Superbowl, Super Brand
Posted: Friday 04 February, 2011
Erica Whiteman
Football has been in my blood since birth. My dad was even ordained as a minister in university so they could worship to the gods of football every Sunday. Summers of my youth consisted of watching the San Francisco 49ers practice in the neighbouring town. During football season, I would get tackled while walking down the hall as if I were the one carrying the ball and not the quarterback on the television. All of this led up to the one day of the year where the top teams of the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference went head to head, Superbowl Sunday.
There was always a commercial that stood out each year such as the Coca-Cola commercial featuring “Mean Joe” Greene” of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1980 and Apple Computer’s “1984” style Macintosh ad in 1984. Sometime in the mid-nineties there was an explosion of ads created specifically for the Superbowl, capitalising on the millions of viewers tuned in to watch the game. Some years, the ads have been more entertaining than some of the football playing!
The 45th #Superbowl is upon us this weekend between the Pittsburgh #Steelers and the Green Bay #Packers. This year advertisers will be using social media channels, in addition to the ad spot during the game, enabling viewers and (even those not viewing the game) to interact with each other via the use of #hashtags on Twitter, discussions and wall posts on Facebook and video uploads on YouTube.
I won’t be watching the game this year as it will be broadcast at an unsuitable hour in my time zone, but I am looking forward to seeing which brands have pulled out the creative stops for their Superbowl ad.
