The Super Bowl, the US final of NFL American Football, is watched by 100 million people. The commercial breaks are the most expensive airtime there is, at $5million for 30 seconds. Advertisers vie to get their message across with everything from stars to slapstick to the surreal.
This year’s winners included Doritos with a hilarious spot about an unborn baby trying to grab its fathers’ tasty snack; Snickers with a spoof on the Marilyn Monroe grating shot starring Willem Dafoe (not as good as the UK version with Joan Collins in a soccer changing room) and the really unsettling PuppyMonkeyBaby for Mountain Dew.
The advertising has become content; the ads got many millions of views before the game itself and long afterwards – second and third screens have forever changed the relationship between audiences and TV ads. But as the Super Bowl shows, the death of television advertising is definitely oversold.
