Aside from the intense match up of the Ravens and the 49ers at the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 3rd, a big part of Super Bowl Sunday fun is the commercials. For many years, Super Bowl commercials have been a big deal. Sometimes, these commercials are just to get a company’s product or idea out to the public, and try to get people to buy their product by making it look “American” or better than the competition. However, during the Super Bowl, most of the commercials are based around a humorous theme. These commercials draw in people who otherwise may not have even watched the Super Bowl to turn on the TV just to get a good laugh. “The commercials are half the reason the Super Bowl is so entertaining!” said Steven Shaker, senior atChardonHigh School.
Yet, the honor of getting some time to air a commercial during this time comes at a heavy price. Just to buy a 30 second slot, the price comes to around $4 million, but many companies believe it is worth it. Around 115 million people watched the Super Bowl.
Most of the commercials are from popular companies in the beer or car industries. Since these companies are so large, they can afford to put out a few commercials. For example, the “Magic Fridge” Bud Light commercial from 2006 is one of the most popular Super Bowl commercials of all time. You can find this commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llPZL9eLc3Y.
In recent years, companies like E-trade, with the hilarious talking baby commercials, and Doritos, with a few commercials that spark heavy laughter, have been getting great reviews from viewers. The E-Trade commercial uses the same recurring idea, a talking baby, but with different jokes and lines in it to talk about their service in a very comical way. Many commercials do this, such as the Budweiser commercials with the Clydesdale horses. As soon as people see one of these commercials, they know exactly what product is being promoted without having to wait until the end of the commercial. Chris Goergen, junior at Chardon, said the commercials this year “were all pretty bad, except for the Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdale. That one was a real tear jerker.” You can find this commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2prAccclXs
Companies use this comedic factor in their commercials so that they stick in the minds of their viewers. This works very well. Another commercial that is very popular and comical is the “I’m Good” Pepsi Max Commercial from the 2009 Super Bowl. You can find this commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkgZFI4ZT0I
Brandon LeScoezec, Chardon senior, was “a bit surprised by the vulgarity of the commercials.” For someone such as Brandon, who is not usually bothered by this type of joke to say this, you can tell it definitely stood out to more people than just him. One of the most vulgar of the commercials was the GoDaddy.com commercial, where supermodel Bar Rafaeli makes out with a stereotypical geek.
Much of the hype of the Super Bowl is the anticipation of the commercials that will be stuck in the viewer’s memory for years to come. Though there were a few decent ones, the overall quality of this year’s Super Bowl Commercials was disappointing. “The overall quality of the commercials just wasn’t there this year,” said LeScoezec.