What Is Funny?

“I watch the Superbowl for the ads!” a girl next to me at the Superbowl party I was attending announces, unwittingly repeating one of the biggest pieces of advertising propaganda.  The idea that millions of people tune into a sporting event just to watch the ads, is an idea invented by advertisers themselves, and while it was never ever true (most research shows people ignore Superbowl ads at the same rate as other ads—if not at a higher rate due to the clutter of the game), people still believe it to be true, and this almost makes it true.

Because the Superbowl ads now get tons of attention, and even when an ad is airing that people have previously seen (and ignored), when it’s on the Superbowl, they give it unnecessary respect.  “Ooooh, the etrade babies are on!” someone else says, shushing us so he can hear this ad that runs six billion times a day.

In truth, the Superbowl is a huge waste of money for advertisers, but most feel compelled to participate because it’s a machismo thing—a sign that your company is a big spender (or a soon-to-fail dot.com).  And, while we may temporarily give the ads a lot of credit, they almost always suck.

Here then are the top 5 Superbowl ads per one source (FoxSports), and why, in truth, they suck:

1. Betty White Snickers Ad.  The joke is old people getting tackled. It’s an old joke. That it’s Betty White makes it more funny, but here’s the problem: Snicker’s target audience is teenagers and young people who don’t know who Betty White is (let alone Abe Vigoda). So the people who will find this ad the funniest are the people least likely to buy Snickers.  Plus, do we really need such a complicated effort to cell a candy bar? It’s a candy bar. We get what it does.
2. Coca Cola Simpsons Ad.  A real, simple problem:  it’s not funny (which to be fair, is no different than the show these days).  If anything, it’s a sad reminder that a show once known for being edgy has totally, completely sold out.
3. Hyundai Brett Farve Ad.  When your ad is really nothing more than a rip-off of a Sears ad (playing with Brett Farve being old and his refusal to retire), you’ve got problems.
4. TruTV Punxatawney Polamalu.  Here’s how this ad came into being. Some creative at some ad agency figured out the special effect. Then spent five years trying to find a way to get it into an ad, regardless of if it made sense for the brand (and what the hell is being advertised here anyways?).
5. Bud Light Lost Ad. Maybe this one would have been funny if I actually watched Lost, which I’m told this ad is a rip-off of.  In any case, it comes down to this: Bud Light spends six trillion dollars each year on Superbowl advertising, and they are the best selling light beer. But riddle me this: is Bud Light the best selling light beer because of their Superbowl ads, or do they run ads on the Superbowl because they’re the bestselling beer?

If there’s one ad I thought was pretty decent, it would be the Green Police Ad for Audi, though I secretly suspect most people won’t get the joke because they really believe people trying to get them to not kill the planet are like the Green Police.

Also, in the same category as Snickers, I question why Doritos tries so hard every year. They always have crazy, trying to be funny ads that cost millions upon millions. I don’t even get why Doritos has an ad agency–promoting this product couldn’t be more simple. You’re a chip.  Half the chip-aisle is Doritos. You don’t need crazy gimmicks. Just show us the bag of chips on TV for thirty seconds and our fat-asses will buy it.

Tags: Madvertising, superbowl

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 9:07 am and is filed under Madvertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.