Advertising Balloon Company

Old Milwaukee rolled out a new TV commercial starring comedian Will Ferrell during the Super Bowl. You probably didn’t see it though, as it only ran in one place–the country’s second-smallest TV market, North Platte, Neb.

According to BusinessWeek, despite its tiny TV audience, the Old Milwaukee ad managed to outperform some of the nationally broadcast Super Bowl commercials in an increasingly important metric of Super Bowl advertising bragging rights: chatter on social-media networks.

On Sunday night, a user named Daddymcc uploaded a low-quality copy of the Ferrell commercial onto YouTube, which was subsequently linked to by Old Milwaukee’s official Facebook page. At this time, the video has been viewed 564,154 times.

What this says to me is that TV may be the source material that social media users spread, but the choice to spread one item over another is not determined by quality storytelling or production. Online, quirkiness is awarded. Hence, the popularity of cat photos and videos.

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The other day, Gary Vaynerchuk predicted that Super Bowl advertisers would extend the story told in their Super Bowl ads to online venues, and that these extensions would have us talking on Monday morning.

Didn’t happen (except in a few rare exceptions). In fact, if you look at the Toyota Camry spot, to name just one, it ends with the point that all Camry drivers have stories to tell. Yet, there’s no pointer for the viewer to follow, no place to hear more Camry-centric stories, or to tell them. Granted, there is a Toyota.com graphic at the end of the spot, but that’s hardly the “force ‘em online” that Vaynerchuk had in mind.

Which says what? Does it say that when it comes to Super Bowl advertising, it really is all about the TV audience, and the nerds with second and third screens can buzz off? I think it might.

In related news, Bob Hoffman is very disheartened by what he saw on Sunday.

This could be a turning point. It could be the year that the ad industry throws in the towel, admits it is bankrupt, and hands the keys over to the metrics maniacs.

I am afraid the advertising industry has been infiltrated by people who don’t really believe in advertising, don’t care much for it, and are not very good at it.

I feel Bob’s pain, but there will be no admission of defeat from industry spokespersons. The industry will continue to respond to clients’ whims, and to trends in media (like consumer-generated spots). What very few in the ad business will successfully do is lead. There’s reactive and proactive, and the ad business is the former, because we are all in client service.

Only a handful of agencies have ever shifted to a proactive stance, but even those masters have retreated, and begun to recycle their old spots, instead of driving hard to find a new way to do TV and a new way to make meaning in consumers’ minds.

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Why do I feel like Dan Wieden and crew have a not-so-secret deal with the White House to promote American values in this time of trouble? Probably because it shows in the agency’s reel.

Clearly, bailing out Wall Street and Detroit’s automakers was a political act; therefore, reshaping those brands is an also a political act, to some degree.

Here’s the original ad from Hal Riney that this new Clint Eastwood for Chrysler spot emulates:

And here are two other recent pro-America messages, brought to you by a big American brand and Wieden + Kennedy:

Understand, America and American brands need an awesome cheerleader, and I’m glad that W+K is doing this kind of work, because it’s not a job for hacks.

It should be noted that W+K also brings its pro-America, pro-poetry lens to the state of Oregon. Have a look:

Previously on AdPulp: Despite Massive Under-Employment, “We Are All Workers” | When It Comes To Muscle Cars, U.S.A. Doesn’t Tie

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