Super Bowl Commercials Not So Super
There’s a whole lot of people who watched the super bowl this year, 111.9 million to be exact. A good number of those people just watched to see Lady Gaga sing the national anthem or to see Coldplay perform at halftime, but many watched solely for the commercials. In general, Prairie Ridge students felt disappointed by ads and let down by the high standards set by the past super bowls.
In general, PR students think that none of the commercials did what commercials are supposed to do – sell products. They were more entertaining than informative, although the two Doritos ads did make people crave Doritos. Students felt that out of the numerous commercials shown throughout the night, only a select few brought attention to the product being advertised.
This is unfortunate, considering ESPN reports that companies spent in total around 357.8 million dollars on super bowl commercials this year alone.
When Wolf Prints asked PR students to guess how much a Super Bowl commercial costs, most of Prairie Ridge students lowballed their estimates, guessing from ranges of $2,000 to $2,500,000.
How much does a commercial during the super bowl cost to air? According to the Wall Street Journal, “the cost is right around $4.5 million for a 30-second spot,” but the price could be higher if the ad is shown during the first or fourth quarter, “as those are premium spots” because more people are paying attention to the game then.
Only a few commercials were memorable this year, with the others falling flat. A couple of crowd favorites were the Mountain Dew puppy monkey baby, and the Mazda and Pokemon commercials. But the reigning champ was the Heinz commercial, with the weiner dogs dressed as hot dogs running towards the bottles of ketchup and mustard.
So were the Super Bowl 50 commercials as great as they were made out to be? According to Prairie Ridge, no.
Jared Lindquist • Mar 1, 2016 at 11:17 am
The Super Bowl, the NFL Championship game, is watched by 100´s millions of people to be entertained. When they´re commercials, a halftime show, and the national anthem, there is more to watch than the football game. People need to realize that it is based on the football game. The commercial companies are trying to get your attention; so, they´re becoming more strange and have nothing to do with the actual product. The Super Bowl is becoming all about people´s enjoyment and money.
Jackson wenrich • Feb 29, 2016 at 11:02 am
The super bowl commercials where very strange this year and kind of makes you think what are they trying to advertise, some of the commercials were still giving the message about there product. I just believe that the people who created the commercials could have made some changes to make more sense for the audience but have a better way to advertise.
Ethan Munk • Feb 29, 2016 at 11:01 am
The Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events, I think included great commercials. Commercials are supposed to give info about the product, but in past years they’ve turned into more of entertainment during the game. Although not every commercial was good, people are always expecting too much now. You should find enjoyment in just watching the commercials; you don’t always need to review something. Every once in awhile you need to review something; however, you also need to enjoy the little things.