The average cost of an ad to air during the Super Bowl was a hefty $2.7 million for the short-lived 30 seconds of glory. But, how glorious was it?
What makes me laugh even harder than the price of these advertisements is the fact that Super Bowl commercials are not THAT funny. I hate to say it...but for almost $3 million a pop I expect more.
Let’s start with the award-winner of the evening. Apparently baby vomit really gets us rolling. The E-Trade advertisement with the baby talking stock deals who throws up at the end came in as the number one re-played commercial on people’s Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Stock deals make me want to barf too, kid. For a historical recap, check out ESPN’s list of Greatest Super Bowl Commercials of All time. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/sbcommercials.html
Really? This is a sad list if you ask me. The number two commercial of all time is the unforgettable Budweiser frog melody circa 1995, and I’m sorry to speak blasphemy, but it’s really not that creative or funny when you go back and watch post-puberty.
Despite my criticisms, let me give credit where credit is due here. Coke did well with its safe Super Bowl commercial set in New York City during the classic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with Stewie from Family Guy, and Underdog balloons fighting over an inflatable Coke bottle, only to have Charlie Brown peek over the skyscraper and steal it. For even more entertainment, take a look at the GoDaddy.com commercial that FOX rejected due to uncouth usage of beavers. Ouch. http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/media/play.asp?isc=superbowl&medi...
More than 97.5 million Americans (almost half of the entire United States population) tuned into the game on Sunday and according to TiVo (the creepy Big Brother living inside our TV’s) – more people viewed the commercials than the actual game. So, a question arose from the couch as my friends and I watched the four hours of commercials with the occassional game in between…WHO takes home the obsene amount of money earned off the forty-some commercials at 2.7 million bucks a pop? (That’s a little over $100 million)
That would be none other than Mr. Rupert Murdoch himself and his all-encompassing FOX network. Not that this is shocking or even “news” to people, I’m just baffled by the amount of money given for a mere 30 seconds of our time and attention in between dipping our chips.
For $100 million dollars you could: feed more than 800,000 children in a starving country ($60 million), provide healthcare to over 3,000 Americans who can’t afford it ($21 million), and provide winter coats for 350,000 children in developing countries ($16 million) and still have enough leftover to live comfortably the rest of your life, sans job.
Hilarious final tid bit: This Super Bowl Whatever {insert weird numerals} was the most watched Super Bowl game in the history of the bowl. Hilarious part: the number one most watched TV show in the history of American television is…ready for this…the “M-A-S-H” finale in 1983, which was seen by 106 million viewers. I clearly come from a different generation my friends, because I never received the memo that M-A-S-H was anything but un-cool.
