commercials

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, today is Super Bowl Sunday. Yesterday, I took a quick look at the football game that will be played tonight. But today, I want to look at the real appeal of Super Bowl Sunday...the commercials. Let's face it, the commercials steal the show. Under normal circumstances, I make sure that my trips to the bathroom coincide with a television show's commercial break. But on this one occasion, I make sure that I use the facility during the game so that I don't miss a single commercial. I've recorded the Super Bowl when I've been busy in the past only to watch the commercials and fast-forward through the game itself. I love the commercials!

This is typically when companies put out their best commercials that have taken the most effort and money. Considering the fact that it costs a couple million for the spot to run the ad, it's no wonder that companies put their best foot forward. And apparently the wisest investments are the funny ones. Not all Super Bowl commercials are funny, but most of them seek to be. When I was growing up, the commercials always seemed to be funnier than they have been in recent year, but they're still typically pretty funny. I'm actually impressed with how many new ideas they come up with considering how many ideas have already been used in the past. The worst era was in the late 90's or early 00's and all those dumb ".com" commercials came out. It seemed that every commercial's end goal was to get the viewer to log into their website. Some of those still work their way in, but other companies got back to forking the dough to make sure we weren't tormented. What a let-down those years were.

It always seems that the beer commercials are the funniest. This doesn't make sense when you think about it. Beer companies are selling a product like anyone else. Why is it that other companies have struggled to come up with the same creative wit? I'm not sure, but I'm hoping this will be a Super Bowl filled with hilarious commercials. I'm looking for commercials to surpass the penguins and lizards and frogs of years gone by. I'm hoping for this year to be epic. Am I setting my bar to high and thus setting myself up for failure? Perhaps. But based on the number of commercials (including non-beer ads) that attempt humor these days on non-Super Bowl days, I'm hoping it will translate well. Think about it, we're faced with humor in companies attempts to sell so many different products. I've listed a few examples below:

• Car Insurance - From the "Mayhem" ads by State Farm to the Geico gecko to the Progressive shopping commercials, it seems that all car insurance companies think humor is the best way to get people to buy their insurance. None of those commercials have affected my wallet, but I still think they can be quite funny.
• The McDonald's "Filet-o-fish" song was a hit. It still creeps into my mind from time to time.
• Sprint's phone plan commercials are so clever. I love the one with the girlfriend breaking up with her boyfriend and the one with the trainer talking to the injured player alike.
• "I pick things up and put them down!" I haven't checked out the gym attached to this, but my wife still randomly spits this line out.
• Cars - Car commercials are notoriously boring and stupid. But I think the Kia hamster commercial is funny. Other car commercials attempt humor but have been missing the boat.
• Even Ikea has busted out some really funny commercials. They have the woman acting suspicious thinking she must have stolen stuff to get it for the price she did...when she gets outside she yells, "Start the car! Start the car!" They have the newer one where the woman drives a flatbed onto her front lawn...she jumps out, says she's going back for more and starts running down the street

Will this year's commercials live up to my expectations? Time will tell. I'll be so bummed out if they don't (obviously). Check in Tuesday to see my list of commercial winners and losers from tonight's Super Bowl.