Diversity of Super Bowl Advertisements Essay

Superbowl Advertisements

The diversity of super bowl advertisements

Superbowl advertisements: National vs. international audiences

Despite the fact that two urban teams were playing in the 2013 Superbowl, the two most talked-about advertisements featured scenes of classic, American rural life. "God made a farmer" was an advertisement crafted for Dodge RAM trucks to celebrate farming culture and generate interest in the vehicles. The life of the American farmer has often been idealized. The advertisement featured artistic, still photographs of American family farmers with a voice-over of excerpts of a speech made to the Future Farmers of America by conservative broadcaster Paul Harvey (Godoy 2012). Only at the very end of the advertisement did its purpose become clear, when the large, Dodge truck was displayed in silence. The other farm-related advertisement was the Budweiser beer commercial that featured a farmer who had raised a Clydesdale foal for the famous Budweiser Company. At the end, the farmer was reunited with the foal when the grown horse was pulling the famous beer wagons during a parade in the 'big city.'

These advertisements were subtle and encouraged people to buy the products based upon image and atmosphere of the commercials, rather than upon a 'hard sell.' Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy and are apt to simply ignore, skip, or edit out advertisements that are too obvious a grab for their attention, which is another reason why the Superbowl is such a desirable (and costly) spot for marketers.Superbowl advertisement slots can cost an excess of 4 million dollars, but companies find the brand awareness they generate to be well worth the astronomical price tag (Smith 2013). People actually watch and talk about the advertisements over the watercooler the next day at work, and the advertisements must have resonance.

The Dodge advertisement was particularly controversial, with many online commentators noting that the family farmers were becoming a thing of the past, and that many of the people who bought the gas guzzling American trucks did not really need them for work around the farm. "As Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy cheekily tweeted, 'that convinced me, I'm buying a farmer first thing tomorrow'" (Godoy 2013). The Budweiser advertisement similarly evoked a sense of an unbroken connection between famers, animals, and the land.

Football is an American game, and it is difficult to imagine either of these farm-based advertisements having cultural resonance outside of American. Some….....