By Rachel Lutz, Staff Writer
The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched television events annually, and it is certainly number one in the sporting world. Why? The commercials, of course! It is a tradition that the commercials aired during the Super Bowl are the most entertaining, the most outlandish and the funniest.
Familiar faces were spotted throughout the night in various commercials. Betty White and Abe Vigoda appeared in a Snickers commercial early on. Tim Tebow appeared in the controversial commercial with his mother, Pam Tebow. She spoke about how he almost didn’t make it into the world, but she did so without using hot-button words such as abortion or pro-life even once. Boost Mobile’s music video was a spoof of the 1986 Bears “Super Bowl Shuffle.” “The Simpsons” cast, mainly Mr. Burns, appeared in one of two Coca-Cola ads of the night. Brett Favre, Megan Fox, KISS, Lance Armstrong, Mark Sanchez, Charles Barkley, T-Pain and Beyonce were each featured. Mike Rowe starred in many Ford commercials and Danica Patrick made appearances as spokeswoman for GoDaddy.com in multiple ads.
Many questioned what Jay Leno and Oprah were doing in a David Letterman commercial, as the trio has been known to collectively dislike each other. Apparently, they set aside their differences to squish onto a tiny couch for thirty seconds.
The most memorable commercial of the night belonged to Doritos, which, among other things, featured a man in clothing made out of Doritos in a weight room. What Doritos were doing inside the character’s gym locker in a health facility, audiences will never know.
Budweiser and eTrade came through with their traditional hilarious commercials. Budweiser created a house built entirely out of Bud Light cans, a human bridge to save the Bud Light truck from the other side of the river and scientists drinking the end of the world away. The Clydesdales also made an appearance, sharing the message that “nothing comes between friends…especially not fences.” The eTrade baby was doing the usual, but this time, making an impression on the ladies. He forgot to call one of them because he was with an alleged “milkoholic.”
The boring commercials of the night were ones that weren’t new or specifically designed for audiences watching the Super Bowl, such as the new Shape-Ups sneakers from Sketchers. There was a Docker’s commercial and another commercial that both featured men in their underpants. Whose idea was it to air them one right after another? And, again, Denny’s is doing its annual free Grand Slam between 6am and 2pm the Tuesday after the Super Bowl.
Non-traditional outlets advertised during the Super Bowl this year also. More websites than ever aired commercials during the big game. Google, homeaway.com, KGB.com, careerbuilder.com, monster.com, and cars.com all had a commercial each. An advertisement featuring Daniel Radcliffe on a broomstick in Universal Studio’s Harry Potter theme park also was shown, but it has been speculated that it targeted the wrong audience, seeing as the park is mostly designed for children. One video game ad was shown, but it didn’t seem to fit the target audience either.
Cars had the most commercials of the night. Honda, Ford, Kia, Acura, Hyundai, Toyota, Audi, Volkswagen and even Bridgestone all had a number of commercials each, but were disappointing. Many of the companies continued to air the same commercials that have been airing for weeks, and didn’t come up with anything new.
An overdose of commercials were aired for CBS’s own shows. “The Amazing Race,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS” and “Undercover Boss,” a new show that premiered after the game, all had more than one commercial for them.
It was noted that Pepsi-Cola did not purchase any advertising time during the Super Bowl. This is because they are launching a new campaign to promote social causes by reaching out over Facebook and Twitter. Their plan is to use the money that would have went into the Super Bowl ads to fund their Internet campaign expenses.
Even with the economic recession, companies were still charged anywhere from $2.5-2.8 million per thirty-second advertisement.
Betty White makes a hysterical showing in the Snickers commericial during this year’s Super Bowl. (Photo Courtesy of tbo.com)
Jay Leno, Oprah, and David Letterman come together, despite differences for a Letterman commericial. (Photo Courtesy of tv.insidepulse.com)