• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, February 11, 2011

By now, more words have been written about Super Bowls ads (and reactions to them) than it took to compose the entire Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and all 27 amendments. Too bad they haven't added a 28th that says "No citizen should be exposed to the annoying hype about Super Bowl ads, before, during and after the game."

I suspect I am not alone in not really caring if somebody liked or recalled the "Detroit renaissance" ad over the massively disgusting "lick the cheese off the other guy's finger" ad. But unlike recording any other athletic event to get it down to a manageable hour or so by skipping the ads, there is some sort of bizarre moral imperative in this country to watch the Super Bowl ads and comment on them afterward. With social media now in play, some are compelled to react to the ads within seconds after they run, as if there were a big trophy for whoever gives a thumbs-up or down the fastest. By midday Monday, about three-quarters of the nation had participated in some sort of poll, panel or survey to register their reaction to each and every ad, as if the economy might slip back into a deep(er) recession without our earnest collective consideration. Too bad as much thought is not given to overseas wars and failing school systems.

I appreciate that the various agencies and clients involved in producing these 30-second attempts at making history have a passionate and necessary interest in how they perform relative to their huge media and production costs, but it seems that we have lost all perspective on the relative importance of a TV commercial in the greater scope of American culture. They are selling stuff. They are not meant to be a time capsule snapshot of life as we are living it. In fact, given the generally low quality of most of the ads I saw, I would be embarrassed to have someone look back into the 2011 archives and use any one of those ads as a measure of our national temperament, values or taste.

To me it does not speak "volumes" about a product or service when a client decides to spring for a Super Bowl ad. It is (or should be) a business decision rooted in how well they think the effort will move product or change minds. But the endless dissection and discussion that precedes and follows the Super Bowl gives one the impression that something great and momentous is taking place and that we should decode the hidden meanings of it all. It doesn't matter to me if Groupon meant to crap on a couple of cultures in order to generate more debate (and more exposure); I am stunned that at some point the decision-makers sat around a conference table, screened the ads and said, "Perfect, let's go with it." There is outstanding, and there is standing out like a moron. You make the call.

The fact is that in a few weeks, 99% of the country won't be able to recall any of the ads they saw on the Super Bowl (unless, as some do, they repeat them over and over again in subsequent buys) -- and it will be left to ad industry insiders to keep them alive as if they were endangered species critical to our way of life. They are not. They are TV commercials. Very expensive TV commercials, but nothing more.