Preview: The 2014 Super Bowl Ads

Super Bowl Ads Without the Super Bowl (New Yorker)

Having sacrificed a little of our collective dignity by agreeing to treat Super Bowl advertisements as a worthy companion entertainment to the game itself, the least we can expect, it seems, is that those ads be entertaining—dramatic, moving, or funny, but, mostly, original, both by being interesting and, more plainly, by being new. But, by the time that we sit down to watch this Sunday, many of the “must see” commercials will already have been seen—previewed extensively or else released ahead of time online and shared on social media. This might be good for business (more on that in a moment), but it makes for lesser viewing.

This year, a thirty-second spot costs a bit more than four million dollars—and Fox, which is broadcasting the game, had no trouble finding companies to pay for the opportunity. But most of these companies aren’t really buying Super Bowl ads anymore. At least, that’s not all, or even especially, what they are buying. Instead, they have paid for the ability, for several weeks leading up to the big day, to tell people that they’ve bought a Super Bowl ad.