These Ads Are Caught Up in Law of Averages

It was a Super Bowl party -- with a twist.

Instead of focusing on the much-hyped game, the main attraction was the commercials shown during what is almost always the most-watched television program of the year.

David Carter, professor of sports business at USC, and five of his graduate students watched Sunday’s game at The Times and offered their opinions on the creative work of Madison Avenue.

Although some spots drew laughs and others earned admiration, Carter said this year’s commercials were standard fare.

“It was pretty average across the board,” he said. “A couple of them were pretty good, but it didn’t strike me that very many companies were taking any real risks this time around.”

Companies paid an average of $2.3 million for a 30-second commercial, up from $2.1 million last year.

“Some of them are getting much more than their money’s worth, some of them aren’t getting anywhere near it,” Carter said. “If you have a strategy behind it, you’ve got a shot.

“Most of the blue-chip companies -- Anheuser-Busch, MasterCard, IBM -- use sports as a platform year-round. So they have a much better chance of getting their money back than some of these one-off folks.”

The commercials started off strong compared with the game. There were more than 25 spots shown, including several winners, before the New England Patriots scored the game’s first points late in the second quarter.

“The commercials seem more exciting than the game,” student Paul Lively said at halftime.

But as the game involving the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers heated up in the second half, the entertainment level of the commercials dropped dramatically.

“Blah,” student Candy Maciel said in response to a spot for monster.com.

Carter, though, pointed out that most companies stand to gain rather than lose by advertising during the Super Bowl.

“Some of them are doing it just for branding purposes in general,” he said.

Rating some of the commercials:

Winners

* The H&R; Block ad featuring a Willie Nelson talking advice doll gave the students a good laugh. “I think it’s great,” Brian Pidgeon said. Observed Lively: “It was clever to take [a business] that is really boring and bring some humor to it.”

* MasterCard’s spot featuring Homer Simpson paying for various services was a hit, especially the bit about his shelling out $75 for a haircut that entailed getting two strands snipped on his balding pate. “That was really funny,” Maciel said.

* Budweiser got the biggest laugh of the day for its depiction of a football official whose stoic demeanor never changes, whether he’s getting verbally abused by a coach at a game or by his wife at home. Said Jeff Phillips: “That connects with the male demographic.”

* Ford got the students in a driving mood with its stylish ad for the new $240,000 GT sports car, which was filmed racing on a twisting road course. “That got me kind of excited,” Arakel Arisian said. “We’re all going to peel out of the parking garage.”

* The Bud Light ad featuring rival beer-fetching dogs, one more vicious than the other, drew chuckles with its slapstick humor. “It was a classic beer ad -- humorous,” Phillips said.

* IBM was praised for its serious-minded spot featuring a young boy who starts off watching a young Muhammad Ali on TV, before the real Ali shows up to deliver the message: “Shake up the world.” Lively said Ali’s presence was “inspiring.”

* The Visa ad featuring women’s beach volleyball players competing in the snow in preparation for the Summer Olympics got the students’ attention. Lively said the spot was successful in blending sex appeal with athletics.

* Pepsi’s best-liked spot was a spoof on rock history -- depicting a young Jimi Hendrix choosing Pepsi and the guitar over Coke and the accordion.

On the Fence

* Pepsi’s spot featuring teenagers sued by the recording industry for illegal file sharing got a split decision from the students.

* The Frito-Lay ad featuring an elderly couple wrestling over a bag of potato chips and a flying pair of false teeth was judged mildly amusing, at best. “I didn’t think too much of that one,” Lively said.

* The America Online ads featuring the cast of the Discovery Channel show “American Chopper” started out somewhat amusing but, with little variation between the spots, grew repetitious.

Losers

* The ad for Charmin toilet tissue depicting a quarterback feeling a piece of Charmin hanging out the back of his center’s pants was unanimously flushed by the students. “That might be the biggest loser of the night,” Lively said. He got no arguments.

* The Bud Light commercial featuring a couple in a sleigh, a candle and a flatulent horse didn’t pass for acceptable entertainment. “Are you kidding me?” Arisian asked, incredulously.

* The spots for two erectile-dysfunction drugs, Cialis and Levitra, added to what Carter called “the year of the crotch” for this year’s Super Bowl commercials. It didn’t help that Mike Ditka was pushing Levitra by claiming, “It works for me.” The general response was: “Ugh.”

* FedEx drew blank stares for its spot featuring an alien wearing a human mask while working in an office. “Boring,” was the consensus.