• AdCritic.com • Superbowl XXXV Section • Vote for your favorite commercial • "XXXV vs. 'II': Less Than Super" (Jan. 29, 2001) • All Live Online Transcripts

Super Bowl Ads
Hosted by Peter Beckman
AdCritic.com Founder and CEO
Monday, Jan. 29, 2001; 2 p.m. EST

With each 30-second Super Bowl spot costing $2.3 million, companies only want to put their premium commercials on air. Talking about the ads the day after has become as much an American tradition as the game itself.

So which one wowed you? Which was the funniest? Which made you question the sanity of the advertising executive in charge?

AdCritic.com founder and CEO Peter Beckman will be online to take your questions and comments on what you liked and didn't like about the Super Bowl XXXV commercials.

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Arlington, Va.: I realize you can't exactly schedule commercials during a live game, but I wish there was some way for us to know when they would be airing (during the first quarter; right before/after half-time, etc.). For the second year now I've missed EDS' ads and I HATE IT!!!!! Are these available anywhere on the web to view?

Peter Beckman: Why AdCritic.com of course! We've got almost all of the Super Bowl ads online -- it's taking us a bit longer than we had hoped, due to the extreme popularity of the site. Just yesterday people watched 1.5 MILLION commercials from our site. You can find the EDS commercial at http://superbowl.adcritic.com/

Alexandria, Va.: I must say, I was totally unimpressed by the Super Bowl commercials this year. Shales nailed it on the head. About the only ones I liked were the Bob Dole fake-out Pepsi commercial, and the Budweiser take-off on Wassup. That wireless technology commercial by the company-I-can't-remember-the-name-of- but-it-starts-with-a-"C" was also cute, but what the heck was the product?

Peter Beckman: Cingular was a wireless company that had a few cute ads. But I agree, this year wasn't a particularly good crop. Bob Dole has seen funnier times, and EDS "Cat Herders" was far superior to the Squirrels this year. The biggest winner in my mind was 7UP. Funny stuff with Orlando Jones!

Alexandria, Va.: Three thoughts:

1. The Super Bowl ads sucked. They were all derivative of last year or boring. It was like listening to a bad comic's routine - setup, joke, setup, joke, etc ... At the end of the evening you can't remember what you were politely chuckling about.

2. Where were all the car and truck ads? I remember a Volkswagen falling out of a tree. I guessed that would happen the moment I saw the guys throwing things into it.

3. Is Budweiser the only beer allowed to advertise? We're football fans, not techno geeks! And what's with this "Budweiser.com" blimp? Let's go get a frosty "beer.net" out of the fridge.

Peter Beckman: 1. They didn't all suck, but yes, they were less entertaining than years past.

2. Volkswagon was the "Exclusive" Car sponsor of the Super Bowl. Thus the reason no other ads aired for cars during the game. And as for the car from the tree, that was a light chuckle and a groan.

3. Budweiser I believe is the "Exclusive" alcoholic beverage advertiser, though Smirnoff Ice had hoped to advertising during the game. CBS rejected them.

Alexandria, Va.: It seems that more people watch the beginning of the Super Bowl than the end. Does the network charge more the ads run in the first half of the game than the second half? Thanks.

Peter Beckman: CBS announced that they got an _average_ of $2.3 million per 30 second slot. But yes, advertisers pay big bucks to be the first advertiser after the kickoff, and not nearly as much to be in the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarter (which can be great for the advertiser if the game is really close).

Fairfax, Va.: Bud Light takes the prize with the "Beer in Her Face" spot.

Peter Beckman: That one is ranked number one on the site right now too. Since we started posting spots, over 130,000 votes have been recorded (more than even Pepsi + Yahoo got for their promotion).

Did anyone enjoy the 7UP "Fetch" commercial with the dog "fetching" the 7UP can?

Laurie: The E-Trade Monkey ad was interesting -- it pulled in a couple of elements -- Planet of the Apes, Iron Eyes Cody, picking up the trampled Pets.Com Sock Puppet... Memorable, but just okay.

Also, why was EDS's "Cat Round-Up" commercial shown only once or twice? That was a great commercial. This year's follow-up, "The Running of the Squirrels" was not quite there.

Peter Beckman: There were 17 "dot-com" advertisers last year in the Super Bowl. This year? Three. E-Trade took that and ran with it. I thought the mindless comedy of the monkey last year was much better.

EDS doesn't have much of a reason to advertise to the general population. It may be entertaining, but unless they make some money off of you, there is no point in paying to entertain you! The Squirrels lost to the Cats, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Towson, Maryland: Who checks the facts on these commercials? The company discussing how brilliant they were at developing future new technologies really goofed with their Bio Computer.

