SALON

Friday, Feb 1, 2013 1:45 PM UTC

Few surprises in Super Bowl ads

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Few surprises in Super Bowl adsThis undated screenshot provided by PepsiCo shows the Super Bowl advertisement for PepsiCo's PepsiNext.For its halftime intro spot, Pepsi, the sponsor of the Super Bowl halftime show, created a collage of 1,000 user-submitted photos that are stitched together to create a 30-second video that looks like one person jumping to the tune of Beyonce's "Countdown." The spot introduces the pop star's halftime show. (AP Photo/PepsiCo)(Credit: AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — So much for surprises.

The majority of the 30-plus Super Bowl advertisers have been releasing their spots in the days leading up to the game. So it’s unlikely there’ll be lots of action off the football field to make viewers drop their jaws on Sunday.

Advertising fans already can catch a glimpse of “Spider-Man” actor Willem Dafoe in a Mercedes-Benz ad. They can watch a baby Clydesdale grow up in an Anheuser-Busch commercial. They even can spot old people partying in a Taco Bell ad.

Gone are the days when Super Bowl spots were closely-guarded secrets. With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s no surprise that more advertisers are releasing ads online up to a week or more before Game Day.

In recent years, more advertisers have been making their spots public before the Big Game. This year, 26 of the 35 or so advertisers have released their spots, with more reveals expected, according to YouTube.com.

Companies have good reason for doing this. Last year, Super Bowl ads released early were watched 600 percent more times — with 9.1 million average views — than ones released after the game, according to YouTube.com, which hosts advertisers’ commercials on its site.

“The conversation has gone from Monday morning around the water cooler to social media, so basically what that means is there’s no downside in showing your cards early and getting people to talk about it and starting up some buzz,” said Charlie Warzel, staff writer at Adweek Magazine.

Still, Warzel said not everyone likes seeing ads early. “There are a lot of people who want to be surprised and can’t help but see these things floating around the Internet or picked up by news agencies. So the element of surprise is taken away.”

To be sure, a few companies are betting that there’s still cachet in making the “big reveal.” The few advertisers that are staying mum this year are hoping they can accomplish what Chrysler did last year — its two-minute halftime spot featuring Clint Eastwood was so unexpected that it was one of the most memorable ads of the game.

“Last year, Chrysler shocked everyone with a Clint Eastwood ad no one knew about,” said Barbara Lippert, a columnist at mediapost.com. “This year, no one knows what Chrysler is doing.”

Besides Chrysler, companies that haven’t revealed their spots yet include Mondelez’ Oreo and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry. All the companies have so far declined to discuss their plans for Super Bowl publicly.

“Oreo has developed this ad for the Super Bowl and, as such, it’s only fitting that it debuts during the Super Bowl,” according to an Oreo statement.

That hasn’t stopped ad experts from speculating. “Oreo’s advertising might really hit the mark because people are tired of sex and beer,” Lippert, the columnist, said. “Blackberry’s commercial is coming from a British agency so I have high hopes for it.”

Procter & Gamble’s Tide also hasn’t released its ad, but it has given some details. For instance, the company said that the ad will include both teams in the Super Bowl — the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens — and discuss stains that might be worth keeping.

“We feel that the magic of the ad would be lost if we revealed it before its slot in the game,” said Chris Lillich, the company’s associate marketing director.

There might also be some surprises from advertisers that have already released ads. Experts say some companies may tinker with their plans.

Something to watch for, Lippert said: Whether Volkswagen changes its Game Day spot that features a Minnesotan man with a Jamaican accent, which faced some criticism in the days leading up to the Super Bowl from some people who deemed it culturally insensitive.

“There might be some surprises and last-minute changes,” Lippert said.

More By Mae Anderson.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now?: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost
771 points772 points | 336 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
1428 points1429 points | 499 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator wants to offset tornado aid with other cuts
109 points110 points | 34 comments
vote
Watchdogs: ABC “in danger of losing a lot of credibility” on Benghazi saga
39 points40 points | 8 comments
vote
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook " In Chicago this weekend, prosecutors announced three teenaged boys will tried as adults for aggravated criminal sexual assault after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl — and posting a video of the attack on Facebook."
20 points21 points | 11 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations