Super Bowl Advertising Has Gone Neither Big Nor Home

Does anyone else remember the very first Budwesier ‘Wazzzzuuup’ commercial? I don’t mean the first ‘Wazzzzuuup’ campaign. No, I’m talking about the debut of the very, very first ‘Wazzzzuuup’ commercial.

I swear that my father and I were the only two people who noticed that ad.

It aired during Monday Night Football in December of 1999. I can remember thinking that everyone would be talking about it in school the next day. And no one was talking about it. Not a soul.

Just another painfully awkward moment in high school, I guess.

But my dad and I, we shared that commercial. We called each other just to say, ‘Wazzzzuuup…’ and we laughed every time we said it. We waited and watched and watched and waited for the the commercial to air again.

But it wasn’t until Super Bowl of that year that the ‘Wazzzzuuup’ campaign really gained traction with the masses.

I don’t want to say that the ‘Wazzzzuuup’ campaign was responsible for my venture into the marketing and advertising world. But it certainly was a major influence in my decision to pursue a career in this industry.

But now, NOW!, my how times have changed. The advertising innovation that we once saw during Super Bowl is no longer. I’m sorry to say that. But it’s not. I’m not even looking forward to this year’s roster of ads. I am expecting a series of gimmicky ads that try so hard to stand out that they do nothing but blend in.

And this year, for the first time, advertisers are ‘generating buzz’ for their ads by pre-releasing not only ad teasers, but also the full length spots. Stuart Elliot writes about this phenomenon in his New York Times article, ‘Before the Toss, Super Bowl Ads.‘

And of all the teasers mentioned and linked to, not one of them intrigued me. Not even the 10-second teaser for the Honda CR-V commercial, starring Matthew Broderick, paying homage to his 1986 hit movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Elliot describes the teaser is mysterious. Let me tell you something. If you don’t think you’re in for a series of Ferris Bueller-like shenanigans, you’re wrong.

Funny? Potentially. Creative? Innovative? Memorable? I doubt it.

I think what advertisers are struggling with is two-fold: (a) marketing budgets are under more scrutiny than ever before and a risky Super Bowl ad is a $2 million risk thatg most CEOs just aren;t willing to take and (b) there’s not a whole lot of marketing taboo anymore, not a whole lot of envelopes that haven’t already been pushed to their furthest limits.

So, what I anticipate is a bunch of ads that teeter between pragmatic and risky. And teetering is the biggest risk of all.

Go big or go home. If your CEO, CFO…whatever…isn’t going to buy into you creative Super Bowl ad 100% – if he is going to scale it back to be more safe – just go home.

And, perhaps, that same message should be shared with a certain contending team in this year’s big game?