Sunday evening, millions of Americans will sit down to watch the Ravens and 49ers battle in Super Bowl XLVII, and the most expensive television commercials of the year.
During this year's Super Bowl, advertisers will spend up to $4 million for 30 seconds of air time, giving them little time to impress the audience.
Grand Rapids advertising expert Bill McKendry has examined commercials for more than two decades; he says the basic formula for Super Bowl ads comes down to children, animals, violence or making men appear unintelligent. It's commercials that break that mold that make McKendry's list of top spots. His number one pick is the the Apple McIntosh commercial from 1984.
"We believe Super Bowl advertising changed forever after this ad ran," says McKendry. "I can remember being wowed by the production values of this spot. It was epic in its presentation."
McKendry says the Ring of Fire ad from Chrysler in 2011 is the only ad that has come close to Apple's commercial, because it evoked emotion.
"When I looked at it for the first time, I said, 'Not only is it about Chrysler and its product, we're telling the world American auto manufacturing is back and it's on top,'" he says. "In the ten years we've hosted [our Super Bowl commercial] party, we've never had people sit that still during an ad. And afterwards, people stood up and were applauding."
It's a different story for Groupon's 2011 Super Bowl ad. McKendry says the commercial ties with one by former Congressman Pete Hoekstra's campaign; both get his thumbs down for racial stereotyping.
"I think a lot of these people think they're being funny, but I think significantly fewer people find racial stereotyping funny anymore," McKendry says.
Which means the next flop may be this year's Volkswagen ad, which features a white Minnesotan with a fake Jamaican accent.
As for emerging trends among Super Bowl ads, McKendry says companies are trying to create more buzz before their spots run by sharing them online. McKendry says advertisers are also turning to social media more.
Doritos started the trend years ago, and this year Pepsi followed, asking people to send a picture of themselves holding a Pepsi can. Some of them will appear in the halftime ad featuring singer Beyonce.
"The mere fact Pepsi is reaching out to its fans, Doritos is reaching out to its fans and allowing them to be on the world's biggest stage along with them, I think is a really smart move for those brands. But if I was spending $3.8 million, seems to me I'd want to see something new," he said.
Hanon McKendry is hosting its 10th annual Super Bowl party Sunday, where 32 judges will be critiquing all the big commercials. Their employees will go against advertising and marketing students from local colleges, before comparing their choices with the USA Today consumer poll.
You would think that in coming to college, the over $10,000 a year going toward our education would at least get us a few perks. No parents, social skills, aka beer pong for some of you go-getters out there, a chance at making manager instead of having toilet-cleaning duty at the local fast food restaurant down the road: there are plenty of wondrous and magical things embedded in the experiences of college. Teachers here are even called professors, and contrary to popular belief, having a PhD does not stand for Pizza Hut driver for rabid, munchy college students. But quite honestly, some days they would probably be better at driving a car around, collecting a measly tip, and sheepishly whispering “have a good day” before doing it all over again.
I’m just going to say it. Some teachers suck. They could try their hardest and still make me feel as though I’ve in fact lost brain cells by sitting through such a worthless lecture. Sorry not sorry, but a PhD doesn’t mean that someone is truly qualified to teach. Yeah yeah yeah, they had a lot of schooling and had to work hard to get such a high degree, but the only thing that a PhD really says about a person is that they are a.) certified, and b.) they have the ability to be a good student: student, not teacher.
Many teachers simply know that they were born to teach. They have a certain level of passion that they are able to cultivate, mold, and relay to their students, whether they mean to or not.
But then, of course, on the other hand there are those inevitable teachers that believe that it is just a job. Their level of commitment hardly ever goes from the red to the yellow zone, much less into the green. Teaching people is a hard task, so if you as a professor don’t want to teach, don’t, because, coming from a student’s perspective, we don’t want you there. If you talk about how qualified you are? Yeah, I don’t really care. If you talk about the fact that you’re published, or that you’ve had students that have gone on to do great things? Fan-freaking-tasic for you, but if you start to read the powerpoint word for word, don’t get angry when I’m skipping class every other week.
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