Media Consumption Takes Super Bowl Ads Into Overtime
In the days of yore, Super Bowl ads were top secret. There were no extended versions or pre-releases. The time-honored strategy was to keep the high-dollar spot under wraps until the moment it ran. Then you either basked in glory or withered in shame the next day when Monday morning quarterback Donnie Deutsche rehashed the winners and losers on the Today show.
Those days seem to be passing. This week we saw the release of an extended two minute, twenty-five second Honda CRV Ferris Bueller-themed commercial. The spot, starring actor Matthew Broderick recreating his famous 26 year old character, will run in thirty second form on Super Bowl Sunday but by the time that spot airs most people will have already seen the extended commercial multiple times. In fact, it got more than 10 million views by the Friday of the big weekend.
Also grabbing viral momentum was a spot United States viewers normally wouldn’t have the pleasure of seeing. Budweiser’s heartwarming two-minute Flash Fans spot, which will air in Canada during the Super Bowl, became a pregame sensation three days before kickoff.
There’s great post-game action right here at the University of South Carolina, where faculty, staff, students and alumni of the Journalism School gather annually to vote their favorite Super Bowl spot in Cocky’s Super Ad Poll (on Twitter at #UofSCAdPoll). You can get in on the action, too. Vote here (from the end of the Super Bowl until 10am Monday morning). Once voting ends, the winning spot’s creative team will be recognized and invited to visit USC to get their coveted Cocky Award. What a treat for aspiring students to have the opportunity to talk shop with standout creatives! Maybe if I sweet-talk Ad Poll founder Professor Bonnie Drewniany she’ll let me sit in the back row.
Personally, I’m glad some of the cats are being snuck of the bag. There will always be surprise spots during the game. But I love that we get some overtime action out of Super Bowl commercials these days. Even better, we see ones that we’d never get to see in the first place.
It was always hard to get people to be quiet during the game-time commercials anyway.
What do you think? Should they be kept under wraps or enjoy an early release?
