Guest blogger: MARIAN SALZMAN

• Marian Salzman is executive vp at JWT.

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Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007, 6:25 p.m.
   Am I the only one who feels like user-generated advertising and the buzz around it will be put to the ultimate test tonight? The real question is whether or not the same ideas would have been purchased had one of our agencies presented the concept, let alone the finished execution? It's almost like there is the consumer "exemption"—where good enough is plenty good enough if the consumer generated it?

7:03 p.m.
   So like probably a zillion others, I tried to check out the URL snackstrongproductions.com that ran at the end of the Doritos commercial and I’m still waiting, and waiting. In fact I’m waiting so long I am actually watching the Sales Genie commercial and trying to figure out how ticked off Doritos folks are that we want to visit their Web site and can’t. In contrast, after seeing lot of Sales Genie as a backdrop, I’m not even motivated to find out what Sales Genie is. Should I be? Somehow I think Doritos, and the rain, and the pigs in the blanket we’re eating, are much more compelling … Am I the only one who feels like the commercials seem very yin and yang—flash in one spot and then desperately trying to save cash the next? Maybe the Super Bowl needs creative standards and a creative director.

7:27 p.m.
   Even though I'm on “manly or not?” overload—and trying to figure out if Mark Wnek is right and if the Tiffany's touch isn't a smart way to grab women—the Snickers spot is good, very good, especially if you're sitting watching with a group. There is something so absurd about it that it makes you want to giggle, and the Snickers site promoted at the end of the spot (afterthekiss.com) works, so we've just watched it twice more without feeling overloaded.

7:57 p.m.
   From GoDaddy to Coke is like traveling from, well , Astoria, Queens to East Hampton, YET, somehow because Coke is great, but predictable, I wonder if GoDaddy—because we’ll remember the name—isn’t the winner this round. Can it be the creativity bar is so high, and that we’re so overloaded with advertising anticipation, that in the end only the truly inappropriate—or the “what the hell are they doing there?” brands—ultimately get remembered for more than their seconds of paid fame? There is also the second thing: GoDaddy taps into the mind and mood of the evening—wet t- shirts, yee-haw humor—and Coke is more like the Museum of Modern Art, which ensures that most people will glaze over Coke’s commercials, like they would a great painting if the choice was that … or “all you can eat” at Bennigan’s.

8:24 p.m.
   Maybe it’s just me with so many African-American players on the field, but it was genuinely refreshing to see Coke celebrate Black History Month with such grace and ease. I wonder how the public will recall the spot, but I know I learned something from it. If Coke is a high this game, I’m on Chevrolet blur—too many different concepts, images, and sounds, while I try to figure out what’s for sale. The brand? A specific model? A Chevy mindset? If there is a comeback embedded in the message, I’m too busy thinking about the rain in Miami to find it.

9:31 p.m.
   I’m an E*Trade customer and have always loved the Web site and its simplicity. There is no connection between the customer experience and the spot that just ran. In fact, I am actually feeling E*Trade is a bit juvenile, and I’d rather feel they were stodgy, given the business they’re in. Talking about stodgy-versus-young-versus-hip or whatever: there is definitely serious confusion about who’s watching and how. What is Revlon thinking? And what are they selling me? I would have preferred to have seen Sheryl Crow in a Letterman ad—that would have done her talent justice. The demographics for the game are obviously broad but some of these spots feel very focused on a viewer niche. And the generics like Taco Bell are definitely losing me. (Given how much we’ve all been eating, this is just not the best time for shiny food photography. Gastroporn flopped here.)

12:01 a.m.
   The Super Bowl lacked a certain energy this year, if your motivation was to watch the marketers strut their stuff. I don't want to harp on the negative, but besides Doritos, which amused me, and Coke, which I found compelling in various executions, the advertisements felt flat. The cars blended together. The beer blended together. The Internet sites blended together. Intel and Prudential and so many others just danced past us, quick bites of content that seemed to be either too six degrees of separation from no one (enough already with the satisfied and proud workforces introducing themselves by name) or too passive—perfectly OK but not good enough to make me sit up and talk up, let alone remember what was PNC and what was CareerBuilder.com. The blandness was like a tunafish salad sandwich on wheat, perfectly healthful but just not very exciting. If the world has gotten more sense-ational, the ads seemed less exciting and much less connected to the customer who craves a massive dose of wow. That's my diagnosis. The wow factor is missing this year. Instead there was a sense of compromise—no wardrobe malfunctions welcome—and a sense of restraint; and youth felt very middle aged. I may be a long-term fan of Prince and even Billy Joel, but somehow they don't make the show, the event, seem 2007. While I enjoyed “Purple Rain”, I also felt nostalgic for the ads of 1984. Maybe that was the year the Super Bowl really peaked and it's taken us 23 years to realize it? Then again, don't go by me—I totally miscalled the Olympics, called them over before Athens, and look how Olympics mania overtakes all of us. Maybe I'm just not seeing the path forward for these hyper-priced prime time minutes, maybe the only true prime advertising minutes in the year?

February 4, 2007 | Permalink