Breaking down Super Bowl ads

Days after the Super Bowl had been decided, one argument rages on: Which commercial was best?

About 100 marketing and advertising experts gathered last night at Aurora restaurant in downtown Richmond for the seventh annual Ad Bowl to try to separate the winners from the losers. The Ad Bowl, sponsored by the Richmond chapter of the American Marketing Association, didn’t choose an ultimate champion, but the proceedings did make for a colorful discussion.
Barbara Dodd, (from left) of Barb Dodd Marketing, Peter Kaufman, president of The Hoople Group, and Terry Taylor, creative guide at Big River Advertising. CLEMENT BRITT/TIMES-DISPATCH
 

While Terry Taylor, a creative guide at Big River Advertising, and Neal Lappe, president of WebStrategies Inc., sat center stage leading the discussion, the post-happy hour crowd was not shy about sharing its opinions.
 

Peter Kaufman, president The Hoople Group, moderated the event.

The approximately 50 ads aired during the game on Sunday ranged from Ed McMahon pitching Cash4Gold to Bob Dylan hawking Pepsi, but the Ad Bowl focused on about 10 that were projected on the restaurant’s wall.
 

From Bud Light’s standard slapstick ad and Budweiser’s classic Dalmation, to the crystal ball tossing guys in the Doritos ad and a commercial for online video service Hulu that claimed watching TV would turn your brain to mush, the crowd cheered, grimaced and scratched their heads.

“If you remember the product and if the ad is memorable, then you have a good Super Bowl ad,” said Taylor.
 

The most popular ad of the evening for the group was a CareerBuilders.com ad about people hating their jobs.
 

It showed, in rapid repeated succession, a woman screaming, a stuffed animal getting punched and a guy in Speedos clipping his nails at his desk.
 

“Good God, that woman screaming is someone we all know,” Taylor said.
 

That familiarity is what makes the ad special, he said.
 

Lappe liked a Bud Light commercial that ran early in the game. The ad is set in a boardroom where employees are discussing ways to cut the budget. The man who suggests cutting Bud Light is tossed out the window, chair and all.
 

“It was short and sweet. It got a good laugh and helps you remember the product,” Lappe said.

Buying a spot during the game is an investment for companies that get not only a 30-second spot on the air, but the buzz that surrounds the Super Bowl.
 

Air time for this year’s Super Bowl on NBC cost $3 million for a half-minute. On any other day, the price of a prime-time network TV commercial averages about $122,000, according to independent media services agency TargetCast.
 

That $3 million buys a lot of exposure.
 

Nielsen Media Research reported yesterday that 98.7 million people watched Sunday’s game, making it the most-watched Super Bowl in history and the second most-watched show ever, only behind the “M*A*S*H” finale in 1983.
 

And for days before and after the game, the spots are dissected and discussed on major networks, newspapers and Web sites as much as the game.
 

“A good Super Bowl ad goes a long way,” Taylor said.

Click here to read the original story on The Times Dispatch website.