2011 Super Bowl ads - what worked, what bombed

As attested to by my 14-year-old and about 90 million other people, people today tune into the Super Bowl as much for the commercials as they do for the game. The subsequent broadcast real estate then experiences hyper-analyzation about whether the individual $1 million media buys (and the $2 million ad production cost) were worth it or not.

While you and I might have our personal favorites, what lives or dies at the boardroom table is: a) how well the ad performed in terms of recall and memorability; and b) which one was "liked" the most. The former supports sales and lead generation. The latter supports brand development, reputation and goodwill.

In terms of goodwill and ROI per second, the Groupon ads (viz the Chicago Tibet takeout) seriously bombed. Sarcasm sells, but evidently not during the Super Bowl. Quoting the official Nielsen ratings, Ad Age reports that Doritos nailed it again overall in both categories: No. 1 in recall (pug door buster) and Nos. 4 & 5 in "best liked" (finger-licking good and bringing grandpa back to life).

The "Darth Vader" Volkswagen ad ("The Force") was the best liked, but Ad Age doubts whether it will help sell cars.

Rapper Eminem scored high with quasi-political "rah-rah," particularly with the "Imported from Detroit" spot. Boomers registered approval (and high recall - No. 2) for the Bud beer "Tiny Dancers" sing-along, which suggests frightening things about Boomers and Elton John.

Of course, neither of my favorites again made the top 10 (the Coke and KIA "epic" ads). As usual, humor and warm-fuzzies sells to the Super Bowl "family" audience.

Also, as lame as it was, at least there was not any "wardrobe malfunction" during the Black-Eyed Peas half-time show. Given the overall lameness of half-time entertainment during America's "greatest game," perhaps the NFL should consider bringing back "Up With People."

Tired of Super Bowl ads? Here's an interesting worldview of America

Tired of endless (and meaningless) speculation about Super Bowl ads and how they reflect America culture? Economist Barry Eichengreen lays out a few thoughts and a different worldview in his new tome Exorbitant Privilege. The dollar's role in the international scheme of all things money is changing, but is not doomed. Just different.

Economist Menize Chinn weighs in on Eichengreen's worldview on The Business Insider. According to Eichengreen: "... increases in efficiency can't be willed into existence; they have to be achieved. And in order to deliver an improvement in the U.S. trade balance, they have to be achieved faster than in countries with which we compete."

"Here the United states has some obvious strengths. It has large numbers of university- and industry-based scientists, many attracted from other countries. ... entrepreneurs and an agile venture capital industry ... flexible labor markets . . . abundance of fertile land . ...

"But much of the country's physical infrastructure is antiquated and difficult to modernize, partly by virtue of the fact that it is under the jurisdiction of a multitude of state and local governments or in private hands. Freight railways own much of the track used by Amtrak, for example.

"Contrast the difficulty of building a high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai -- or for that matter with France's, Germany's, and Spain's high-speed trains. China plans to build as much as 8,000 miles of high-speed rail by 2020. In the United States, meanwhile, intercity rail service is now actually slower than in the 1940's. ... Were Dwight Eisenhower to come along today and propose building the interstate highway system, no doubt he would be accused of socialism."

Professor Eichengreen worries:
"... the United States is no longer the beneficiary of an increasingly well-educated labor force."
I think evidence supporting this last point is evident everywhere, including in political discourse.