Super Bowl’s Finest Ad Moments – 44 Years of Commercial Touchdowns and Fumbles in Adweek Magazine
Remember CareerBuilder’s primates? Cindy Crawford guzzling from a new Pepsi can? The Bud Bowl? Or two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun? Adweek reflects on these commercials and others in a 12-page retrospective of memorable Super Bowl ads, both funny and sentimental, beginning with the first pro game in 1967.
“With the exception of a few recession-year discounts, the cost of a Super Bowl ad has soared like a field goal kick to its current average asking price of around $3 million,” writes Robert Klara in this week’s Adweek. ”It stands to reason, then, that if a company’s going to drop that kind of cash, it’s going to give America the best advertising it can possibly produce.”
Adweek’s 44-year timeline revisits Super Bowl ad moments that captured America’s mood, economy, and pop culture of the time: Super Bowl VII’s pre-game tribute to Apollo 17, the sixth and last mission to land on the moon to date (Dolphins 14, Redskins 7); the introduction of Apple’s Macintosh during Super Bowl XVIII (Raiders 38, Redskins 9); “The Dot-Com Super Bowl” XXXIV featuring ads from 17 dot-com advertisers (Rams 23, Titans 16); The Budweiser Clydesdales’ bow in front of the New York skyline four months after 9/11 (Patriots 20, Rams 17); and this year, Mercedes-Benz arriving to the event’s commercial break for the first time.
For those who tune in to the Super Bowl because of the commercials, expectations grow every year. Of course, should a viewer miss a “wardrobe malfunction” (Super Bowl XXXVIII, Patriots 32, Panthers 29) there’s always YouTube in order to keep up with water cooler chat. Adweek’s timeline documents the networks that have televised the big game each year, the overall rating (Super Bowl XVI being the highest rated with a 49.1), total viewership and the final score.
“The Adweek Super Bowl Ad Time Line is a look back at how agencies and brands have created a commercial event all it’s own,” said Adweek’s Executive Editor Jim Cooper.
ESPN and Bing Team Up to Highlight Decisive Moments in the Lives and Careers of World Champion Quarterbacks
ESPN unveils gridiron magic in its new feature series ‘I Am a World Champion,’ presented by Bing.
ESPN and Bing have joined forces to present a multifaceted program that includes a unique feature series highlighting champion quarterbacks and their decisive moments in life and football, as well as an on-site activation as part of ESPN The Magazine’s annual NEXT event during Super Bowl weekend.
Only 28 men have ever led their team to a Super Bowl victory and walked off the field a world champion quarterback. Beginning today, ESPN is launching a new feature series called “I Am a World Champion,” presented by Bing, offering a first-person narrative from the signal callers who helped define the biggest game in American sports. This original content will showcase the travails and triumphs told in the quarterback’s own voice, such as Terry Bradshaw’s relationship with Chuck Knoll and the many daunting life obstacles Doug Williams overcame to reach glory. The first installment, featuring Bradshaw, is now available online at http://espn.go.com/nfl/superbowl/quarterbacks and airs today at 4 p.m. EST during NFL Live, with additional segments running throughout the week on both NFL Live and afternoon editions of SportsCenter. Also, as the official Decision Engine of ESPN The Magazine’s 2011 NEXT event, Bing will be presenting an open-to-the-public panel of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks including Joe Montana, Doug Williams and Kurt Warner on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. CST.
“We’re excited to team up with ESPN Films to showcase the decisive moments in the lives and careers of these legendary quarterbacks,” said Danielle Tiedt, general manager of Bing. “It’s been an inspirational journey to work with ESPN to bring this unique content to life reflecting the key life and career decisions that made these men into legends.”
“Our collaboration with Bing gave us an opportunity to create a series of truly inspiring features, which offer a new perspective on the lives and careers of a few of the men who have hoisted the Lombardi Trophy,” said Ed Erhardt, president of ESPN Customer Marketing and Sales. Read more
adidas Changes Game With Lightest Football Cleat Ever
All-new adizero 5-Star revealed at U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio
adidas unveiled the new adizero 5-Star, the lightest football cleat ever made. At 6.9 ounces, the new adidas cleat is three ounces lighter than the nearest competitor and designed to help make the fastest football players even faster.
The top high school football players in the country will wear the adizero 5-Star during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Select players from the U.S. Army National Combine will test the new adizero 5-Star in the adidas speed workout with Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller on Friday, January 7 at the Alamodome. Read more
Big Ten Conference Reveals New Logo and Honors Football History With Division Names and Trophies
Division names and trophies to highlight legends and leaders throughout Big Ten history
The Big Ten Conference made several announcements that complete a series of decisions prompted by the upcoming addition of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln as the conference’s 12th member school. The conference revealed a new logo to be used for all sports beginning with the 2011-12 academic year and also unveiled names for its two football divisions and a list of names for 18 trophies to honor coaches, teams and student-athletes starting with the 2011 football season.
“When we announced football division alignments in September, other associated decisions had not yet been made. We wanted to take some time to listen, carefully consider, and make choices that would best honor our history and traditions, reflect our core values and characteristics, and tell our story,” said Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany. “We involved many thoughtful, dedicated professionals and we listened to many ideas from our member schools, alumni and fans.”
The new Big Ten logo was developed by Michael Bierut and Michael Gericke of the international design firm Pentagram. Read more
Record-Breaking Kick-Off for FIFA.com With 265 Million Page Views on 15 June
With fans around the world excitedly cheering on their teams, FIFA announced another record for visitors to its website FIFA.com. On 15 June, 265 million pages were accessed by nearly 10 million visitors, when Brazil beat Korea DPR in their debut game. This builds on the total of 1.6 billion pages accessed by nearly 53 million individuals on FIFA.com in the first two weeks of June – a record in itself.
By comparison, a total of 48 million unique users visited FIFA.com over the entire four weeks of the 2006 World Cup. The previous daily record was set on 22 June 2006 when tournament winners Italy played the Czech Republic and generated 250 million views.
Beyond FIFA.com itself, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter is making a major impact with his comments on Twitter. His page, http://www.twitter.com/seppblatter, launched on 10th June, is now one of the fastest-growing on the social networking site, with his vuvuzuela tweet attracting followers at a rate of 9 per second.
The free FIFA.com Club now welcomes over 4 million registered users from around the world, 14% of them women, who interact, comment and win prizes, while more than 300 million Virtual Panini stickers have been ‘glued’ into place and 633,000 fans have tested their knowledge with the site’s Trivia game.
Italy’s captain Fabio Cannavaro has proved a durable idol: the most popular photo on the site remains the shot of him triumphantly holding aloft the World Cup Trophy in 2006.