A media geek begins to disassemble the Big Game
Over the last fifteen to twenty years, the primary focus of the Super Bowl broadcast has shifted. Where once, in the era of Vince Lombardi and Broadway Joe, it would be inconceivable to steal the focus of American football's championship game, the power of television advertising brought new contenders together between plays. And now, as the Super Bowl's power to attract viewers drew bigger, stronger ad campaigns to match, many of us are noticing that the tail is now wagging the dog. The Super Bowl of today is as much off the field as on.
Since 2001, I have organized my own viewing party I called Ad Bowl. (It has since been changed to Spot Bowl, in light of a certain copyright notification.) The point of this party, as opposed to any other Super Bowl gathering, is to celebrate and criticize the Super Bowl as a media event. Maybe we watch the game, and maybe we don't, but when that first ad comes on, that's when the hush hits the crowd. We watch the ads, count them, order them, and rate them. We talk about them during and after the game. And we see the real game before our eyes: how those commercial breaks intend to shape our consumption as well as our culture.
We watch the complete game, including all commercials. We keep track of the time, name, and a brief description of the ad, along with any first reactions. (Local ads are taken out of consideration.) At the end, we take an informal vote on the best and worst ad, and nominate other categories (e.g., Most Offensive) for a vote by the group.
(For information on joining up with us next year, including our high-tech plans for media critique, see What's Next.)
Investment in quality ads was clearly lower than in previous years. This year's crop suffered from a lack of competition seen in the dot-com years; lowered market forecasts, which wouldn't afford advertisers the extravagance of, say, Christopher Reeve walking; and a strong bias toward beer, movies, and recycled campaigns.