Super Bowl Sunday brought with it a wealth of ads that fell short of the standards set by past years, with viewers rating them from boring to offensive.
According to a survey by USA Today, audiences were turned off by the majority of the ads shown. The survey, which registered the immediate responses of 282 volunteers while they watched the Super Bowl, was based on a 1 to 10 scale and then averaged out for each commercial. The top two spots went to ads by Bud Light and Doritos with scores of 8.35 each, while the bottom two spots both went to Hyundai with scores of 4.49 and 4.20.
The low point for the night came when a Groupon commercial tried to make light of Tibetan hardships in order to promote itself, which many viewers felt was an unnecessary slight towards Tibetan culture.
Dr. Robert Schwab, Economics professor at the university, echoed those concerns and called the ad “offensive”. He also said that other companies failed to gather any interest whatsoever for their products.
“I certainly did not come away from the Super Bowl with a better image of most of the products,” Schwab said in an interview. “I may never buy another Frito-Lay product again.”
Celebrity endorsements failed to muster any viewer interest. Kim Kardashian’s highly anticipated Skechers ad received a disappointing 5.91, while rapper Eminem’s animated spot for Lipton Brisk earned a 5.79. Even pop artist Justin Bieber couldn’t translate his fame to viewer ratings as he scored a 5.48 in his role next to Ozzy Osbourne for Best Buy.
Several car companies, like Hyundai and Chrysler, invested heavily in ad space only to find their repetitive messages spurning the interest of viewers. The latter bought out two minutes worth of airtime for an ad about Detroit starring Motor City native Eminem.
“There were so many ads for cars and trucks that the messages ran together,” Schwab said.