I’m going to be completely honest about this year’s Super Bowl, because in all actuality, I really don’t care about football at all, except for the Giants and the Bears. My dad’s from New York, and I live an hour from Chicago, the idea of cheering for these home teams has been ingrained in me since I was a child. Anyway, I didn’t put this year’s game on until the halftime show (love you, Bruno) and subsequently only left it on for the commercials.
In my eyes, the Super Bowl commercials are the real winners and losers of the night (although there is no denying that the Denver Broncos were crushed on Sunday). What is it that makes the ads shown on Super Bowl night such a big deal? Why do major publications write about the best and worst commercials of the night? I couldn’t answer these questions, which is why I went ahead and did some research.
Forbes published an article on Feb. 4 that talks about how 50% of the Super Bowl audience watches for the ad. Though Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times credits a Macintosh ad from 1984 for starting the Super Bowl commercial frenzy, I couldn’t seem to find why (or when) the mass appeal started, but it’s hard to ignore.
Companies pay millions of dollars for a few seconds on TV, and we all tune in to watch and write about them.
A few ads stood out among the plethora of commercials, particularly, the Cheerios family; I loved the return of the interracial family whose adorable relationship makes me smile whenever I see them. There was also Jaguar’s British villains ad, which featured a handsome Tom Hiddleston, who I believe is a lovely human being. Coca-Cola produced a fantastically shot “America the Beautiful” ad, which spurred quite the controversy amongst some Twitterers for capturing the essence of diversity in America and showcasing different languages spoken by folks in our country.
I turned on a game I didn’t care about because I actually wanted to see the commercials (which never happens when I’m laughing at The Mindy Project or freaking out during The Originals). And the fact remains that I’ll tune in again next year, even if my teams don’t make it to that final game–I can’t deny that fact.
Photo via YouTube screenshot
