The Super Bowl of Advertising: How the Commercials Won the Game

Once a year the American part of the advertising world comes together to display its finest efforts . . . all in the same program, the Super Bowl. What have been the high and low points of these efforts? Why did this event end up being so important to advertisers and their agencies? Those are but some of the questions this fine book will answer.

In my family, the men watch the Super Bowl for the football and the women watch for the advertisements. In past years, I have attended many Super Bowls (where the fans don't usually see the ads) and often wondered why everyone was talking so much about the advertisements during the following days. Having now seen some of the efforts that I had missed, I better understand why some watch the ads for fun.

The book is organized around telling the story of how advertising developed in the Super Bowl. This task is accomplished from a historical perspective, from looking at categories of ads (soft drinks, beer, cars, athletic footwear, food, and financial services), ways of advertising (sex-related stories, animals and by trying to steal attention from the Super Bowl), and major advertisers who have had a big influence on the game's reputation for ads (Apple, Budweiser, Pepsi). In the historical section, much more attention is paid to recent years than the early ones, and you will hear a lot about dot-com companies flopping at the Super Bowl.

In the best of these stories, you get lots of large, full-color stills from the ads, discussions of how the ads were selected, and information about how the advertiser's business fared after the Super Bowl compared to the cost of the ads. Getting permission for all of these stills must have been a brutish task. I spent months just getting permission for one still in a book that I co-authored.

I would be very surprised if a better book is written anytime soon on this subject. The only unavoidable disappointment was that the book was written before the Janet Jackson incident at the 2004 Super Bowl. That would have provided lots of meat for discussion. My avoidable disappointments were that the book didn't provide more detail about the best advertising campaigns that were launched at the Super Bowl and how the success of the ads was affected by the quality of the game.

At another level, this book will appeal to older readers as a sort of walk down memory lane as you recall your life when you first saw these games and these ads. For younger readers, it will be like a glance into a museum to see how much communications have shifted in just a few decades.


Super facts between Super Bowl Sunday snaps!   February 6, 2004
"The Super Bowl of Advertising" recounts the successes, miracles and flops from all 37 Super Bowls not from the couch, but from inside the advertising agencies that created the spots and the companies that footed the multi-million dollar bills.
"The Super Bowl of Advertising," brings out little-known facts about Super Bowl Sunday besides the cost-per-second of commercials over the years.
Kanner's work, like advertising, is all about presentation as "The Super Bowl of Advertising," with its 6x9 size and use of glossy white pages, filled with video stills of commercials allow the memories of those 30-second sellers to be recalled with ease.
"The Super Bowl of Advertising," is a trip down advertising's memory lane.
Coca-Cola's "I'd like to teach the world to sing," debuted during Super Bowl VI followed by Mean Joe Greene's change of heart after a cold Coke at Super Bowl VII.
McDonald's "You Deserve a Break Today" was seen in 1971 with the accompanying music and jingle from Barry Manilow. The golden arches tounge-twister about its Big Mac ingredients was first heard in 1974.
In 1977, Brother Dominick provided 500 more copies for the abbot utilizing the newly innovative Xerox Copiers with the tag line, "It's a miracle."
1984 the year and the book by George Orwell created a wave that every ad agency wanted to ride and companies wanted to emulate.
The Apple Computer commercial, directed by Ridley Scott, shattered the minds of advertisers and viewers when an athletic blonde hurdles a sledgehammer at the screen, tinted blue, exploding and announcing that Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh later that week. The ad ran only once, didn't even show the product but it was played again and again on network television, morning shows and still registers today with viewers.
In the 1990's advertisers were forced to decide on what way to approach their viewers as the Gulf War broke out prior to Super Bowl XXIV. While Coca-Cola went patriotic, Diet Pepsi went with "The Right One, Baby!" with Ray Charles and the Uh-Huh Girls.
No advertising book would be complete without paying homage to the King of Beers, Budweiser, and its numerous memorable spots on Super Sunday.
From Clydesdales, to frogs, to lizards, to copiers, catch phrases and the "Bud Bowl" "The Super Bowl of Advertising," describes how Anheuser-Busch became the King of Super Sunday.
Not to be forgotten is the dot.com craze, ads and even faster bust with only Monster.com and HotJobs.com surviving the blitz of 2001.
If you watched it on Super Sunday, like it or even hated it, "The Super Bowl of Advertising" is a quick look back at the action off the gridiron and many of the memories that have stayed with us when the final scores may have faded from memory.


Super Bowl, super book!   January 23, 2004
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

If you watch the game each year just for the commercials, then this book will really bring back some memories. The author does an excellent job of recapping all the great ads, from the early years to the landmark Apple "1984" ad that changed everything, and the ensuing two decades of big budgets, big stars, and, oftentimes, big flops. Remember all those dot-com ads from a few years back? When you read the book, try to count the number of companies that are still around! Overall, this book scores a game-winning touchdown. A must for fans of pop culture and advertising.


Informative, interesting, and FUN   November 18, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book is a gas. I learned more about advertising - and more interesting info on our culture - from reading this than any of the books or magazines I've read on ads. Kanner is a great guide to the ins and outs of the best (and worst) of the biggest event every year in advertising.


The Greatest Television Advertising Book ever Published!   November 5, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

As a former Adweek Magazine suppliment publisher, I can say without a doubt that if you have any interest in television advertising, commercials, and their results-or even just heading down a nostalgia path, this book is the greatest book ever published on it's subject.

Inside it's pages are filled with full color photographs of the most important television spots in the past 20 years.

But even more important, Ms. Kanner's insightful writing gives us the inside stories of how these spots were created and what happened when they were aired. The background and inside information she's uncovered is invaluable for anyone interested in this field.

If you want to own one book on television advertising, this is the new bible!