Are Super Bowl Ads All They're Cracked Up To Be?

It's that time of year again. The biggest day in football - and television advertising - is approaching.

Anheuser-Busch will be there - they've purchased 10 spots for the big game. Career Builder will be there - but without the chimps this year (too bad). Coke has 3 spots, Garmin - just one spot called "mapasaurus" - for their navigation product. Go Daddy will have 3 spots. Toyota, General Motors and Pepsi will all be there. Conspicuously absent will be P&G - they've opted out this year. CBS is charging $2.6 million for a 30 second spot this year.

For the first time in many years, the game could actually be worth watching (it's always fun to watch the Bears win!) - I'm not sure that the ads will be equally as entertaining, but I am positive about one thing - the brands who advertise during Sunday's big game are spending a lot of cash for advertising that is difficult - if not impossible - to measure effectiveness on.

A fun game next Monday will be to ask your friends if they saw "that really funny commercial during the game" - then ask them to tell you what brand was being advertised. Most often - particularly with the "over the top" humor driven ads - no one can remember the product being advertised - or if they do remember the product (for instance, a beer ad), they can't remember the brand!

But the really sad thing is, even among those who remember the brand, when asked they will tell you that "the commercial was funny, but it didn't make me want to buy the product." Personally, I love the Budweiser Clydesdale commercials - I watch them every single time they come on, and I have a great opinion of the company - but those ads don't make me thirsty for beer.

Check it out on Monday - put my theory to the test - ask people at work about the commercials they liked the best, then ask them to tell you what was advertised - without sneaking a look at the re-plays on the Internet, they won't be able to do it!