Superbowl Commercials

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The Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League in the United States, is known for the high-profile advertisements that air during its television broadcast in the U.S. The broadcast typically ranks very highly in the Nielsen ratings, reaching more than 90 million viewers. Prices for advertising space can typically cost millions of dollars.^[1]

The high price tag of the commercials, and the ubiquity of the event in which they air, all but promises that they will be spectacular and innovative in most cases. The commercials are often highly anticipated, generating much buzz even before the game is played usually because of their innovation or sense of humor.

Contents 1 History 2 International broadcasts 2.1 Canada 3 Notable commercials 4 See also 5 References

History

Network television has been, since its beginning, funded almost entirely by advertising (retransmission consent fees were not allowed under federal law until 1994). The debut of home video in the 1980s allowed viewers to record programming and either edit commercials out while recording or fast-forward through the commercials without viewing them. Early home video was cassette-based, a bulky and slow medium that was well suited for films, but little else; the introduction of digital video recorders in the early 2000s made the concept viable for most other television events as well. Through the process of time shifting, a viewer could watch one program while recording another, then watch the recorded program and skip over the commercials. While this is an issue with most scripted programming, which can be recorded and replayed at will, the Super Bowl is a live event that loses its value if delayed, and one cannot fast-forward into the future. ^[2]

The National Football League had been a major television event ever since the 1958 NFL Championship Game. The success of the American Football League and its rivalry and eventual merger with the NFL generated significant publicity for what was originally known as the "World Championship Game;" the game became known colloquially as the Supergame prior to the first installment^[3] a term that eventually evolved into the "Super Bowl." This publicity helped cement the Super Bowl as an annual television event; the loosening of blackout restrictions in the host team's market in 1972 made the game available nationwide. As television audiences continued to fracture with the increasing number of subscription television channels, by the 1990s the Super Bowl was one of the few events on broadcast television that could consistently draw a critical mass of viewers (and thus potential customers), a distinction that remains to this day. (The Super Bowl has never been awarded to a cable channel in its history, and current contracts would not allow such until Super Bowl LVIII in 2024 at the earliest.) As such, the network that owns the right to the Super Bowl can charge a premium on the advertising during the game, to the point where marketers have raised concerns that Super Bowl advertising has become so expensive that the sales the advertising produces do not pay for the advertising cost. Super Bowl XLVI, broadcast on NBC, set a record for the price of a Super Bowl advertisement, selling 58 spots (including those longer than 30 seconds) during the game generating US $75 million for the network; the most expensive advertisement sold for $5.84 million.^[4] Super Bowl XLVII, set to air on CBS, will charge a base rate of US$4 million for an advertisement.^[5]

Many times companies will go through a phase of pre-event advertising in order to hype up their own ad campaigns. In doing so some companies can create an anticipation for their commercials that is almost the same as the actual event itself.^[6]

Because of the large audiences watching the broadcast, the networks have stringent Standards and Practices regarding what content is allowed on a Super Bowl commercial. As always, networks have the right to reject or request a modification to any commercial. All forms of political advertising and most direct forms of issue-related advertising are banned, due to equal-time rules.^[7] (There was a loophole in which local stations can be forced to sell political advertising during the game if they are within 45 days of an election, usually a Presidential primary; Randall Terry exploited this loophole to force several local television stations to air a commercial containing bloody, dead and dismembered bodies of fetuses during Super Bowl XLVI. The FCC closed this loophole two days before that game after a television station in Chicago refused to air the ad.^[8]) Profanity of all kinds is also generally prohibited, as is content that is either sexually explicit or encourages sexually immoral behavior (for instance, Avid Life Media, owner of the unorthodox dating services Ashley Madison and ManCrunch, has been rejected on a nearly annual basis in its bids to buy air time during the event). In certain situations, these restrictions can be circumvented by directing viewers to a Web site, where uncensored content can be aired, a strategy used frequently by the Internet domain provider GoDaddy. While there are stringent standards and practices on the content of the ads, the Super Bowl is prime time for advertisements containing food, drink, and other family friendly items and services. Nearly 30 percent of advertisements are related to food and drink. After one game, Anheuser-Busch saw a six hundred percent increase on their website. With this being said, the Super Bowl is a time in which many companies have the attention of forty percent of American households, creating a opportunity for further branding.^[9]

