Super Bowl 2018

There are never too many news articles, blog posts, and podcasts about Super Bowl commercials right after the Super Bowl. Except for today. Now there’s one too many.

As everyone will tell you, the Tide (something like Every Super Bowl Ad is a Tide Ad) was clever and I fumbled my dip-dripping Dorrito and the mess spilled all over my sweatshirt while watching it.  And, I imagine, I’ll flash on the commercial the next time I’m stumbling around in the detergent aisle.  What more could an advertiser ask for?

And as everyone will tell you, The MLK/RAM truck spot was tone-deaf embarrassment. Just think: He coulda’ been a crackerjack car salesman instead of wasting his life away in and out of jail and meeting a violent death. Sad.

The bleeping commercial was bleeping too long.

An M&M was funny when it turned into Danny Devito, but after watching him beg to be eaten, then swirling around in a flat vat of chocolate (it looked like a vat of something else), I don’t think I’ll ever put an M&M in my mouth again.

Finally, there was an E-Trade commercial with old people still working when they should be retired. I think that was the takeaway. The problem was that most of the geezers looked like they were having loads and loads of fun and being productive. Of course, having fun and being productive aren’t things we want old people to be doing. 

There’s something unnatural about it.

2018: The Year of Big

That’s my prediction. Advertisers will finally follow simple common sense, something a certain seer has been urging for years:

18 April 2011
The Flat-Screen Rectangle of Common Sense

Good piece by Steve Weaver of ThinkTV Australia:

Size does matter: how ad size and screen coverage affect audience attention
… In real life, TV commands 58% active viewing, compared to only 31% for YouTube and just 4% for Facebook … TV’s relaxed, ‘lean-back’ viewing environment is not to be confused with passive ad attention …

An ad on Facebook averages 10% screen coverage. An ad on YouTube averages 30% screen coverage and on TV – where the ad plays full screen with no scrolling and no clutter – screen coverage for ads is 100%.
So, in simple terms, size matters.

Now factor in the size of smartphones vs. the size of televisions. An advertisement you hold in your hand is about as big as a large piece of confetti. And I’ve noticed that often they scurry around like tiny bedbugs. Sometimes I try to squash them.

NostraChuckus’ thoughts through the years:

May 2010:
Foretellings
… That silly retronym “traditional advertising” will remain the premiere force for introducing people to a product or service, along with sustaining its shelf life. Television, radio, and billboard ads will continue to have the visceral power they’ve always had – if only for their sheer size, simplicity, and cutting-edge audio/visual qualities ...

06 March 2012
Digital Distractions
Advertisers are getting wise to the drawbacks of marketing in the digital nest…

12 March 2012
Digital Distractions II
There are so many digital distractions that it’s difficult to be distracted…

22 September 2015
Marketing Miscellanea
… Baby boomers also had a highly negative response to mobile ads ... Fewer than 8% said they were likely to purchase a product advertised on their mobile phone … Overall, just 5.2% were interested in receiving ads on their phone at all …

28 November 2017
Smartphone Ads = Silly Graphical Doodads

NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense is getting hazy now…

What a year.

Not for advertising but for everything else.

In my corner of the ether, no progress by ad agencies targeting this unwieldy, diverse demographic.  Looking over my posts the last twelve months…

It’s always a treat to get up, make some coffee, open the newspaper (pixels or pulp) and read nothing new.

The three most popular posts of 2017:

Black Ops Advertising by Mara Einstein

The Age of Portmanteau
If I may coin a phrase, we’re living in the Age of Portmanteau, what with Bromance, Sexting, Frankenfood, and dozens of other blends bandied about – even by reputable news sources (if there are any anymore).

Smartphone Ads = Silly Graphical Doodads

My pick for must-read post of the year:

The Interminable Death of Television
Nothing I can think of is as lively and chipper as television in its final throes.

If we all began dying as happily, healthily, slowly, and painlessly as TV, we wouldn’t fear the process - but welcome it.

My favorite post of the year:

Something Old, Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Old
Along with Google Glasses, you'll also be wearing Google Nose and Google Mouth.

Back in January if the world is still around.

We’re always sick.

No matter what the product or service, when Mad Ave tries to ‘reach’ us we’re always sick.  Or something’s horribly wrong. 

Even if they want us to buy a car we have to be sick first:

What happened to this lady? Did she have a heart attack?  The doctor says she has to ‘go slow’…

Well, whatever her affliction is she’ll get better if she buys this car. And exercises. And is looked after by her daughter.

According to most ads selling stuff to Boomers, we have to be sick before we can buy anything. Or, we’re naturally ill all the time and the only reason we’d buy anything is to make us well.

We’d never buy a product just because we might want it. What would be the point of that? When you’re young, you only buy products so you can be hip. When you’re old, you only buy products for medical reasons. 

I googled the car and it’s a pretty good car. But the spot tells me nothing about the car. Of course, why would I want to know anything about the car? All I need to know is that it has healing powers.

And don’t try to sell me a refrigerator unless it can cure me of something.

Another Pointless Press Release

I read a press release the other day that was a mix of silly and pointless. A few news sites picked it up and fashioned their own versions. (There won’t be any links because I don’t link to silly.)

Culled from the press release and articles:

Millennials (81%) are much more likely to be influenced by advertising than Baby Boomers (57%), who have generally already set their brand affinity and buying patterns …

I’ve debunked the myth of ‘boomers don’t change brands’ so many times I’ve lost count. A quote from a review of my 2005 book by Dr. Joyce M. Wolburg published in The Journal of Consumer Marketing:

A second favorite excuse of agencies is: "Baby Boomers don't change brands" (p. 52, italics in original). Nyren dismantles this excuse nicely with examples of brand switching, and he further acknowledges that in cases where loyalty to a brand does exist, marketers who do not target Boomers give them no reason to change.

Read the full review. (PDF)

What’s not mentioned, not even considered, is that 95% of advertising is targeted to Millennials.  Of course they would be influenced. And when advertising is directed at a mature demographic, advertisers screw it up so much that we’re offended. (I think I’ve said this a thousand times in my book, blog, speaking engagements, consulting assignments, on street corners drooling and unbathed as I accost unsuspecting passersby.)

Download the first few chapters of the book: Advertising to Baby Boomers PDF

Overall, consumers view traditional advertising mediums — TV, print, and radio — as the most trustworthy, while they view online and social media advertising more skeptically …

What a shock. I’m also guessing that most consumers trust established stores more than some guy in a dark alley with an open suitcase full of watches and whatnot.

A post from a few weeks ago:

Smartphone Ads = Silly Graphical Doodads
… The mobile/social media soothsayers will have you believe that there is this unknown, magical mode of persuasion that has never been thought of before – and will reveal itself any day now.

And lots more, too many more posts:

Social Media - WOMM - Web Advertising

From May 2010:

Foretellings
… That silly retronym “traditional advertising” will remain the premiere force for introducing people to a product or service, along with sustaining its shelf life. Television, print, radio, and billboard ads will continue to have the visceral power they’ve always had – if only for their sheer size, simplicity, and cutting-edge audio/visual qualities.