Jaffe Juice

As we gear up to this year's Stupid Bowl, I thought I'd share some random thoughts on the Big Game, which I must admit I'm looking forward to for the GAME, as opposed to the commercials. Give Peyton his ring already...but also give the Bears the respek they deserve and have earned.

Personally, I've given up on Madison Avenue's ability to hit a home run on Advertising's center stage. As I followed the progress from the risque to the law-abiding (thanks to Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction) to the simply forgettable, it seems like the only buzzworthy element about the commercial side of the extravaganza is a sick inside joke. Besides ourselves, mainstream media and variety shows, do consumers really give a shit about the commercials (besides self-reporting pandering within a 5% margin of error of course)?

Moreover, would someone please produce *any* shred of evidence in the Super Bowl's proven ability to boost sales, awareness, consideration, anything? I've yet to see any shred of validation of late that does anything besides report on intangible "buzz".

This year's biggest story is YouTube and it's hard to believe that just one year ago there was almost no way of an advertiser achieving any kind of scale in terms of extending the views of their commercials. This year, it will be open season on flogging the commercials, but it all seems like a bit of a Hail Mary to me. Don't get me wrong, I'll  be monitoring number of views on YouTube, but unless I'm seeing something north of 2,000,000 (Tea Partay territory), so bloody what?

Marketers and their agencies have still not learned or applied Integration 101 i.e. use the Super Bowl as a "beginning", not an "end"; extend the commercial online, as opposed to simply trying to milk the number of views. I have heard that Snickers will be doing that...

The Super Bowl is still a game of Reverse Russian Roulette, where - unless you're the grand prize winner - you've just flushed $2.6 million down the proverbial toilet.

Then there's the CGC component to the Super Bowl with Doritos, Chevrolet and Emerald (I believe) At the end of the day though, these will just be 30-second spots and I'm not sure how most consumers will even know they were created by other consumers....or care. All the buzz will be "pre" as opposed to "post" i.e. the story behind the story, as opposed to the story itself (which let's face it, should be about selling stuff, no?)

All in all, I'm expecting another yawnfest and borderline desperation attempt. At least this way, I get to be surprised and avoid disappointment.

I'll also be contributing to an Adweek blog as well as recording a live episode of Across the Sound which I hope to post within an hour of the completion of the game. So expect a few surprises (I'll have Shel, Neville, CC and Aaron with me) and a lot of noise in the background when you wake up on Monday morning!