How YouTube and Twitter Ruined Super Bowl Commercials

In a few days, the largest television audience it is now possible to assemble will see a new ad for Oikos Greek yogurt. The stakes couldn’t be higher: Getting in front of more than 100 million viewers for 30 seconds costs an estimated $4 million.

Too bad, then, that the spot has already been branded a disappointment: “A lot of setup without much payoff,” Adweek shrugged earlier this week.

This, in miniature, is what the formerly glorious Super Bowl ad game has come to. If you’re ready for some football, you’ll have to wait until kickoff. But if you’re ready for some advertising, a slew of the most-awaited commercials of the year are available right now.

Thanks to advertisers’ frenzy to exploit the possibilities of social media and YouTube, it’s now possible for the letdown to actually precede the hype.

It’s an epic fumble, really. Everybody knows the Super Bowl is that one special day when Madison Avenue’s finest creations receive unrivaled attention — the one time a year that we all stop pretending we hate advertising. Read More News>>