The cells they showed had nuclei, a.k.a. eukaryotes. Bacteria are prokaryotes. a.k.a. no nucleus. They would have to be God to pull that one off!

Oops!

Peter Beckman: Well, not all advertisers have a bio degree! In movies they pay a lot of attention to details like that, but for commercials the budgets are usually a bit tighter, and thus they don't hire a biological engineer to consult with them on how best to accurately represent a nuclei.

Maybe you could offer your services to the advertising world!

Mclean Va.: So, how difficult was it for you all to get all those ads posted so quickly?

Peter Beckman: Really tough actually. The encoding process we use in order to bring the highest quality video to every last user, high speed or dial up, is what brings people to AdCritic.com. We're still really behind in posting ads, but we hope to have every last one posted by 5pm today.

Arlington, Va.: I didn't understand the "guy late for the wedding" ad.... I didn't get what was going on NOR why this would make me buy this car. Please enlighten me!!

Peter Beckman: The ad was definitely made to appeal to your emotions. Could you not feel how frustrated the guy was while getting stuck behind every last thing? Did you feel the tension in the air when the guy walked in on the wedding JUST as the pastor asked if there was anyone who objected?

Would it get you to buy the car? Probably not. But there is also a subconscious level in advertising that may affect you when you least realize it.

Falls Church, Virginia: Peter,
My friends and I are having an intense debate over what is the most watched sporting event in the world: the Super Bowl or the World Cup Finals. Can you tell us?

Peter Beckman: The Super Bowl is the most watched television event. 140 Million people in the US, more than 1 Billion people world wide.

Alexandria again: Cingular is a "wireless company?" Sorry, I still don't know what they do or sell. Wireless what? Services? Gadgets?

Peter Beckman: Cell phones, pagers, wireless e-mail, etc. Like Verizon/Bell Atlantic/SprintPCS.

San Francisco, Calif.: The E-Trade Monkey ad was a parody/homage to the classic American Indian spot about pollution. Yet I haven't seen many people discuss that. Did other not get it?

Peter Beckman: Good call. Not as many people know about the American Indian spot, as it ran a long time ago, and hasn't run since.

Phoenix, Ariz.: I heard about an ad by PETA that was banned by the network. Is this true, and if so, why?

Peter Beckman: We have the PETA ad on AdCritic.com (I'll include a link). CBS has a policy against allowing advocacy ads to run. PETA was definitely advocating the protection of cows, so they turned them away.

Peta: Singing Cows

Reston, Va.: Are you having any problems with your Internet infrastructure with so many people hitting your site today?

Peter Beckman: Unfortunately yes. We're pushing over 1.5 Gigabits per second as we speak (that's about 26,785 56K modems, all at once).

Washington, D.C.: What do the other networks generally do during the Super Bowl? Give up? Show re-runs? Show "chick flicks?"

Peter Beckman: NBC ran a bunch of best of SNL clips in order to compete with Survivor. I'm sure that their ratings really had to slump during the game though. Two networks (in DC at least) ran movies, the other (Fox) ran their regular Sunday night lineup.

McLean, Va.: I work at an agency, and everyone in the industry seems pretty glued to your site. How'd you come to start it, and, well, I guess a better question is who are you? What's your ad background like? Did you start from outside the industry?

Peter Beckman: The site started as a result of watching a Bissell commercial back in 1995. It featured a cat sitting sweetly on the stairs. All of a sudden, it explodes! I was rolling on the floor, literally. About the same time Netscape and the web was big news, and I came up with the concept of the site.

It wasn't until early 1999 when the technology was available to allow us to start streaming video on the web (it was there, it just wasn't very good).

My background is in the ISP industry, and I have no formal ad background (other than 2 wonderful years learning quickly about how the advertising industry works). I was an outsider when I began. Not so much these days.

College Park, Md.: There were two Chevy Cavalier ads as well, so I guess Volkswagen was not the official car.

Peter Beckman: There were -- but they ran before the game. Only VW (to my knowledge) advertised DURING the game.

Clinton, Md.: I liked the Bud Light Commercial with Cedric the Entertainer. It was funny, you knew what it was about, and again it was funny.

My question to you is why do you think these companies try so hard to be funny and to be liked on super bowl Sunday when the majority of the companies will go out of business within two years and/ or no one even understood what in the world the commercial was about?

Also, do you think that $2.3 million is a lot for 30 Seconds for your one shot at fame and fortune?

Peter Beckman: The reason these companies are trying to be so funny and entertaining are two-fold:

1. They are competing for your attention. Any way that they can get you to talk about their product, service or even just their ad at the watercooler the next day is their goal.

2. They are competing amongst eachother. The advertising world is relatively small, and there is a lot of competition for big advertisers.

