Superbowl attracts all types of viewers ... but is it art?

Jessica EatonState of the Arts

The Denver Broncos won Superbowl XXXIII. In fact, they crushed the Atlanta Falcons 34-19 in Sunday's big game. And like 127.5 million other viewers (the sixth largest television audience in history), I spent more than three hours in front of the TV, mesmerized by the action on the little glass screen.

I'll admit that I didn't really care about the final outcome of the game. Although I identify myself as a Packer fan when anyone asks, it's a rather arbitrary designation - my hometown isn't very far from Green Bay, I like Lambeau Field, and I think orange foam cheese hats are hilarious. I don't know much about the rules of football, and it certainly didn't matter to me whether Denver or Atlanta became home of the NFL championship team.

Like many of those 127.5 million viewers, I was only watching Sunday's football game because I wanted to see the commercials, and I was counting on it being worth every minute of my time.

Advertisers paid Fox an average of $1.6 million for 30 seconds of air time during the Superbowl. That's enough money to buy six commercials to air during a weekly episode of "The Simpsons" or 12 full-page color ads in Newsweek. At the extreme, Anheuser-Busch invested $20 million in Budweiser and Bud Light's 10 ads (each of which was unique), allowing them to corner the market on beer commercials shown during the event.

And in order to make their investment worthwhile, advertising agencies always crank out their funniest, most creative work of the year for one night at the end of January. If there is one night when the average TV viewer actually cares about what happens during commercial breaks, it's Superbowl night.

As I watched the game, I was especially looking forward to seeing what Hotjobs, the Internet employment agency, decided to do with their advertising seconds. Hotjobs' original proposal was deemed inappropriate and censored by Fox at the end of last year, inspiring them to start a public online competition for the most creative advertising scheme.

Their first idea, which was halted in the last stages of production, involved an animated elephant sitting on an unaware zoo employee. This causes the man to get stuck (you can imagine where), and he is carried away with the elephant when it stands and walks away as a voice-over asks, "Stuck in the same old job?"

The commercial was, rather ironically, strikingly similar to a joke used in an episode of "South Park" a couple of weeks ago. The less stringent determination of what is politically correct set by the cable networks (and, correlationally, cable stations' rising popularity) demonstrate the quickly approaching downfall of network TV.

I thought that the final Hotjobs Superbowl advertisement, with its futuristic office workers and robotic dancers in the background, was catchy, even if it was a little bizarre. And all of the publicity surrounding its "scandal" certainly made it worth Hotjobs' investment - the company got the publicity and attention it was searching for.

As usual, the Budweiser commercials were humorous and well worth my time, and I'm betting that it won't be long before the dalmations sticking out their tongues become a popular commercial image (remember the frogs?). The talking M & Ms were cute, though they're getting tiresome after all these years.

The biggest disappointments this year, as always, were the NFL-sponsored "Thank You" ads. But I guess that with since the teams themselves have the lowest need to advertise, it's enough for the football players just to stand there and smile.

The popularity of Superbowl commercials is kind of an interesting social phenomenon for several reasons. Most Superbowl advertisements don't promote a company's specific event, sale ... or even any one product, for that matter. The Superbowl is all about recognition. Once a company is known by its brand name, its sales will skyrocket. Therefore, the advertisers reason, the best way to get the necessary name recognition is by broadcasting that name to the largest captive audience in the world.

So companies will pay millions of dollars and concoct some of the most bizarre forms of eye candy available, all in the hopes that someone will remember who they are.

When it comes down to it, the tactic works, too. Admit it - even if you're not a football fan, you were in front of your TV Sunday night with the rest of us.

And it wasn't just to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy perform in the halftime show.

- Are you a football fan? Let Jessica know how much you like commercials by e-mailing her at jeaton@umich.edu

02-03-99