Super Bowl 2012 Ads

Super Bowl 2012 Ads, Super Bowl advertising bears as much relationship to everyday advertising as Super Bowl eating bears to everyday eating. Last night saw advertisers laying on what they hoped would be a bountiful spread for the almost half of American households that switched on to watch the Giants take on the Patriots.

It’s the one night that advertisers take off from hawking their wares in order to entertain their viewers. We hear less product specifications in the voiceovers; we see fewer promotions in the endframe. Super Bowl ads don’t club us over the head with a monthly lease offer or hit us with a new minty flavour. The creative who wants a parachuting car or a celebrity cameo gets the green light rather than the stink-eye from the cost controllers. The night belongs to what they think we want to watch.

And when the objective is giving 110 million people what you think they want to watch, advertisers play it safe. The night’s ads kept to familiar themes and aimed to hit familiar notes. Compared to hosts NBC, who paired Madonna with a finger-flipping MIA at half-time, advertisers stayed within the guardrails.