Failed Expectations

It’s a well-known and undisputed fact (or something like that) that no one actually watches the Superbowl for the football. We watch for the commercials. Companies use the largest TV audience of the year to introduce new products, new comapies (or renames like Cingular and Accenture), and new branding (Joy of Pepsi). And we sit there like well-trained dogs and soak it up. There’s even a website - AdCritic - that allows us to watch commercials at our leisure. More on that later.

This year the commercials fell flat. Most ads were unfunny and unremarkable. And the ones that were interesting failed to do their jobs. ("Great commercial. What was the product again?").

EDS decided to rehash the great "Herding Cats" ad from last year with the "Running of The Squirrels." The ad would have been clever if not for the fact that they did the same thing last year.

The two standout ads both parodied themselves. Budweiser’s "What Are You Doing?" ad not only parodied Budweiser’s 2000 Superbowl ad, but also was a parody of all of the parodies that came after it. And you knew that Bob Dole was not pitching Viagra, but something else.

But back to AdCritic. The site promised to make all of the Superbowl ads available online within 30 minutes of their showing. Now only did the ads themselves fail to satisfy, AdCritic didn’t deliver on it’s promise. Some ads were there shortly after they aired, but it took hours for many to show up, and some still aren’t there. Where’s Penn and Teller throwing in knives for Pizza Hut?

In the New Economy world of undelivered Christmas gifts and broken promises, failing to deliver is a great way to stand out. But not in a good way.