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Super Bowl 101: the ads

Media mavens will tell you that Super Bowl ads rarely pay off for advertisers, given that they’re the most expensive half-minute in advertising at an estimated $2.6 million.

But does a Super Bowl spot last only 30 seconds? Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, doesn’t think so.

“You get all the hype leading into the game,” Calkins said. “People talk about the fact that you’re going to be on the Super Bowl, and after the game, everyone talks about who had a good [commercial] and who didn’t.”

One example of how Super Bowl ads have become cultural icons was an academic symposium last week at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. The three-day affair, titled “Super Bowl Advertising, Audience and American Culture,” featured papers on everything from the effectiveness of Super Bowl ads to their use of racial imagery.

Here is a selection of topics on the program:

During the regular season, masculine ads reign. But at Super Bowl time, many advertisers craft spots that appeal to both genders because women make up a significant chunk of the audience. Last year, 40 million Super Bowl viewers were women–more women than watched the Academy Awards. In a sign of the new gender dynamics, body lotion maker Dove ran a spot during last year’s game specifically targeting women.

Black players may make up nearly 70 percent of NFL players, but that racial mix doesn’t hold when it comes to Super Bowl ads. A study by Kenneth Campbell at the University of South Carolina found whites played the lead role in 76 percent of commercials in selected years from 1989 to 2006. African-Americans got the starring role in 10 percent of spots. When whites and blacks did appear in the same spots, they weren’t in each other’s homes and they didn’t touch each other.

For many, the commercial breaks are a great time to grab another beer or take a bathroom break. Even if fans are distracted, though, the ads don’t go away. They live again on Web sites such as YouTube.com and ifilm.com.

Following 9/11, the Super Bowl morphed into a patriotic display. Super Bowl 2005, for example, featured pre-game performances by military academy glee clubs. With public support for the Iraq war foundering, this year’s pre-game entertainment will be decidedly less political, featuring circus troupe Cirque du Soleil.