We're a bit later than usual with our blog on the Super Bowl ads because, well quite frankly, it took us awhile to recover from the shock of how the game ended (we'll leave that ambiguous as to whether we were shocked in a positive or negative way because we love all our clients and readers no matter what NFL city they live in.)
The one thing that struck us once again is how even in an economy that tends to favor more comparative and harder hitting advertisements the Super Bowl still remains largely a province for ads that just make us feel good, either about ourselves, the advertiser, our country or maybe just puppies. They try to make us laugh or make us cry (in the good, positive sentimental sense) but they don't want to make us think too hard or process too much information. Even the FTC, if they were watching, probably struggled to find many fine print disclosures to worry about. If you doubt this overall theme, just ask Nationwide which had to fend off a firestorm of criticism for its Debbie Downer of a commercial trying to raise awareness about preventable childhood accident deaths. Of course there were a few claim rich commercials, including some that ventured into somewhat risky territory. There was the company that proclaimed its products were "Made in the USA" and another that boasted that its products were manufactured using wind power and the car that claimed it ran on Viagra, oh wait, that was supposed to be a joke. For better or worse though the Super Bowl is but one day a year. Much like the famous Christmas Day truce during World War I it has come and gone and we may never see that ad extolling the virtues of Mexican avocados again (though they didn't need to spend a million dollars plus to remind us of that as we sat watching the game and enjoying some very tasty guacamole.)
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