As Sunday approaches I sit here with mixed emotions about Super Bowl advertising. Should I care because it’s my job? Should I just enjoy the game like the rest of the world and boycott the lame ass idiocy that attempts to pass as advertising? Why can’t I get excited this year?
Perhaps it’s that I’ve written about so many Super Bowl ads over the past eight years, I simply can’t get excited about seeing the same old stupidity over and over again. Go Daddy? Oh please. Another “men are idiots” beer ad? Gag. The eTrade babies? Make it stop!
Perhaps it’s that I’ve heard everything there is to hear and viewed everything there is to view before the ads ever hit TV. There used to be an anticipation for something NO ONE could EVAR see until it appeared during the game. No longer. The ads are everywhere. And not just for journalists and bloggers. Many marketers toss there stuff up on YouTube well in advance of the game. So all that goes on inside my head during the game is a running commentary, “Yup, seen that. Predictable. Seriously? Yup, knew that was coming. Yup, that’s as stupid as I thought it would be. Danica Patrick. Yawn. Guy throws a phone across a locker room. Check. Beer babes wrestling. Oh wait, that was pretty good! The Clydesdales. OK, not bad. Man sneaks beer into party under giant cheese wheel. Oh for fuck’s sake. Talking babies. Talking animals. Monkeys. Can’t wait until this fucking game is over so I can go back to watching some decent programming with ads that don’t try so hard they shoot themselves in the foot before they end up in the can.”
Perhaps it’s laziness. Why go to the effort of blogging/tweeting/tagging/commenting/uploading ads when everyone else is doing the same thing. We used to care what Bob Garfield said. Does anyone give a shit any longer? Does anyone give a shit what what I have to say? And, no, I’m not equating myself to Bob Garfield. But does anyone really care what I have to say about the ads? Why is my opinion any more important than anyone else’s?
Perhaps it’s scheduling difficulties. I’ll be stuck at a conference Monday after game day. While the rest of the world is blogging and bitching about the ads, I’ll be slinging some mindlessly irrelevant blather on a panel about social media. And who really gives a shit about that? Super Bowl ad commentary or social media platitudes. It’s like choosing between getting my left eye poked out or my right.
Maybe it’s because the world has become so politically correct, the chance of me seeing anything interesting is about as likely as my chance of ever writing for Advertising Age. Giant breasted women in bikinis mud wrestling? Those days are gone. A gerbil shooting out of a cannon? Nope. A hot girl that says “throw it to me. I’m gonna be wide open?” Too offensive. Suicidal robots? Never. A Snickers kiss? Not a chance. A Salesgenie ad featuring Asians and Indians? You know the answer to that one. In our quest to become sensitive to everything, we have become a risk-averse, spineless, humorless nation afraid of everything.
OK, whatever. Follow me @adrants or @stevehall. I’m sure I’ll have something ridiculously irrelevant to say about the ads during the game. And I’ll be drinking. So it could be good.