International broadcasts

The high-profile Super Bowl ads discussed in this article are usually only broadcast on the originating American network. This is because the cost of buying commercial time on the American network does not include ad time on foreign broadcasters, which sell their own advertising (or, in some cases, do not carry advertising at all). Those companies could theoretically buy commercial time on the international networks carrying the game, but many do not operate (or sell the particular products advertised) outside the United States. Moreover, since there is lower interest in American football outside the U.S., other carriers have smaller audiences for the game, meaning that the ads seen locally may not share the high reputation of those seen on the American network.

Canada

Complaints about the non-availability of the U.S. Super Bowl ads are common in Canada^[10][11] since, even though American network affiliates are widely available via cable and satellite television, the U.S. ads are still "blacked out" in most areas in favor of domestic commercials.

Under Canadian simultaneous substitution regulations set out by the CRTC, if a local over-the-air television station is carrying a particular program at the same time as an American network, the local station has the right to request that its signal replace the foreign network feed, including all commercials. This rule is intended to protect the investments of Canadian broadcasters in exclusive domestic broadcast rights (as the U.S. networks technically only purchase American rights to the game).^[12] CTV, the terrestrial broadcaster that holds the Canadian rights to the Super Bowl, has the right to invoke simultaneous substitution (to date, CTV and all networks that have held rights to the Super Bowl have invoked simultaneous substitution over every Super Bowl), blacking out all U.S. commercials on cable and satellite.

Some U.S.-based advertisers, particularly PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch (via its Canadian subsidiary Labatt), do buy ad time during the CTV broadcast to air at least some of their American commercials, while some companies produce new ads specifically for the Canadian audience. However, many Canadian advertisers simply re-air ads from their regular rotation, or air the same ad multiple times over the course of the game, neither of which is typical during the U.S. network broadcast. Reasons cited by Canadian advertisers for these practices include the additional talent and post-production fees that would be required to broadcast the American ads in Canada, and the perceived lower "cultural resonance" of the game for Canadian viewers as opposed to Americans.^[12]

Following the Super Bowl broadcast, some Canadian stations air highlights of the U.S. commercials during their local newscasts, to show their audiences what they presumably missed.

