Superbowl Commercials - Some of the best
Every year, companies spend millions of dollars to make sure they’ve locked in an advertising spot during one of football’s biggest events. Because of the large number of viewers, the revenue generated from the ads is very big. As of 2006, the news was that the cost to have just a thirty second advertising segment was $2.5 million. It’s no surprise that the superbowl commercials are one of the main reasons that people tune in. I know that when it’s going to be a boring game and I don’t care much for either of the teams, I’ll still tune in just to see the creative superbowl commercials.
One of the very first famous superbowl commercials was in 1974. It was a Noxzema ad featuring Joe Namath, who is a Super Bowl legend. Other famous and successful superbowl commercials have included an ad in 1984 which featured basketball legends Larry Bird and Michael Jordan for a McDonald’s campaign. The Budweiser frogs which made their debut in 1995 have also gone down in history and are best known for their line “Budd. Weiss. Err.” One of the first .com superbowl commercials made it’s debut in 1999 featuring Monster.com. It showed kids talking about what they wanted to be when they grow up. More recently in 2006, one of the popular superbowl commercials featured a Mobile ESPN ad called Sports Heaven, which is where sports fans walked through a sports universe, passing by dozens of famous athletes. Another one of the superbowl commercials that stood out in 2006 was a Dove commercial whose aim was for the female audience. The message sent was for girls not to be insecure about their appearance, and tried to convey that beauty is more than skin deep.
This past year, Anheuser-Busch (beer company) was the top advertiser shown during the game by purchasing 10 30-second spots. Other companies who purchased multiple segments were Ameriquest, CareerBuilder.com, Pepsi-Cola, Pizza Hut, Procter & Gamble, Warner Bros., Disney and GoDaddy.com. ABC also aired quite a few 60-second commercials for some of it’s top shows including Lost and Desperate Housewives. This was also one of the first broadcasts in history that not only the superbowl commercials but the game itself was broadcast in HDTV.
Year after year, companies will continue to spend an unseen amount of money to guarantee their thirty second time slot during the biggest football game of the year, and year after year, we’ll continue to tune in to see just what exactly they’re spending their millions of dollars on, and determine in our eyes, which are stellar and which were a waste of money. What have been some of your favorite superbowl commercials?