TO: High-Level Business Executives
FROM: The Executive Whisper
It’s easy to be critical of this year’s Super Bowl ads. And many people have been. 
Here’s my favorite profanity-laced review. It’s equally easy to gush glowingly about their humor and effectiveness. You can read the attaboys here.
This dichotomy, however, demonstrates the true Achilles heel of traditional marketing, and brand-building TV advertising specifically.
The work is as good – or as bad – as you want it to be. The measurement is almost entirely subjective. The execution of any ad can be justified or criticized depending upon your point of view or ax to grind. Anyone who has every worked in advertising has watched a brilliant wordsmith explain the genius in the use of a pun, cliché, or derivative.
If you read the bloggers pontificating across the web this morning, you’ll find a 180-degree range of opinions.
The famous USA Today Ad Meter polling ranks Mars’ Snickers ad featuring Betty White as the most popular among the viewers – followed by Doritos’ “Dog Collar”, Bud Light’s “House of Beer,” and Budweiser’s “Fences.”
The Wall Street Journal’s survey among ad executives as well as consumers suggests the Denny’s “Screaming Chickens” commercial was among the best aired last night. The article quotes William Charnock, chief strategy officer at Interpublic Group’s RGA, “The chicken in the space suit is one of those classic Super Bowl moments.”
Really? A classic moment?
And that’s the dirty little secret of advertising. There is no definitive answer. Justifications and explanations are all made up to support a gut-level like or dislike for a particular execution. And there’s really no way to prove or disprove it.
In short, it’s mostly B.S. When you break down the quotes from the experts, it becomes obvious. Everything is subjective, debatable, and most importantly, not empirical. If you don’t like the USA Today results, keep checking. You’re bound to find some survey somewhere that supports your opinion. Even if you liked the Boost Mobile “Super Bowl Shuffle” ad. Well, maybe not that one.
Remember this the next time you listen to your agency defend an ad, and ask this one simple question: “What’s a business-building metric I can use to determine if you’re correct or not?”
Then think about this: Somebody somewhere thought throwing a Dorito into a guy’s neck was a business-building idea.
Was that a classic moment?