Notable commercials

• 1973 – The first famous Super Bowl commercial was for Noxzema featuring legendary New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath.
• 1973 – Master Lock ran the first of their long-running advertisements showing a sharpshooter shooting at and hitting a Master Lock in a failed attempt to open the lock.
• 1977 – Xerox introduced the 9200 high speed duplicator system with Brother Dominic duplicating documents in a medieval monastery.
• 1980 – A spot for Coca-Cola featuring Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro defensive lineman "Mean Joe" Greene, who is offered a Coca-Cola by a young fan and tosses the kid his game-worn jersey as repayment. However, it is technically not viewed as a Super Bowl ad since it actually debuted on October 1, 1979, not during the day of the game.^[13][14]
• 1984 – The ad for Apple's Macintosh followed a 1984 theme. Directed by Ridley Scott, the ad featured a woman wearing track-and-field clothing sprinting into a large auditorium and hurling a large hammer into a screen right before security guards can subdue her. On the screen was a large Big Brother-type of face speaking to a massive assembly of drone-like people. His last words were "We shall prevail," before the screen explodes and leaves the audience enraptured in gazing at the spectacle. The ad ran just one more time on television.
• 1985 – Generally considered unsuccessful, the Apple "lemmings" ad is shown featuring many PC users walking to their doom over a cliff.
• 1990 – Ridley Scott directed an ad for the Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo. The ad depicts a dream sequence with the driver in a Twin Turbo 300ZX, competing against an unknown enemy. First the 300ZX races a motorbike, then a race car, and finally a jet fighter plane. At that point the plane is about to catch up to the 300ZX before the two turbochargers of the 300ZX "kick in", greatly increasing engine power and the car accelerates away from the plane. The ad was only run once due to complaints that it promoted street racing. Nissan ran another popular Super Bowl ad for the 300ZX in 1995.
• 1993 – In perhaps his most famous ad, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird play a game of HORSE for a McDonald's Big Mac and French fries. The game is made more interesting due to the increasingly complex set of obstacles set for both players. Another Michael Jordan ad featured him and Bugs Bunny playing basketball against Marvin the Martian. This commercial inspired Warner Brothers to create Space Jam.
• 1995 – Nissan again ran a commercial for the 300ZX (which they advertised in 1990). The ad featured the car as a toy driven by a G.I. Joe picking up a Barbie-like doll. Despite being a popular advertisement, Mattel successfully sued Nissan to take the ad off TV.
• 2000 – Year of the dot com commercials.
• 2002 - Budweiser produced a commercial featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales (titled "Clydesdale Respect") as a tribute to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The commercial shows the horses walking across the Brooklyn bridge into New York City. They then stopped, gazed at the ruined New York skyline, and bowed in reverence and respect. The commercial aired only once, but was available on the website for a period of one year.^[15][16]
• 2009 – Joe and Dave Herbert from Batesville, Indiana create a Doritos commercial where one employee makes a wish come true by throwing a snow globe against a vending machine glass and breaking it (which was done in one take), and another worker using the same snow globe to hit his boss in the "family jewels". The ad earned a US $1 million payday as the number one ranked ad in the annual USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter survey from Doritos' owners, Frito-Lay as part of their annual "Crash The Super Bowl" contest.
• 2009 – Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu is involved in a spoof of the 1980 Coca-Cola ad where a kid tries to give him his Coke Zero, but the two Coke brand executives which usually appear in Coke Zero ads and overzealously defend their brand suddenly appear and take the bottle. Polamalu tackles one of them, drinks the Coke Zero, then rips their shirt off and tosses it to the kid.
• 2009 - A PepsiCo commercial featured a silent, 60-second joke: Two deaf gentlemen drive to their friend Bob’s house, who is presumably also deaf, to watch the big game. Once they get to his street, neither remembers his address. They sit in the car arguing in sign language until one of them gets a clever idea and lays on the horn. One by one, the houses on the street light up-except for their friend Bob’s.^[17]
• 2010 – In an ad for Snickers candy bars, Abe Vigoda playing an old man with little energy is said to be "playing football like Betty White," with the 88-year-old actress subsequently tackled for comedic effect.
• 2010 - A nationwide controversy surrounded Tim Tebow's decision to appear in an ad funded by the socially conservative organization Focus on the Family that was broadcast during Super Bowl XLIV on CBS.^[18][19] There were two 30-second commercials, which included Tebow's personal story as part of an overall pro-life stance. The abortion issue was not specifically mentioned in the ad.^[20] Pro-choice groups condemned the ad,^[21] while pro-life groups rallied around Tebow.^[22]
• One of the most famous^{[citation needed]} Super Bowl ad campaigns has been the "I'm Going to Disney World!" ads for the past 20 years.
• "You keep your hands off my momma, and you keep your hands off my Doritos!"^[23]
• 2011 - Chrysler created an ad featuring shots of the once great industrial city of Detroit, cutting to the visuals of rapper Eminem driving the Chrysler 200 about the city while his song "Lose Yourself" plays in the background. The commercial pauses just enough for the MC to enter downtown Detroit’s famous Fox Theater and face the camera to utter the line "this is the Motor City and this is what we do." At 2 minutes, this is the longest advertisement in Super Bowl history. It ends with a tagline on screen - "imported from Detroit" making fun of imported cars and rekindling Detroit and thereby American pride.
• 2012 - Chrysler again aired a 2 minute long ad, "Halftime in America", this time with Clint Eastwood discussing Detroit as a model for the rest of the country in how to rebound economically. The ad drew the criticism of several leading U.S. conservatives, who suggested that its messaging implied that President Obama deserved a second term and, as such, was political payback for Obama's support for the federal bailout of the company.^[24]
• 2012 - A commercial with the duration of 1 minute of the upcoming movie from Marvel Entertainment called The Avengers (2012 film) was shown during the Superbowl of 2012.

