DETROIT -- Commercials that air during the Super Bowl can often generate as much, if not more buzz than the game itself. But translating water-cooler buzz into consumer action is no sure thing, media watchers agree. Consumers might remember the cat herders commercial from a few years back, but who remembers the company or product that it hawked?
This year, a 30-second spot hoping to win the eyeballsif not the loyaltyof the approximately 90 million viewers during the Super Bowl cost advertisers $2.5 million, according to ABC News. For the eighth consecutive [image-nocss] year, Anheuser-Busch Inc. topped all marketers with the top-rated commercial in USA Today's Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group ranking of the Super Bowl commercials, said the newspaper.
The star of the No. 1 ad: a refrigerator stocked with Bud Light with the ability to disappear to keep unwelcome guests from grabbing the brew. The fridge disappears via a revolving wall that, unbeknownst to the fridge's owner, spins it into the adjoining apartment. For the guys next door, it becomes the magic fridgean idol to be worshipped.
Another A-B ad finished second: a young Clydesdale dreams of pulling the Budweiser beer wagon.
A-B aired six of the top 10 ads, but had plenty of competition this year. A FedEx ad about a cave man trying to send the first FedEx delivery via dinosaur finished third.
An ad for Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc.'s Sierra Mist with comedian Kathy Griffin as an airport security worker who beeps to get a passenger's Sierra Mist finished fourth.
A-B led the field without being crass. By some measures, this was the Slightly More Tasteful Bowl, said USA Today. The A-B ads that finished in the top three didn't feature sex, undue violence or locker-room humor.
We listened more closely to our male and female drinkers, Marlene Coulis, vice president of brand management at St. Louis-based A-B, told the paper. We're continually raising the bar on humor, and you find you can deliver humor and tell our stories in many different ways.
Any sex was, at most, suggestive, the report said. Even the GoDaddy.com commercial, though overtly sexual, actually showed little more than the snapping strap of a woman's tank top. The ad scored poorly with Ad Meter panelists, the paper said.
An Ameriquest ad showed what appeared to be a partially disrobed woman straddled atop another airplane passenger, but it wasn't what it seemed, and not an inch of inappropriate skin was in view.
A-B purchased the most ad time, said the report. It aired nine ads, including one for the beer industry. (As reported in CSP Daily News, one of A-B's spots highlighted the Beer Institute in an effort to boost the overall image of the product, regardless of brand.) That gave it three times more ads than the No. 2 buyer, Pepsi, which aired three spots. Most advertisers purchased only one 30-second slot.
Meanwhile, digital video recorder company Tivo Inc. said the top 10 most-replayed ads in TiVo households included:
1. Ameriquest (Friendly Skies).
2. Ameriquest (That Killed Him).
3. Budweiser (Streaking Sheep).
4. Fed Ex (Caveman).
5. Michelob (Tackle).
6. Bud Light (Hidden Bud Lights).
7. Sierra Mist (Airport Security).
8. Bud Light (Bear Attack).
9. Aleve (Leonard Nimoy).
10. Bud Light (Magic Fridge).
Click here to view all the ads form this year's Super Bowl.
[Incidentally, business technology provider EDS was responsible for the cat herder commercial that aired during the 2000 Super Bowl.]Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.