Even many people who aren’t football fans sometimes find themselves excitedly gearing up for the string of oddball and massively expensive commercials unveiled during the Super Bowl broadcast. Of course, with the economy in a tailspin, some of that same game’s potential advertisers have been shedding jobs like crazy in an attempt to cut costs during this global recession.
Seattle was once thought recession-proof. But that has been proven wrong.
Retail chains (from Starbucks to Home Depot) are closing stores and/or announcing significant profit shortfalls.
Even still, NBC is requesting more money than ever for ad time during Sunday’s big game between Arizona and Pittsburgh. According to one Reuters report, a 30-second spot during this year’s contest will cost about $3-million. (Last year’s game, which my New York Giants won in storybook fashion, cost about $2.7-million per 30-second commercial.)
The YouTubed ABC News clip above highlights some humorous commercials that’ll be featured as part of this year’s Super Bowl activities. But the segment focuses on one brewery’s ingenuous attempt to make its own frugality a marketing strategy.
Deploying their popular “Miller High Life Delivery Guy,” a stocky and bald-headed black man who talks incessantly during any and all of his deliveries, the company has decided to air one-second ads in several TV markets this weekend. The ABC clip includes a couple of those ads, but even more of them can be found below:
As gimmicks go, this one is pretty funny. And it seems like the right kind of campaign for such dire economic times. Cut corners, spend less, but transform that penny-pinching from curse into would-be blessing.
