It's that time of year again! Not everyone watches the Superbowl to see fine football being played. Some of us watch to see the commercials and others to watch the tight ends of the tight ends. This book, subtitled "How the Commercials Won the Game", by Bernice Kanner is a book that could appeal to those who watch the Superbowl mostly to see the commercials. While the rest of the participants in the superbowl party use the commercial breaks to refill their drinks or empty their bladders, commercialphiles can get the best seats in the house to see what the greatest minds in the advertising industry think we'll fall for this year.
"The Superbowl of Advertising" would definitely be more interesting as a DVD or an on-line publication. Talking about a commercial, even very descriptively, is just not the same as seeing the commercial. The background information is nice to have (how much it cost to make or how much the time costs to air it, for example) but I found myself several times saying, Stop describing the damn commercial! Show it to me. A couple of still shots was the best the author could do. In many cases, the description just wasn't enough to convince me the advertisers knew what they were doing or the companies that paid for the time were getting anywhere close to their money's worth. For example, there just aren't enough words in the language to describe this ad by EDS (click on the triangle in the picture to start the video clip):
I'm probably the last person in the world to see this but I still think it is wonderfully done.
In spite of this problem, there is some historical value in the book. And for those who faithfully watched every superbowl commercial, the book could bring back tons of memories. For anyone else, I would recommend checking it out from you local library.
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