smart move for T-Mobile because Bieber has been off of Instagram and with him posting a story for the first time in a long time a lot of people viewed it to see what it was about. Then they saw the airing of the full commercial at the Super Bowl. I feel like this is smart for advertisers because they are utilizing all of their resources and with spending so much money on production and buying the slot for the commercial to air they needed to blast it everywhere they could.
DeleteWork Cited
Crupi, Anthony. "Fox Is Down to Its Last Few Super Bowl Spots," Adversiting Age 30 Jan. 2017. Web.
Maheshwari, Sapna. "$5 Million for a Super Bowl Ad. Another Million or More to Market the Ad." New York Times 29 Jan. 2017. Web.
Melas, Chloe. “Lady Gaga brings message of inclusion to Super Bowl halftime – oh, and drones” CNN entertainment 6 Feb. 2017. Web
“The Best 2017 Super Bowl Commercials” Super Bowl Commercials 6 Feb. 2017. Web
The super bowl has historically been the day Americans gathered together to watch the years’ best play and perform. Though the main event is the game itself, many people tune in specifically for the comical commercials or the controversial halftime shows. No matter what the outcome of the game was you know there would always be conversation of the performances and commercials. Speaking of performances, historically they have been controversial and attention drawing. With millions of eyes on that performance, it has given artist the opportunity to turn heads when it most matters. For instance, in 2016 Beyonce drew attention to Black Lives Matter while raising questions of her appraisal of the Black Panthers. In previous years, Fergie had technical issues while Janet Jackson had notorious wardrobe malfunctions. No matter who performed there seemed to be some kind of stunt to stir the crowd.
ReplyDelete2017 was the year of simplicity and no controversy, and Lady Gaga would be the one to execute it. Lady Gaga is a peacemaker trying to make a difference for her so called Monsters. While she heavily and openly supports the LGBT community, it would have been easy for Gaga to turn the performance into a protest for their importance. Instead she went out and performed her music with no extra stunts involved. Interestingly there were comments about there being no guest performer or how her performance was boring, suggesting there wasn’t enough head turning objectives throughout her performance. There was a headline I saw that read, “Lady Gaga Had the Perfect Platform to Send a Message to Trump, and She Failed Us.” This just shows what people think of the historic day and performances that come along with it. The point of the Super Bowl halftime show is to entertain the massive audience that accompanies the football game itself. Over the years’ marketers and performers have taken advantage of the incredible platform to try to make a difference. That difference ranges from politics to self image all the way to attaining new customers from savvy new commercials. I strongly feel the Super Bowl should and is meant for the showcase of the game and players. Over the past years’ marketers and entertainers seem to have capitalized on the event. I think as people start to understand the tactics used during this Super Bowl between ads, media and the performance, people will start to understand how these people and companies took advantage of the sport and fans. I was surprised initially with the performance. The performance itself was simply different while effective. The game itself was historically one of the best. Could you imagine how America would handle such a historical game accompanied with a historical performance?
Pareles, Jon. "Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl: No Controversy, Lots of Glitter." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 5 Feb. 2017. Web. 7 Feb. 2017.