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Folks,
Like millions of Americans tonight, I settled in to watch the Super Bowl, along with my daughter (who loves football). I didn't have a "dog in this fight" so to speak, being a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, but I decided to take part in the NVRC Super Bowl ads survey, for fun. Several things came to mind while watching this game and commercials:
1) Advertising executives at many agencies should dread going to work Monday, because some of these ads stunk to high heaven. Honestly, for 30 seconds and $2.5 to 2.8 million dollars for those 30 seconds, the companies that paid them got ripped off. Primarily the Dr. Pepper "Little Kiss" commercial. GAWD, that thing stunk and just showed that KISS is a bunch of money-hungry dudes anymore. AC/DC would have never stooped that low, IMHO.
2) Danica Patrick is a guaranteed hook for guys when it comes to commercials, because I immediately received about 10 messages from buddies about her commercials. Hey, we're chauvinist pigs, alright? :-)
3) The Tim Tebow ad that stirred such controversy? Inspirational and moving. Just right, not too over the top. All the "sky is falling" furor was ridiculous. All these other uptight people should be ashamed of themselves for denouncing that ad. It played on emotion and politics? Well boo hoo, so do the UNICEF commercials, so do the commercials soliciting for donations to help Haitians, etc. That's what ads are for! I personally don't like Coca Cola, but LOVED the Mean Joe Greene commercials growing up. Because I am smart enough to understand it for what it is, a way to make people remember a product. Grow up, get over it, and move on. He and his mother advocated for something they believe in.
4) The ABSOLUTE best ad of the night? The Snickers commercial with Betty White. That Golden Girl still rocks the joint! :-) A close second was the Doritos dog collar commercial. It had me and my daughter howling...Sorry, bad pun, I know, but I couldn't resist.
5) NO CAPTIONS for the McDonalds Larry Bird/Dwight Howard/Lebron James commercial. McDonald's usually captions most of their commercials, and for them to drop the ball (goodness, my bad puns keep rolling out tonight), so to speak, on one of the most watched nights of the year is inexcusable.
6) NO CAPTIONS for either of the two mobile TV/internet TV company commercials I saw (FloTV (owned by Qualcomm) and TruTV). Is this a harbinger of things to come unless we get HR 3101 passed? I think so, and these ads don't do anything to change my mind. Maybe if they quit spending so much money on Rick Boucher, they could afford to caption their commercials.
7) NO CAPTIONS for the Shutter Island movie trailer (shocker, Hollywood didn't caption something?) *note the sarcasm* To be fair, though, the Alice In Wonderland trailer WAS captioned.
8) NO CAPTIONS for the UniversalOrlando commercial (Oh Disney, wherefore art thou, you supposed beacon of light for the disabled community?). Disappointing, especially after the UP! DVD debacle, seems like Disney's marketing people have a slow learning curve. Buckle those helmet chinstraps, boys and girls, and FOCUS, okay? Let me speak slow so you can get it: C a p t i o n y o u r m a t e r i a l, okay? Got it? Gooood! Here's a Tootsie Roll.
9) NO CAPTIONS for Monster.com job site ad. Not at all surprising, after all, the deaf population doesn't want to work, right? *sarcasm again, people* With an unemployment rate double that of the average hearing population, and a tremendously talented and diverse pool of potential applicants, Monster dropped the ball. I WILL be removing my contact information from them, I've had a profile on their site for years now, that changes tomorrow.
There were MANY local/regional company commercials aired by region that I am sure were not captioned either. For me, Pikeville Medical Center had several ads not captioned, Appalachian Wireless, Appalachian Regional Hospital, etc. Not surprising, but disappointing. All in all, I submitted something like 49 commercials to the NVRC email noting whether or not they were captioned, etc. It was a fun little excercise, and I tried to do my part, and here's hoping many others did as well. Data such as this is absolutely necessary to document the numbers we try to speak of when advocating for more caption access. It's the only way to gather empirical data.
Thanks for reading along!
