John Alexander Nunnery
Entertainment Editor
The Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event each year. Every year millions of people around the world gather to watch the game and party. However, as the years have passed, an increasing number of people have started to pay attention to the commercials.
Traditionally, people have watched the Super Bowl for the game or the halftime show. More recently, however, the audience has changed, and many younger generations have begun to watch the Super Bowl primarily for the commercials that appear before, during and immediately after the game. Super Bowl ads have always been more popular than your average ad, but this phenomenon of increased public interest is fascinating. While there is normally a general hatred for commercials in every other form of media as a waste of time, in the Super Bowl they are something to be celebrated.
There is something about these commercials that just resonate differently than others. Perhaps because these ads cost more than $5 million dollars for just 30 seconds of footage there is a drive to be more creative in what is produced. There is also build-up for these ads now, with many companies making a preview or teaser of the ad before releasing the full one during the Super Bowl to invest consumers in the idea of the commercial. Some even release the actual Super Bowl ad a day or two before the game, just to get people talking about it on social media.
“Over time it became such a big event, advertisers wanted to stand out from each other, so they have gone to ever-increasing lengths to make their ad be the best ad,” said Barry Smith, professor and Chair of Communication at Mississippi University for Women. “There is this outpouring of creativity by the advertisers, so people want to see the ads and talk about them partly because they feel as if other people have seen the ads and they want to talk to the others about them.”
While the Super Bowl is the main event to air these ads, it is not the only place to view them. The appeal of the ads has quickly spread onto social media and video, making websites such as YouTube a place to view the ads if you miss the game, or if you just want to see them again. This furthers their use in marketing with hashtags on Twitter about the commercial and millions of views on YouTube. This helps the companies to extend the life of the commercials beyond that single 30- or 60-second spot. Having it discussed on social media will keep their products on everyone’s mind, which is part of what advertising is all about. While the commercials are a cultural phenomenon, people are often still often divided on the subject.
“Personally, I’m not a big fan of the game, but I know companies go all out for the commercials because everyone is watching the Super Bowl,” said Ricky Dubuisson II, a sophomore Music Education major.
This is a sentiment shared by many people, but most people are still watching for the game.
“I like the commercials as they are better than normal, but I don’t understand why people watch it for the commercials at all,” said Sam Johnson, a freshman Speech and Language Pathology major.
While people may have differing opinions on the ads, companies are investing billions of dollars in order to cash in on the cultural phenomenon that is The Super Bowl. This has led to a whole new sub-phenomenon revolving around the ads, and it is interesting to see where this will take us as viewers’ attention shifts more and more toward the commercials.