Money maker, attention grabber

Companies pay millions of dollars to have their commercials play during Super Bowl.

Money maker, attention grabber

Five minutes into the first quarter of Super Bowl 50, Cam Newton, the Carolina Panther’s quarterback, fumbles the ball, which the Denver Broncos grab for the first touchdown of the game. The TV fades to black and on comes the first commercial of the Super Bowl, starring Kevin Hart and you realize that Super Bowl is the one TV program where you don’t want to fast forward or skip past advertisements.

Super Bowl commercials’ purpose is company advertisement. But what makes Super Bowl commercials more important than any run of the mill commercial on NBC or ABC? Money and viewership.

A 30 second Super Bowl advertisement slot costs roughly five million dollars, but if you look at the reasoning and benefits for companies, then that five million really pays off.

Over 115 million people watch the Super Bowl in the United States. The New York Times estimates that about four million people buy TVs just to watch the Super Bowl, but many don’t watch it for the football.

Consider the Super Bowl in 2013. Do you even remember that the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 or that Beyoncé fired up the stage and brought Destiny’s Child back together for a smashing performance? Or rather, do you remember that “Go-Daddy” ad where the nerd, Jesse Heiman, kissed the supermodel for 10 seconds on screen?

That commercial alone launched Heiman’s career and gave him over 65 other acting jobs. As for the company, the commercial brought in over 10,000 new customers and raised their overall sales around 40 percent.

The purpose of Super Bowl commercials for company advertisement is to make people talk about them after Super Bowl ends. How else are they going to make their five million dollars-worth it if they don’t receive sales from the advertisement?

Let’s take a look at the top 10 commercials for Super Bowl 50: (embed the videos and have the title before the video and the description after it)

Hyundai “First Date”

Kevin Hart plays the role of protective dad, making us all laugh at the way he scares away his daughter’s date and leaves her angrily storming into the house.

Snickers “Marilyn”

Snickers makes us travel back to the ’50s with Willem Dafoe playing an irritated Marilyn Monroe during a photo shoot, that is until he eats a Snickers bar.

Skittles “The Portrait”

Steven Tyler singing Aerosmith’s hit “Dream On”, seems pretty normal right? Well what if Steven Tyler was a painting made entirely of Skittles.

Honda “A New Truck to Love”

Sheep singing “Somebody to love” by Queen alongside talking dogs? What else is missing to make this commercial utterly hilarious? Honda’s commercial for their new truck, Ridgeline, is one to remember.

Toyota Prius “Heck on Wheels”

A high speed pursuit of a Prius driven by bank robbers leaves police baffled by the speed and agility of the compact, red car and results in the robbers making a clean get away.

Doritos “Ultrasound”

An angry pregnant woman and a carefree Dorito-eating dad makes for an interesting ultrasound visit as the baby wants doritos even from in the womb, causing the woman to go into Dorito induced labor.

Audi “Commander”

We see a heartbreaking story on the life of a former astronaut with David Bowie’s song “Starman” in the background to showcase the new Audi R8. This touched on the emotional appeal of the outlived “glory days” and memorable moments that have come and gone.

Coca-Cola “Coke Mini: Hulk vs. Ant-Man

The Hulk and Ant-Man battle it out for the last Coca-Cola can (spoiler alert: Hulk wins).

MINI USA “Defy Labels”

Big name sports celebrities like Abby Wambach, Serena Williams and Tony Hawk smash stereotypes surrounding the MINI Cooper.

Schick “Hydro vs. The Lube Strip”

The epic battle between the Hydro razor and the Lube Strip razor plays on the movie Transformers as the razors transform into mini robots and fight to be used.