Watching the Super Bowl with MBA and graduate students creates a different advertising viewing experience. My first memory of the Super Bowl is that of the commercials. The Super Bowl itself bored me; however, the commercials engaged me. At fewer times in the calendar year do brands play part in more secular of a ritual. The brands contribute to the Super Bowl experience. However, I have not felt that the Super Bowl ads are as playful or as effective as they were in years past. As I analyzed the ads, I realized that they were not effective on me. They often tap into a cultural biography and semiotic choreography that I did not have. Those ads that did impact me, despite my exclusion from their target market, were those that were on code.
Hyundai created a simple sleek commercial that emphasized the "it works" American code for quality and played upon our "movement" codes for healthy and "beauty" codes for man's salvation. It opens with modernistic piano music as a silver car rotates in a display room. The camera examines all angles and then the voiceover comes on as the car drives through a modern tunnel. "We're not sure what the USA Today will think about this on the AdMeter tomorrow, but we are fairly sure our competitors aren't going to like it. Introducing the 375 Horsepower Hyundai Genesis." The ad combines these codes with our mythological knowledge of Genesis. In the beginning. The simplicity. The beauty. All of these convey the simple revolutionary design of the Hyundai Genesis. The ad broke through the clutter due to its simplicity, but I am unsure as to its AdMeter effectiveness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTg-C1yAzCc
Doritos made one of the best ads that played upon the cultural code of food equaling fuel and the American desire for equality, especially in regards to David Brooks' cosmic bimbo. The ad begins with music from Bizet's Carmen as a gentlemen in a black suit enters the room, carrying a paper bag. Out of it, he pulls a bag of Doritos. He slices a chip with a knife and places it on a mouse trap and sits on a chair, bag of Doritos in hand to watch this mouses' demise. As he sits, suddenly, out of the wall, a giant man dressed in a mouse costume bursts and knocks him over. The ad appeals to stereotypes of dislike of the upperclass that stems from our Puritan days. The humor is that the cosmic bimbo of success gets beat up by a mouse, illustrating that any of us can do that as well. Plus, in the end, the Doritos may be a motivation factor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9QA3bICF0
Bud Light also related to philosophical concepts as it illustrated and then destroyed man's ultimate dreams. Man dreams of flying or of breathing fire. It is something that relates back to early childhood. However, beer is a memory of teenage or college years. The two humorously fuse together, as the man breathing fire destroys his date's house and the man flying flies into the jet engine or an airplane. It is brewed to give you everything you want in a beer, however, Bud Light no longer provides these things. However, it can still provide you with a good time. It plays upon American ego and desire for abundance and it is in that that is is most effective. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51V3h_LL3H4, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiAl69Yfjzs
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