Apparently this past Sunday there was a rather big football game between the two best teams in the National Football League. Unless you happen to actually be a fan of football, you probably turned on your TV for the commercials and perhaps a glimpse of Katy Perry riding a giant lion. The Super Bowl has become a cultural phenomenon where the event as a whole is far more entertaining than the football game itself. In an ironic twist, the football game has become the grey noise and the commercials are the main attraction.
Before you dismiss my claims as wild and off the mark or attribute them to the fact that I’m a San Francisco 49ers fan, think back to the actual Super Bowl party you attended. I bet there were a few diehard fans milling about, but there were likely just as many or more people there for the food, folks and fun. In other words, while the gridiron action was unfolding on screen, they were stuffing their faces with pizza and engaging in idle conversations until the commercial break garnered their undivided attention. After all, a Tom Brady touchdown throw just doesn’t have the same allure as a Budweiser commercial about a horde of horses tracking down a cute lost puppy.
The Super Bowl is a social barometer that tests where the mood and attention of our nation is through our reactions to the deluge of expensive and carefully crafted commercials. The tone and voice of Super Bowl commercials are representative of advertisers’ predictions of what the current consumer mood is. If this year’s Super Bowl commercials are any indication, then it would appear that we are a Prozac nation sniffing the fumes of nostalgia — and of course we can never get enough of cute puppies.
Most years, Super Bowl commercials are dominated with clever humor and a few obligatory sad and sappy commercials to balance out the laughter, but this year the tone was definitely darker and targeted the heart strings instead of the funny bone. Toyota and Nissan aired commercials that dealt with some pretty heavy family themes, including when Nissan pitched the value of owning a Maxima by showing a race car-driving father reconnecting with his neglected son after years of crashing race cars.
Carnival Cruise Lines took the unusual somber route of selling the value of vacation through an archived speech of John F. Kennedy speaking poetically about the ocean. There was a public service announcement by the coalition No More that showcased a rather frightening and nerve tingling 911 call from a victim of domestic abuse. However it was Nationwide that won the fright night competition with its strikingly dark ad about preventing childhood death which left me longing for the days when Super Bowl commercials featured Terry Crews tackling people in an office.
However there were a few moments of sunshine, most notably one that featured Liam Neeson channeling his inner “Taken” character in promising revenge on the sorry sap that had the audacity to destroy his legions of armies in the online game “Clash of the Clans.” McDonald’s had an unintentionally hilarious ad that depicted what appeared to be middle class individuals and families jumping for joy at receiving a free artery-clogging menu item.
But overall it was the dark, solemn tone of most commercials that set the mood for Super Bowl Sunday and showed that advertisers believe consumers to be in a somber, reflective state of mind. Advertisers were clearly convinced this was the best way to reach hundreds of millions of viewers and were willing to spend nearly $4.5 million for each 30-second advertisement. Even the U threw its hat in the ring with a local commercial spot that at the very least let students know that the revenue from the latest tuition increase is not going to waste. But for those who may have been turned off by the serious vibe of the commercials, there was at least an incredibly exciting football game that went down to the wire as well as Katy Perry’s halftime extravaganza. Who wouldn’t be entertained by that?