Super Bowl Ads

Super Bowl Advertisements

Every year in the last week of January—or the first week of February, depending on dates—the most-watched televised sporting event goes on the air. This is the Super Bowl, the end-all be-all game of the National Football League that determines the champion of the season. Since the game is such a popular event, it is only natural that companies from beer distributors to cable providers are clamoring to place their ads on the air. The special planning and developing of commercials for the Super Bowl really took off within the past decade, becoming much more popular with the advent of digital cable and mobile technology. While some fear that products like TiVo, which enable you to fast forward through commercials, even in live TV, will make the market for commercials dwindle, this is not likely any time soon.

Super Bowl Advertising Costs

Since the Janet Jackson ‘wardrobe malfunction’ in 2004, in which her breast was exposed during the half-time show, censors certainly cracked down on the raunchiness that could be seen during the show. This could have been a culprit in contributing to the surging price of these commercials. In 2005, the record was set for the most expensive Super Bowl Advertisements to date: a jaw-dropping 2.4 million dollars per 30 second spot. The average cost of prime time advertising runs about $400,000 for a spot, which makes the money spent on showcasing products during the Super Bowl that much more surprising. This trend does not seem to be on the decline and media experts predict that the cost of commercials in years to come will continue to increase.

Super Bowl Ads

The great thing about ads for the Super Bowl is that they are not just on during the game. Many sponsors who pay top dollar to get their ad on during the major prime time event, run the commercial for several months afterward, generally well met with positive responses from consumers. In past years, contests have been run by companies asking the public to create a commercial for them, awarding major cash prizes to the winners. Most commercials are also readily available for download on popular web video sites and there are even sites strictly created to showcase the commercials of Super Bowls past. Whether it is Budweiser, Doritos, Blockbuster or Sprint, these ads always make a splash and it leaves no one wondering why the Super Bowl is such a popular place to show a commercial.