The average cost of a 30-second Super Bowl commercial now runs at about $4 million (around $133,333.33 per second). And with over 100 million viewers glued to their TV screens, the cost is worthwhile for many major companies and businesses. As happens every year, this year’s Super Bowl contained a slew of different advertisements, some of which made viewers laugh, others that were more sentimental, and still others that were way more uncomfortable and cringe-worthy.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common thoughts viewers probably had during this year’s Super Bowl commercials:
1. Please stop interrupting my commercial watching with football plays
San Francisco ad agency Venables Bell & Partners conducted a study of 1000 people about the popularity of commercials during the Super Bowl. The results? 78% of respondents say that they enjoy the commercials during the Super Bowl more than the game itself. According to a different informal survey via social media conducted by USA Today, that percentage was a bit lower, but still significant: 15% of survey takers watch the game for just the commercials or half time show.
Either way, it means that a good few hundred thousand people tune into the big game for colorful, musical ads showing cars speeding down winding hills and trailers for the newest films in theaters, and probably couldn’t tell you which teams were playing in the Super Bowl.
2. Ponies and Puppies are better than Patriots and Packers
Can dogs and horses really be best friends? Unclear. What is the connection between dogs, horses, and beer? Even more unclear. There’s really not much to understand about Budweiser’s animal-themed commercials, but somehow, viewers watched on the edge of their seats during the beer company’s Super Bowl advertisement to see if the lost puppy would return safely back home to his herd of horse buddies. (He did.)
Though the message of the ad might have been unclear, one YouTube commenter offered his own interpretation: “Beer helps us realize that friends are important in the animal kingdom. The puppy and horse can be drinking buddies now.” That must be it.
3. Why, Nationwide, why?
Nationwide whipped out an unexpected heavy-hitter. A child who talks about how he’ll “never learn how to fly” or “never get married,” reveals that he died in an accident. Though the commercial attempted to raise awareness about preventable accidents as being the number one cause of death for young children, many viewers found the scene disturbing and interruptive of the general festive vibe of the Super Bowl.
Nationwide has since issued a statement that their “Make Safe Happen” campaign advertised in the Super Bowl commercial was not intended to popularize their insurance. According to the statement the company released to NBC, “…The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance…We want to build awareness of an issue that is near and dear to all of us — the safety and well-being of our children.”
There have recently been a number of parodies posted on YouTube spawning from the original Nationwide ad, and it seems like Nationwide might not have achieved its original goal.
4. What does acting ‘like a girl’ mean to me?
In their “Like a Girl” campaign commercial, feminine hygiene brand Always sets out to challenge the stereotypes of what it means to do something ‘like a girl’. When asked to run ‘like a girl’, males and adolescent or teenage girls made exaggerated motions, flailing their hands and kicking their feet. When young girls were asked to do the same thing, they ran confidently and swiftly across the room. The message is that saying something is ‘like a girl’ has become more of an insult, rather than a description or compliment.
Always’ advertisements challenged viewers to reconsider what they think doing things ‘like a girl’ means to them.
5. Who knew Coke could be so powerful?
In general, spilling Coke onto your computer will probably shut it down. But according to Coca-Cola, doing so can change the world (note: do not try this at home, or anywhere else). During their #MakeItHappy campaign-based commercial, an IT technician spills Coke onto the wires of an intricate computer system, causing the entire network to turn negative messages on TV or sent through text messages into positive ones.
In addition to advertising their product, Coca-Cola’s commercial was also intended to publicize their #MakeItHappy campaign on Twitter, which was based on a computer algorithm that would take negative tweets and form the words into pictures of more positive or happy things. Since then, however, the campaign has been suspended due to a Twitter account named @MeinCoke set up by media company Gawker’s editorial labs director, Adam Pash. The account tweeted lines from Mein Kampf and then used the #MakeItHappy tag to transform the words into pictures.
A statement issued by Coca-Cola highlighted the irony of the situation: “Building a bot that attempts to spread hate through #MakeItHappy is a perfect example of the pervasive online negativity Coca-Cola wanted to address with this campaign.”
Whether you watched the Super Bowl for the game or for the commercials (but everyone knows it was for the commercials), the night was full of entertaining advertisements: some of them uplifting and powerful, and others just downright strange.
Let’s see what Super Bowl 2016 will bring!