Super Bowl 2011: Why You Should Avoid the Oncoming Car Crash Of Commercials

During Super Bowl XLV, there will be 60 minutes of football between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers.

However, there will also be an estimated 45 minutes of commercials during the game on Fox, the 30-minute Bridgestone Half Time Show with commercials and several commercial-laden hours of pre and post-game coverage.

To paraphrase legendary comedian W.C. Fields, "I once spent a year watching the Super Bowl in Dallas. I think it was on a Sunday."

Here is some advice: Punt on the commercials. Sack them all for a loss. Put them on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list. Readjust your game-viewing playbook to do something more productive with your time.

Super Bowl XLV commercials have the potential to reach 90-100 million viewers. Which is why such companies as Anheuser-Busch, E*Trade, GoDaddy.com, Pepsi and this year some ten marketers in the automobile category are paying Fox upward of $3 million for a 30-second spot.

However, as numerous surveys conducted among consumers and marketing experts indicate, most of the commercials will have so little impact that viewers will forget what they were about or what they were selling by the time water cooler discussions take place on February 7.

Car companies including Chrysler, BMW, Audi, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Cars.com and CarMax will be the main reason for short-term memory loss among Super Bowl XLV viewers. Why? Because they did not heed philosopher George Santayana's immortal words, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

On Jan. 30, 2000, during Super Bowl XXXIV, ABC ran commercials from nearly 20 companies that were either Internet or dot-com related. Some purchased multiple spots, which were going for $2.2 million per 30 seconds. 

A post-game Harris Survey showed that only two of those dot.com commercials were recalled by 40% of people surveyed. One was E*Trade. The other was Pets.com, and that was due to its infamous Sock Puppet Dog spokesperson and not for the products it sold. Most of the ads were below 5% recall.

Even worse, most of the companies who spent money during the dot-com Super Bowl became a dot.comedy of errors. By the end of the year, many were gone, sold or in financial shambles. Anyone remember OurBeginning.com, Kforce.com, Onmoney.com or Epidemic.com?

Viewers on Sunday will see ads that include Kim Kardashian (Sketchers), Darth Vader (Volkswagen) Roseanne Barr (Snickers) and Danica Patrick and Jilian Michaels (GoDaddy.com). However, a recent survey from the marketing department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire indicates that "celebrities have lost their influence with consumers." 

And according to the Super Bowl XLV Engagement Survey from research and consulting firm Brand Keys, New York, nearly half of the companies advertising during the Big Game will have significantly low return on investment from their presence. Among them: Most of the car companies, most of the movie studios and even E*Trade.

Historically, only a handful of commercials that have aired during Super Bowl broadcasts —and there have been more than 850 since Super Bowl XXXV alone — have had a long-lasting upside impact on advertising and consumers. 

Will there be another commercial to match what are generally regarded as the Holy Grail of Super Bowl commercials: Coca-Cola's "Mean Joe Greene" (Super Bowl XIII) and Apple's "1984" (Super Bowl XVIII)? 

Likely not. So use your valuable time to eat, drink and be merry without direction on how to do so from Madison Avenue.

Contact Barry Janoff at [e-mail] or http://www.NYSportsJournalism.com