Another year of NFL football has come and gone, and the Green Bay Packers can take some time to celebrate a phenomenal SuperBowl win. Unfortunately, with the way the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) talks seem to be going between the owners and the players, the Packers might be able to celebrate being champions a little longer than usual, but that is a whole different topic. Rest assured, I would love to comment on how pathetically greedy these millionaire players and billionaire owners have to be to screw up such a successful product as NFL football, but my internal dictionary of negative adjectives would run out long before I reached the second paragraph. And, as an advertising agency, there is a topic that is so much more important than the CBA, the SuperBowl, or the spoiled participants involved: The COMMERCIALS!!!
According to America’s best source for facts and figures (Wikipedia), the cost for a 30 second spot in this year’s SuperBowl was $3 Million. Which would mean $100,000 per second or $100 per millisecond. And since Wikipedia also confirms that the average length of a blink is 300 to 400 milliseconds, we can scientifically conclude that you wasted $30,000 to $40,000 every time you blinked during one of these commercials. Therefore, ipso facto, the importance for the product or company to create a lasting impression or memory for the 27 to 30 seconds that you were non-blinkingly watching the commercial CANNOT be understated! Which basically means that memorable commercials become better investments and that non-memorable ones become complete wastes of money.
It’s easy to talk about which commercials were memorable and which weren’t right after the SuperBowl. The whole event is still fresh in your mind. You are still upset that Christina Aguilera (which I spelled correctly before checking google) botched the anthem. You are fired up that you made a few extra bucks because Green Bay won by more than 3. And you still have a little heartburn from the Teriyaki Barbeque wings from the day before. Things are fresh. However, fast forward a week (or nine days), and now tell me what your favorite commercial was? I did my own survey, and here are a few answers I got from inside Doggett HQ. Please note, I did not tell anyone what I was writing about:
Jeff – “The only ones I remember are the Dorito’s ads. The dog knocking down the door, and the guy sucking the other guy’s fingers.” Me – “Have you ate any Dorito’s since?” Jeff – “No. I’m more of a French fry guy. I should eat more chips.”
George – “Well, what was yours?” Me – I don’t want to sway your answer. George – “Just tell me your top three.” Me – (I provided him with three examples). George – “I don’t remember any of them. Really, none of them were memorable.”
Me – I loved the ad with the kid in the Darth Vader costume. I DVR’ed the SuperBowl and I actually have the DVR queued to that commercial. I love when he pushes past his dad to run to the car. That push and his ensuing response to the car starting make me laugh every time. Now, have I purchased a Volkswagen since the commercial aired? Nope, still have my new Camry.
So what does all this mean? In the long run, probably not much, except that advertisers should make sure that their ads are memorable, that consumers should continue to enjoy the commercials for what they are, and that NFL players and owners should get over their petty, greedy selves and make sure we can do this all over again next year…