See also

• USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter, an annual survey of Super Bowl commercials taken by USA Today since 1989.
• ADBOWL is an annual online, real-time website that tracks consumer opinion of Super Bowl advertisements.

References

v t e Super Bowl I (1967) II (1968) III (1969) IV (1970) V (1971) VI (1972) VII (1973) VIII (1974) IX (1975) X (1976) XI (1977) XII (1978) XIII (1979) XIV (1980) XV (1981) XVI (1982) XVII (1983) XVIII (1984) XIX (1985) XX (1986) XXI (1987) XXII (1988) XXIII (1989) XXIV (1990) XXV (1991) XXVI (1992) XXVII (1993) XXVIII (1994) XXIX (1995) XXX (1996) XXXI (1997) XXXII (1998) XXXIII (1999) XXXIV (2000) XXXV (2001) XXXVI (2002) XXXVII (2003) XXXVIII (2004) XXXIX (2005) XL (2006) XLI (2007) XLII (2008) XLIII (2009) XLIV (2010) XLV (2011) XLVI (2012) XLVII (2013) XLVIII (2014) XLIX (2015) L (2016) Champions Coaches Vince Lombardi Trophy Most Valuable Players Records Broadcasters Officials National Anthem Halftime Advertising USA Today Ad Meter Commercials Pre-Super Bowl NFL champions Curse Counterprogramming Lead-out programming Quarterbacks Super Bowl Sunday

Official 2012 Honda CR-V Game Day Commercial - "Matthew's Day Off" Extended Version

To celebrate the launch of the all-new 2012 CR-V, Honda brought Ferris Bueller's Day Off back in a big game commercial. We cast Matthew Broderick as himself, skipping out on a day of acting work and living it up in his all-new CR-V. Relive movie history with Honda's fresh twist and wonderful homage to this '80s classic. Think you're a true fan of Ferris Bueller's Day Off? We hid over two dozen references to the movie throughout the commercial. Some are obvious, some are VERY subtle. See how many you can find. #dayoff automobiles.honda.com http leaplist.honda.com http

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The Dog Strikes Back: 2012 Volkswagen Game Day Commercial

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Flash Fans: 2012 Budweiser Official Big Game Commercial

Be the first to see our new ad before it goes live Sunday, during the Big Game.

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Hulu's Superbowl Commercial - 60sec

Hulu's Superbowl Commercial

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2012 Acura NSX Super Bowl Commercial - featuring Jerry Seinfeld

To watch ALL the Super Bowl automotive ads, check out the feature article on SkiddMark - skiddmark.com The 60-second spot features comedian Jerry Seinfeld going to extreme lengths to bribe the man who holds the rights to buy the first 2015 Acura NSX supercar. Honda confirmed at last month's NAIAS Detroit auto show that the NSX will be built, so it remains to be seen who'll manage to elbow their way to the front of the queue. I wouldn't bet against Jerry Seinfeld..

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1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial

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The Bark Side: 2012 Volkswagen Game Day Commercial Teaser

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Audi 2012 Game Day Commercial - Vampire Party

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M&M "Sexy and I Know It" Super Bowl Commercial 2012

LoL, THETACOCREW IS TOGETHER AND VOTING IF COMMERCIALS ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO BE PUT UP! ENJOY AND EXPECT MW3 GAMEPLAY THIS WEEK! threehounddawg: www.youtube.com skipthemap: www.youtube.com codupdatecenteral: www.youtube.com

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Adriana Lima Super Bowl Ad - Teleflora 2012

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