This year it cost approximately $3 Million dollars for a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl. This figure is of course excluding costs and fees for actors, equipment, ad agencies, directors, crew and other personnel, according to Wikipedia. That is plenty of money for companies to spend, especially new companies like Groupon, on advertisements that all seem to have failed to score a touchdown.
According to Ian Schafer in the article “The Super Bowl of Social Media? Maybe Next Year“,
Nearly two-thirds of 18-34 year-olds planning to watch the Super Bowl have smartphones and intended to use them while watching the game.
There was not one spot that actually asked us to do anything. Or suggested that we do something. These ads could have all run before the internet was even invented. Nothing acknowledged that we had any other connections at our disposal other than the one between us and our televisions.
Not only were most of the advertisements complicated and distasteful, like this one, they missed the opportunity to form meaningful connections and dialogues with millions of viewers by integrating social media into their commercials. I am confident that large proportion of the segment mentioned above was sending emails, text messages, and even tweets during the game about the advertisements. Therefore, all the advertisements seem disconnected by ignoring the most popular and fastest growing advertising medium.