Socially Disintegrated Super Bowl
I sat down on a comfy sofa on Sunday night with my chips and dip, committed to experiencing Super Bowl advertising in an engaged and analytical way. I was primed for success. I’d read Adweek’s pregame hype like a Bible, and was ready to knock out 140-character nuggets of advertising insight, and engage with a brand or two.
By the time I was crammed like a sardine on the Boston T four hours later, I was painfully aware of three things. First, what the guy next to me had eaten for dinner. Second, that the majority of Super Bowl advertising hadn’t engaged me as a consumer. And third, how the viewer’s experience of time impacted a commercial’s success.
Some spots stalled the viewer experience through labored, or absent storytelling. They just felt long. The weight of every single fungus-filled second of Jublia’s toenail commercial was painful. Nissan’s ‘With Dad’ and McDonald’s ‘Pay with Lovin” spots were perfectly nice, but dragged due to narratives that didn’t stand up to their 90- and 60-second slots.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, some commercials just didn’t get the time they needed. The NFL pre-released their full-length domestic violence PSA, but when the spot aired for just 30 seconds on Sunday I didn’t have enough time to absorb the most important, culturally-relevant moment of the night.
But by far the strangest experience of my night was the neglect of social, or digital, integration into the advertising spectacle. I’m not saying modern advertising lives or die by hashtags, but most of Sunday’s commercials didn’t function as digitally-integrated, comprehensive campaigns. Brands went for the hypodermic needle approach over real consumer engagement: one-way conversation reigned and calls to action were limited.
Most hashtags or websites appeared on the screen for less than a second, rather than following Always’ #LikeAGirl lead, and fully integrating social through the whole spot. I found myself googling hashtags so I could write a brand-specific tweet because I couldn’t remember a single one. I think that’s a problem.
The whole experience left me feeling like a completely incompetent millennial. Thankfully, my phone died right after the fourth quarter, so I instantly had no concept of time or digital engagement … just the distinct smell of barbeque chicken breath.
