Thursday, February 4th 2010

By Simon Granat

Simon Granat

Something’s queer about the Super Bowl. It seems that somewhere amongst the game itself, the media hype and forty-four years of an ever-growing corporate America, our continent’s greatest sporting event has lost focus. It has become more akin to a giant billboard, than a showcase of athleticism.

This year is no exception. As of Feb. 1, 2010, CBS has sold out all of its television advertising space for the game.

Recently CBS has come under fire from critics who have accused the television network of not selling ads fast enough.

CBS disagrees. The network argues that they have successfully marketed the game. “The Super Bowl’s sales have outsold the last Super Bowl [in 2006] and in 2007,” said Leslianne Wade, Sr. Vice President for Communications of CBS Sports in an interview with the Silhouette.

“It has been a tremendous quick selling success for CBS,” she said.

Last year’s game scored a record 95 million viewers. For many companies the viewership alone justifies the hefty cost of a 3 million dollar advertisement.

CBS, like many others, predict that this year the Super Bowl will shatter last year’s record viewership. The 2009 NFL regular season saw the highest ratings since 1990, up 14 per cent over last year. NFL games drew an average of 16.6 million viewers.

Regular season ratings could potentially bode good news for advertisers who wish to reach a large audience. CBS believes that the momentum from the regular season will translate to the big game.

“It’s been tremendous success. Ratings have been up along all [the] networks and [this] regular season had the highest viewership in the past twenty years,” Wade said. If this trend continues this year’s game has the potential to attract a record number of viewers.

Some companies that have bought airtime this year are Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Firestone, Audi, Honda, Hyundai, and the controversial Focus on the Family, an anti-abortion group.

CBS is bending the rules for Focus. The network has previously tried to avoid politically charged commercial content. However, many speculate that CBS allowed the ad because of its conservative slant, and because the group could afford to shell out $3 million for airtime.

Conversely, CBS has declined to air an ad for gay dating site, ManCrunch. According to the official rejection letter, “The creative is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday… Moreover, our Sales Department has had difficulty verifying your organization’s credit status.” The popular adult affair website AshleyMaddison.com has asked same-sex advocacy groups to petition CBS about the “discriminatory behaviour.”

In the past, Bud Light, Snickers, Ashley Madison and Go Daddy have all had Super Bowl ads rejected.

A survey conducted by ad agency, Venables Bell and Partners, found that people remembered their favourite commercial more often than they remembered who won.

This year however, not all companies are charging out to buy advertisements. Long time Super Bowl advertiser, Pepsi Cola, a subsidiary of Pepsi Co. will not be advertising in this year’s game. Pepsi believes that cost of taking out an ad will not successfully translate to a justifiable amount in sales, opting instead to put their money into the Refresh Everything campaign, which will see people decide online where Pepsi will spend money to help improve local communities.

Pepsi Co. Inc. will be taking out two 30 second ads for other products. One will showcase Doritos, the other Dr. Pepper.

While, this will be the first time in 23 years that Pepsi Cola will sit on the sidelines for the event, it does not necessarily indicate the decline of television advertising.

If anything, the NFL’s ratings have proven their commercial worth. Let’s face it, if people are still watching, it is worth it for companies to advertise.

Few other television events have consistently high ratings for a program that airs annually.

Also, the game has become the Cadillac of American Television advertising, and it is no surprise that CBS can charge a small fortune for 30 seconds of airtime. By voluntarily sitting out, Pepsi may just be the biggest loser at this year’s game.

The price tag may not be justified for some companies. However, between projected ratings for this year’s event, and CBS’s ability to sell ads television is anything but a dead media; at least not while American consumerism is still alive and kicking.