Retroactive blogging on Super Bowl ads

But first, my random "Deal or No Deal" thought of the month--

Why doesn't any contestant start their contest by choosing Case #1 and then picking successive cases in order from #2 on up? Why not? The dollar figures in the cases are randomized, aren't they? Wouldn't that be interesting (or at least AS interesting) to watch?

But, back to the Super Bowl . . .

I remember back in the mid 1990s, when I was still living in Georgia and going to graduate school, I would have Super Bowl parties with my grad school friends and we'd pay attention to the ads probably more than the games themselves. But that certainly isn't the case any more, is it?

I think the era of the Super Bowl Mega Ad is over and I think it ended maybe two years ago. It used to be that in the weeks leading up to the big game, almost as much time was spent talking about the ads as the game itself. But about two years ago I noticed that there weren't any stories about how much the ads cost anymore or features about what businesses were jockeying for prime positions in the first quarter of the game.

So, why did this happen? Certainly, companies are still paying premium dollars for any ad time during the Super Bowl, but the idea of the Super Bowl ad as a phenomenon outside of the act of commerce is pretty well over, I think.

I admit, that I didn't even turn ON the game this year until halftime, long past the time that all the "best" ads would have been shown. So, I'm not in the best position to critique the ads themselves. Luckily, there are many other people who either weren't putting their kids in bed or got paid to write on the ads. So, you can read other people's opinions on the ads here, here, and see videos of the ads here.

But, if I didn't put things on the back burner to make sure that I didn't miss the ads, then it's a sure (if conceited) sign that the I didn't miss much on the ad front. Sure, there were some nicely put together spots. (I heard that the Coke ads were nicely put together. . . unfortunately, neither of the spots I heard about were new, so their importance is diminished.) Budweiser had a great deal of ads, but none were that great, I think. Personally, the one that I saw and found interestingly memorable was the Emerald Nuts "Robert Goulet" ad. In fact, I think Emerald Nuts has featured the oddest (and therefore memorable) commercials of the last few Super Bowls.

So, I guess, the era of Super Bowl ads as a "discussable" phenomenon is over. And, I guess that is fine . . . as long as companies don't continue to spend outrageously to grab ad spots in the future.