Super Bowl 45 happened yesterday. Like every year it was hyped up to be the biggest day in football and, more importantly, advertising.
Admittedly the commercials show were better than most of what will come out for the rest of the year.
But even the strongest ones - Chrysler, VW and Coke - were not incredible.
There was no true standout. Nothing that overshadowed the game.
And that really blows. The one time people are excited to watch the advertisements and the majority of them fall flat. Even less will be remembered by the time you read this. In a year who knows what will be remembered.
2011 was forecasted to be the year with digital integration baked into the spots. From where I sat, computer open for the entire game, not one site was accessed. Even worse, I didn't hear or see a thing thing asking me to take action.
Before the game Audi had promoted that they would have the first Twitter hashtag call to action. It just sat there on the last second of the spot, unmentioned. I missed it on the first watch and didn't bother using it because it didn't make sense.
A whole lot of do as we say, with no way. The best use of technology integration was the fear of hitting Reply All used in the Bridgestone spot. It was as if the advertisers forgot to appeal to customers for the entire game.
It seemed like this was work made by advertisers for advertisers. Oh look honey, another commercial about making a commercial. How clever! wink.
This is the place to reach, potentially, 100 million people. And we resort to crotch shots, strange celebrity endorsements and the aforementioned meta-ness. I don't think any of this is stuff that people should loose their jobs over, but it's also not back patting worthy material.
We can do better.
We must do better.
Because nothing is more satisfying than hearing a regular person say, "damn that was a cool ad."
note: I think the standout of the night, but not at the time, was the NFL "American Family" spot. Great tag-line, great editing and it was very human. Too bad it got lost amid the spots. Here it is if you missed it. The subtleties they worked in are amazing.
I also liked the MINI "Cram It In The Boot" spot. But according to most of America I am wrong.
Chrysler's "Imported From Detroit" has the right amount of bite. I just would have liked half the commercial.