the Super Bowl of Super Bowl advertising
I’ve heard more than one person mention with slight derision the advertising during the Olympics. Yes, unity is cheesy. Yes, athletic patriotism is misguided. Yes, I know that a tenth of a tenth of a tenth of a cent from each bottle of Coca-Cola actually goes to the Olympics and Special Olympics. No, none of these matter to me. The Olympics is the Super Bowl of Super Bowl advertising.
One should know that in our house the Olympics are a time-honored television-watching tradition, complete with snarky commentary (“Switzerland…often called the Swaziland of Europe”) and biting remarks comparing North Korean athletes’ physical attractiveness to that of Kim Jong-Il. But our favorite part of this two-week display of athletic ability, shaky diplomacy and awkwardedly clean-shaven swimmers is the advertising prowess witnessed during the Games.
When you grow up with a marketing professor as a mother, you learn very quickly to cut through the bull of advertisements and identify target margets, sales strategies, underlying messages and aesthetic appeal. All of these fall by the wayside in the face of Olympic advertising. Think of it this way: unlike the Super Bowl, which truthfully only draws a specific portion of the viewing audience in the United States, the Olympics draw clear-cut numbers from nearly every Neilsen market. Knowing this, advertisers have to be at the top of their game. Is Michael Phelps swimming? Are the USA female gymnasts taking the mat? Lord help the media buyer in this situation, because this ad is going to have to appeal to every single person in the United States, and it’s going to have to be good. It needs to be a little funny, a little nostalgic, a little inspirational, a little branded, a little cute, a little edgy, a little religious, a little nuetral, and a whole lot unifying. It does, at the end of the day, need to be the best commercial possible.
Unity is schmoopy, and schmoopy sells. I’m off to buy a bottle of Coke.