Eddie
Like millions of Americans tonight, I settled in to watch the Super Bowl, along with my daughter (who loves football). I didn't have a "dog in this fight" so to speak, being a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, but I decided to take part in the NVRC Super Bowl ads survey, for fun. Several things came to mind while watching this game and commercials:
1) Advertising executives at many agencies should dread going to work Monday, because some of these ads stunk to high heaven. Honestly, for 30 seconds and $2.5 to 2.8 million dollars for those 30 seconds, the companies that paid them got ripped off. Primarily the Dr. Pepper "Little Kiss" commercial. GAWD, that thing stunk and just showed that KISS is a bunch of money-hungry dudes anymore. AC/DC would have never stooped that low, IMHO.
2) Danica Patrick is a guaranteed hook for guys when it comes to commercials, because I immediately received about 10 messages from buddies about her commercials. Hey, we're chauvinist pigs, alright? :-)
3) The Tim Tebow ad that stirred such controversy? Inspirational and moving. Just right, not too over the top. All the "sky is falling" furor was ridiculous. All these other uptight people should be ashamed of themselves for denouncing that ad. It played on emotion and politics? Well boo hoo, so do the UNICEF commercials, so do the commercials soliciting for donations to help Haitians, etc. That's what ads are for! I personally don't like Coca Cola, but LOVED the Mean Joe Greene commercials growing up. Because I am smart enough to understand it for what it is, a way to make people remember a product. Grow up, get over it, and move on. He and his mother advocated for something they believe in.
4) The ABSOLUTE best ad of the night? The Snickers commercial with Betty White. That Golden Girl still rocks the joint! :-) A close second was the Doritos dog collar commercial. It had me and my daughter howling...Sorry, bad pun, I know, but I couldn't resist.
5) NO CAPTIONS for the McDonalds Larry Bird/Dwight Howard/Lebron James commercial. McDonald's usually captions most of their commercials, and for them to drop the ball (goodness, my bad puns keep rolling out tonight), so to speak, on one of the most watched nights of the year is inexcusable.
6) NO CAPTIONS for either of the two mobile TV/internet TV company commercials I saw (FloTV (owned by Qualcomm) and TruTV). Is this a harbinger of things to come unless we get HR 3101 passed? I think so, and these ads don't do anything to change my mind. Maybe if they quit spending so much money on Rick Boucher, they could afford to caption their commercials.
7) NO CAPTIONS for the Shutter Island movie trailer (shocker, Hollywood didn't caption something?) *note the sarcasm* To be fair, though, the Alice In Wonderland trailer WAS captioned.
8) NO CAPTIONS for the UniversalOrlando commercial (Oh Disney, wherefore art thou, you supposed beacon of light for the disabled community?). Disappointing, especially after the UP! DVD debacle, seems like Disney's marketing people have a slow learning curve. Buckle those helmet chinstraps, boys and girls, and FOCUS, okay? Let me speak slow so you can get it: C a p t i o n y o u r m a t e r i a l, okay? Got it? Gooood! Here's a Tootsie Roll.
9) NO CAPTIONS for Monster.com job site ad. Not at all surprising, after all, the deaf population doesn't want to work, right? *sarcasm again, people* With an unemployment rate double that of the average hearing population, and a tremendously talented and diverse pool of potential applicants, Monster dropped the ball. I WILL be removing my contact information from them, I've had a profile on their site for years now, that changes tomorrow.
There were MANY local/regional company commercials aired by region that I am sure were not captioned either. For me, Pikeville Medical Center had several ads not captioned, Appalachian Wireless, Appalachian Regional Hospital, etc. Not surprising, but disappointing. All in all, I submitted something like 49 commercials to the NVRC email noting whether or not they were captioned, etc. It was a fun little excercise, and I tried to do my part, and here's hoping many others did as well. Data such as this is absolutely necessary to document the numbers we try to speak of when advocating for more caption access. It's the only way to gather empirical data.
Thanks for reading along!
Eddie
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