Super Bowl Ads 2009- FAIL ? It was a violent time of it.....

Well that was fun, but not really.

Football is a violent sport- that's one of the reasons why we enjoy it- because the violence is in support of the goal; part of the price of victory. Two weeks ago, the Steelers-Ravens collision was one of the most violent football games I ever watched- scary at times in its intensity.

So when you watch the Super Bowl, the ads have always been sort of comic relief, or even the polar opposite of the war on the field- for 2008 (pre Depression) some touts even said the ad theme of the year was "Nice".

This year, post Depression, the theme was naturally workplace anxiety. But worse than that, it was a theme of mindless, random violence- sort of an expression of subconscience that does not equate the violence of the game to anything worthy.

From the first snowglobe to the balls to the last defenestration, it was one long assualt, and I was kind of sad about it. That, and the lack of tech ads portending that tech may not have legs in the Depression.

Hope next year is better.

Comment by Steve Levy on February 2, 2009 at 12:10pm: I don't believe the forecast is dour...sure tech was down when the ad space was sold and the messages created but where's the hot new product these days? Enterprise technology purchases are on hold not gone forever. No sense in spending ad money when buyer behavior is known.

While the CareerBuilder ad was funny-ish, I'm not sure of the wisdom of a mass exodus from hated jobs. I'm sure many cringed at this ad...

Comment by Jerry Albright on February 2, 2009 at 12:16pm: I was saying earlier in the RBC Chat - Careerbuilder's decision to target people who hate their jobs deserves to be thought of carefully. Just who do they think THEIR PAYING CUSTOMERS are looking for? Pissed off accountants? Engineers who wish their boss was dead? Employees who absolutely HATE going in to work?

For the life of me I can not understand the thinking behind that. The committe that decided "Hey - that's fantastic!" should be fired. IMMEDIATELY.

They will never get a dime from me. Ever.