Thursday, February 23, 2017

Super Bowl Ads Score With Unity & Humor

The following WSJ article described the ad choice of some marketers during the Super Bowl. While many were filled with political undertones, ads with a funnier angle seemed to poll much better. Marketing experts believe this is because explaining “People just need an escape right now” from the political landscape.

I tend to agree with this point. The Super Bowl is a once a year opportunity to reach 100+ million viewers, with companies paying over $5 million for a 30-second ad! Maybe I am alone on this front, but I am more likely to remember the funny Mr. Clean ad that made me chuckle than the politically controversial advertisement that seemed to stretch to find a link between immigration and a beverage product. In fact, it almost makes it seem like companies are trying to exploit socially jarring issues to increase visibility and connection with consumers, which seems very disingenuous and hurtful to the brand message.

In fact, some stats support this inference. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s Budweiser spot showed the company’s co-founder immigrating from Germany to St. Louis in 1857, trying to draw the tie to immigration issues in today's political landscape. Six days after its release, the Budweiser ad had generated over 57,000 comments on social media, only 14% of which were positive and 17% negative, posed as being a disingenuous, "politically motivated jab”. I am all about taking a stance and political message, but companies need to tote a fine line.


LINKS:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/super-bowl-ads-split-between-humor-and-unity-1486351929

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cmo-today-super-bowl-ads-score-with-unity-and-humor-1486386267

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