On February sixth, two thousand and eleven, a massive collection of football fan’s eyes gathered around their TV sets in suspense. Advertisers predicted this and had commercials pending in queue, despite the ridiculous prices for airtime, because of this rare annual event is shared with so many people. Due to appointment on demand, I was only able to view the second half of the game. In my critical analysis, of the commercials that I was able to see, I noticed several clever advertisements that tie right into the tactics companies currently use, through media, to persuade and support their products.
Bud Light’s product placement commercial, using, addressing, as well as making fun of product placement in general, was a favorite hit, making the audience and I laugh. In this commercial, a member of the production studio asked what a certain product was doing on the set, and the feedback explained to the audience the truth about product placement as well as the way it produced money every time they used the product in the content. However, they dramatically exaggerated this strategy by having a swordsman jump through a water-paint Bud Light window to duel amidst several more Bud Light advertisements placed all over the set. He ends up saving the damsel in distress by hurling a Bud Light bottle at his foe. I found this, addressing the use of product placement and providing the audience with this knowledge, to be extremely witty, as it only ends in laughter and acceptance. Additionally, it provides a purpose for their excessive display of product in a subtle, yet obvious way.
My second favorite commercial over the renown-sporting event, the Best Buy advertisement on their future smart phone replacement policy given your purchase of a previous model, was absolutely brilliant. They used Ozzy Osbourne to promote the four G network and quickly replaced it with a five G. Ozzy, having trouble sticking to the script from the confusion gets reprimanded, and retires to the background bewildered, just as the six G comes out not a second later. This was effective advertising on Best Buy’s part by giving a very persuasive opportunity to keep your technology up to date while displaying how fast paced technology really is, making this offer economically beneficial.
The two-minute long commercial that hit me with great impact, was Chrysler’s. It began by asking the audience what a city that has been through tough times really knows about the finer things in life and claims that city, in actuality, knows more than most. Then Eminem, driving, promoting the clean, new Chrysler 200, looks at the screen after getting out to walk onto a stage, says, “This is motor city.” This advertisement connects with me, as I’m sure it did with many other American viewers, because it gave emphasis to the origin from which the product was and is going to be imported. I personally lean towards any products made in America simply because they’re exactly that, made in America. So essentially, this advertisement sold me at the mere mention of Detroit. It may be arbitrary but couldn’t it be the 5 million dollar’s used to put it on the air is what influenced me?
The bottom line is that if you’re an advertiser, you know money talks. The obvious benefits from spending tons of cash on small amounts of airtime, however, weren’t so obvious to me before I did a little research. Now I know one reason why the advertising on the Superbowl is so expensive and it’s because mass media sources that attract mass audience are becoming increasingly scarce, thanks to audience fragmentation. Putting your product in a medium that attracts mass viewers is an intelligent and necessary move, if you expect to improve sales. The fact that advertisers actually paid the fee for these commercials, at a mind-numbing rate might I add, is a selling technique in itself and even if we were sold or not, someone in the audience was.