Companies like EDS advertising during the Super Bowl in order to get to the small few high tech individuals who will do a multi-million dollar contract with EDS. Everyone else gets to be entertained.

Is $77,000 per second a lot to pay for 30 seconds of fame? That's only 1.5 cents per person. That's less than some search engines charge to expose you to your target audience. Is it a lot? Yes, but when you break it down it is actually pretty reasonable.

Kill Devil Hills, N.C.: I was horrified and disgusted with the Budweiser/pencil throwing ad. What message were they trying to convey?

Peter Beckman: Still not sure. Maybe the copywriters were drinking their clients product a little too heavily.

Atlanta, Georgia: How can making fun of the disabled be considered humorous or entertaining? The commercial noting a mentally handicapped person as an artist was insulting. As someone who has worked with the mentally handicapped, I was offended. It was in very poor taste. Please respond.

Peter Beckman: He actually is a famous artist, and was featured recently in a magazine or newspaper. They weren't making fun of him, but showing people that a handicap doesn't stop you from doing whatever it is that you love to do. I don't believe the artist was mentally handicapped, but more physically. A few people who were over during the game brought up his notariety and commented on what a cool commercial it was.

Beltsville Md.: What happened to all of the 7 up commercials, or did I just miss them?

Peter Beckman: They are backlogged. They'll be up later today!

Philadelphia, Pa.: What would make a company like Acenture run an ad that was so short it was impossible to get the story line? Aside from money that is...

Peter Beckman: Accenture is what used to be Anderson Consulting. Their hope was to "rebrand" themselves, so that everyone who used to know who and what Anderson Consulting was will now know that they go by Accenture. The ads weren't anything amazing, but hey, they got you to post a question about them!

Gaithersburg, Md.: The Humane Society of the United States asked CBS and 7-Up to pull the spot with the dog "fetching" the 7-Up can, so not everyone liked it!

Peter Beckman: The Super Bowl ads take more scrutiny than any other ads. Last year a mothers group demanded that FedEx never run their "Oz" commercial, because it encouraged their children to inhale helium.

The bottom line is that you can't please everyone. Hopefully you can offend less than half of your audience. The 7UP ad you mention is probably riding a fine line. They also had another one where there were a bunch of naked people. CBS refused to run it.

D.C.: Hello! Just wanted to drop a note to say how much I love AdCritic! I've enjoyed downloading funny ads from your site for a long, long time. How you turned those Super Bowl ads around so quickly, we'll never know. Have you slept yet?

Peter Beckman: Actually, no, I haven't yet slept since Sunday morning. We're still working here on getting the ads encoded and online for your viewing pleasure, so stay tuned to SuperBowl.AdCritic.com!

Richmond, Va.: Am I nuts or did it look like the Pepsi "Subway" ad was written by John Rocker? The spot featured a white guy sweating through a breakdown on a commuter train. He seems to feel menaced by a collection of folks who don't share his ethnic/demographic characteristics. Frankly, I thought it was tasteless. How did it strike you?

Peter Beckman: I'm still confused about it. I saw the making of the ad, and they had several different versions. I don't think the guy was "menaced", the people from the subway car just "joined" him in his dream... and yes, you are nuts. :-)

Chicago, Ill.: Hey, where did you get the Whassup Grannies and the Chrysler K Car ads from? They elicited roars of laughter around this office...

Peter Beckman: Independant directors who are looking to get jobs at big agencies send us spots they worked on. The guy who did the K Car ad got thousands of phone calls generated from posting the ad on AdCritic.com.

Reston, Va.: The Super Bowl seems to be the Super Bowl of Ads as well. Is there any other event that is notable for commercials?

Peter Beckman: Survivor pulled in $600,000+ for 30 second slots during the final show. It will probably happen again this year. ER also bills $600,000+ for 30 second slots during the year.

I'm sure The World Cup generates a lot of advertising revenue, not so much here in the US though.

Denver, Colo.: Seeemd to us that this Super Bowl went to FEWER commercials. Lots of times the ball changed hands and no break. Was that true? Also, does a bunch of network promos indicate the network wasn't able to sell all of its time, so it promoted itself where it could?

Peter Beckman: Every network who hosts the game (CBS this year, Fox next year, ABC the year after) wants to push their own shows during the game -- that's how they make their money! Plus close to the beginning of the game CBS still hadn't sold out of spots for the Super Bowl. I don't think there were fewer commercials, they may have just been run better. 3 1 minute breaks feels longer than 1 3 minute break.

Peter Beckman: I must get back to the grindstone -- we still have a lot of work to do before I sleep!

Thank you all for your questions, and I hope you can all enjoy what we have to offer at AdCritic.com!

Here's some links to the ads I mentioned:
Bissell: Shedding Problem
AdCritic.com's Super Bowl Ad Coverage

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