Skip to footer

Super Bowl commercials show creativity trumps special effects

The Super Bowl commercials showed that a well-executed idea is better than a big budget. Super Bowl commercials with large casts and loud music were underwhelming when pitted against the originality of a spot like the Kia 'Babylandia' commercial.

|
Hyundai/AP
The best Super Bowl commercials were ones like the Kia 'Babylandia' ad that showcased creativity rather than a huge budget.
  • By John Kehe Staff Writer

So what to make of the spectacle that was Super Bowl XX something-or-other?

Good game in the end. A real nail-biter.

The ads? Definitely a mixed bag, but if there was a takeaway on what separated the good from the bad and ugly, it was that more special effects, larger casts, and louder music add up to much less than a good idea well-executed, be it still photos of stoic American farmers, the intimate partnership of colt and trainer, or the sexy charm of the Fiat family. Kia's “Babylandia” spot won the hearts of viewers not so much for the effects, but for the design of the effects – very old-school futuristic, like the toys we played with as kids – and the dad's realization that the fairy-tale he was spinning wasn't working. The little ones already knew!

The entertainment – I'm still exhausted from watching every second of Beyonce's... show? Workout? Martial arts? What was that, anyway? No doubt she's got it all. But does she have to do it all at once? Call me old-fashioned, but I like a song that moves me in some way, and I'm not talking about the drum machine. I get that one needs to gin up the “spectacular” to qualify as a Super Bowl Spectacular. But Prince put on quite a show and the songs still stood out. Madonna's songs stood out. The Who, Tom Petty, Springsteen. When songs become relegated to background music merely to support dancers and pyrotechnics, I glaze over, and I don't think I'm alone if you look at the online reaction to Beyonce's performance.

As for Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, I was entertained and moved, but the best performance of Super Bowl XLVII had to be the spunky kids from Sandy Hook Elementary. Not to mention the awesome choreography!

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Super Bowl commercials show creativity trumps special effects
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2013/0204/Super-Bowl-commercials-show-creativity-trumps-special-effects
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe