Puppets Nominated for Grammy
Plumber sitting pretty with a sense of humor
(And a rolling billboard)
I'm just a puppet, but do "plumbing" and "electrical" usually go together?
Great signs for plumbers' trucks: "A flush beats a full house!" and "Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber."
Puppets Nominated for Grammy
Guess who's nominated for a Grammy? If you guessed "the Muppets," you're correct! (If you guessed "Amy Winehouse," you're also correct, but that's not who I'm writing about.) A Green and Red Christmas was nominated for Best Musical Album for Children. I'm pretty sure it's the only Grammy nominee that features a song sung by a prawn.
For Some, Super Bowl Represents Super Gamble
I love to watch the Super Bowl ... not for the football but for the commercials. I can't wait to see which companies wasted millions of dollars on advertising.
Last year, 93.2 million viewers tuned in to the Super Bowl and marketers paid as much as $2.6 million for 30-second spots. This year, Fox has gotten some marketers to pay as much as $3 million for 30-seconds. It's a big gamble. But it can pay big rewards. During the 1974 Super Bowl, Master Lock ran its famous "Tough Under Fire" commercial showing one of its locks surviving being shot. For several years the company spent almost its entire annual marketing budget on that single commercial which ran only once a year ... during the Super Bowl. But it created a brand identity and an iconic image that remains today, even though the commercial hasn't run for over 20 years. (I have one of those shot locks sitting on my desk. Thank you, Master Lock.)
One the other end of the spectrum, there are many examples of Super Bowl commercials that were ill advised, poorly thought out and almost a complete waste of money. Ironically, according to "experts" two of the ten worst Super Bowl ads of all time, are two that I liked: Budweiser - Flatulent horse ad (2004): A romantic evening in a horse-drawn carriage is ruined by a farting horse, whose flatulence hits a candle and torches a woman's hair. (Come on, farts are funny!) And "Upside Down Clown" (2003): A clown with an upside-down suit walks into a bar, orders a Bud Light, and pours the drink into his mouth through an opening between the suit's legs. (Okay, it's a little gross, but it's funny ... on the other hand it's a clown.) For a complete list of the ten worst ads click here.
To get the most from their Super Bowl investment, marketers try to get as much free pre-game press about their commercial as possible. Pre-game press is almost as important as the actual commercials. Bridgestone has already started to hype its two commercials, one of which will feature Alice Cooper, Richard Simmons and a deer? Can't wait to see that one ... which is the point of pre-game hype.
And following the Super Bowl marketers will make their ads available in as many places as they can including YouTube, My Space and other virtual outlets where visitors can vote for their favorite commercials. And a huge number of us will log in to watch and to vote.
And that's the point. Our expectations are higher for the competitiveness of Super Bowl commercials than they are for the competitiveness of the game. When marketers score a hit, sales can soar and history-making iconic images can be created. But when commercials suck, images can be tarnished, jobs can be lost and stock prices can fall.
I'm going to put a "Vote for your favorite Super Bowl Ad" poll on my blog the day after the Super Bowl. I'll have to wake up someone in our IT Department to see if they can help with that. Expect an early blog post from me on Monday or Tuesday so that you can give me your opinion.