Now that we’ve spent the better part of a week pointlessly bitching about which Super Bowl spot was the best, we might consider giving the honor to an ad that, though intended, never appeared during the game. You might remember the guy, now revealed to be Rand Fishkin of Seattle, behind MySuperProposal who was attempting to raise money to buy a Super Bowl ad in which he had planned to ask his girlfriend, Geraldine DeRuiter, to marry him. Well, he wasn’t able to raise the $2.6 million needed to purchase a Super Bowl spot and began talking to advertisers to support his effort as well as to CBS who were considering running the spot.
Unfortunately when half time rolled around CBS called to say the spot would not, in fact, air. Undeterred and with a $3,000 gift from his mother, Fishkin bought a local spot on Seattle’s KSTW Tuesday night during Geraldine’s favorite show, Veronica Mars.
Here’s the ad that appeared and here’s a video of Geraldine’s reaction to seeing the commercial. Call us sentimental but we love this stuff. Can you imagine if this had appeared in the Super Bowl? Considering Geraldine’s reaction to the local ad, imagine how she would have reacted knowing the entire world saw the ad. Heads may have exploded.
The My Super Proposal idea originated with a Tennessee man who had the idea back in August. Unfortunately, the man’s bride-to-be found out and his planned surprise was no longer a surprise – not to mention, sadly, the fact she said no. Undeterred, he knew Fishkin was engaged and handed the site over him which got Fishkin’s effort rolling. The money Fishkin did raise through the website, $10,000, is going to be donated to the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville.
Prior to the Super Bowl, Fishkin had worked with several advertisers who had planned to aid him in getting the ad in the game. One advertiser even shot the ad for him. Ultimately, all the talks fell through and he worked with the Seattle CW affiliate to produce and air the spot. Probably a good thing since the sponsoring advertiser would have plastered their messaging all over the ad ruining the beauty of it.
Fishkin expects some follow up publicity with a possible appearance on Inside Edition. If only this ad had run, we would have been spared endless debate over the social merits of the Snickers Kiss ad and whether or not throwing a rock at someone’s head trumps paper.
