Shift on What Worked in Super Bowl Game

For years many have watched the "biggest game" of the year for the commercials. Budwiser, Geico, and Frito Lay have always been knocking themselves out to make bigger, better, and more entertaining advertisements. However, this year, I don't think most of the conversations today will be about the 30 second spots, but about the quality of the game itself.

It seemed that the games had become anti climatic. One team would go in there and simply blow the other one away. Sure, there were the occasional "close ones," but most of them seem more like coronations, rather than competitions.

The last couple of these games, however, have been among the most interesting I have seen in years. It seemed that most plays were game changers and that the final results were completely up in the air. This was particularly true after the second half when St. Louis Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner came out to win. Typically calm, cool, and collected, Warner racked up more points in five minutes than he did through the rest of the game. It was an impressive performance, but not enough to compensate for the tough calls by officials and amazing feats by the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the end. the Cardinals came up short. We will be slow to forget many of these plays.

The commercials, on the hand, were not memorable at all and may be among the least interesting lot we have seen in years. The funniest one, in my opinion, was the Doritos spot (of the "crystal ball") which was developed by participants in a $1 million dollar contest and cost around $20,000 to produce. This shouldn't surprise us in our YouTube era. In fact, that may be part of the problem, we are surrounded by so much spontaneous and web driven humor, it may take so much more to make us enjoy a good commercial. I have read that NBC was barely able to fill its commercial spots. I guess the new media has even spread to the NFL.

Kevin Price is a syndicated columnist whose articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media. Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at PriceofBusiness.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.