Hey Scott, is that Super Bowl Ad good?

It’s that time of the year. The “Big Game” is days away. And yes I said “Big Game” because after years in the business I’m still conditioned to make sure I don’t say Super Bowl. All it takes is one cease and desist from the NFL, and you’ll know what I mean.

In our industry, it’s one of the most fun times of the year and for me one of the most annoying. On the one hand, I get to see some of the industries best work. Brands will gear up all year and use this game to showcase the best they have to offer. Who wouldn’t be excited about that? On the other hand, I am inevitably asked by my friends outside of the business “Was that TV ad good?” I shudder just typing it because I have been asked this so many times. I work in advertising, so I should be able to look at any ad and tell you if it’s good or not. Right? Don’t we have an algorithm we run ads through that spits out the good/bad results? Shouldn’t I just see an ad and know?

So while I love to see the ads, I get frustrated with the question. Frustrated because it’s impossible to answer. Sure you’ll see a lot of articles out there ranking the ads and talking about what was good or bad, but how can they know? How can you know if an ad was good or bad? Because it was funny? Or the product was showcased beautifully? Because the model was gorgeous? Or the pitchman was perfect for the brand? All objective questions that can vary from one person to another. There has to be some way to decide otherwise companies wouldn’t invest millions to run the ads. So that begs the question, what makes any of these ads good?

You know what makes it good? The results.
And how do we know if the results were good? We don’t.

We don’t because we don’t know the goal from which the results are being based. We’re not a part of the research. We’re not part of the planning. We don’t know what the brand is trying to accomplish.

So when you’re watching the commercials during the game ask yourself, “I wonder what they’re trying to accomplish with this spot?” To me, it’s far more interesting to debate that than whether or not the puppies were funnier than the babies.