Super Bowl Ad Reviews / A special look at the Super Bowl, the biggest advertising and marketing event of the year

Court Crandall is creative partner of Ground Zero Advertising in Los Angeles, the agency that creates ads for ESPN2, Virgin Cola and Genesee Beer.

The Super Bowl is the Academy Awards of advertising. It’s the one time each year people actually look forward to hearing what we have to say. Unfortunately, the commercials that filled Super Bowl XXXIII weren’t merely uncreative, they were irresponsible. It is irresponsible to ask a client to spend $1.6 million and not give them something that will have people talking around the water cooler the next day. Something spectacular. Didn’t anyone yearn to produce 30 seconds that would never be forgotten? Didn’t anyone realize this was the damned Super Bowl? Were these commercials awful? No. But they were mediocre. And as the Atlanta Falcons discovered, when you’re performing in front of a billion people, mediocre just isn’t good enough.