Good morning, Monday. I'm greeting the day with eyes half shut- tired this am but still thinking about last night's super bowl. With all the talk of women rising, marketers missed a major opportunity last night to speak to women. Not sure if you knew this, but recent studies have shown that more women watch the big game for commercials than men. ( A Marist poll reveals 84% of men are more into the game itself rather than the ads. This compares with 63% of women). For me, this says "wake up Madison Avenue and beyond". You're spending all of this money for your 30 second spot and you're only talking the boys? La-ame. Yes I know the super bowl is the end all be all of male bonding, but wake up already. We're right there with the boys on the sofa. Oh, and we buy stuff too, in case you didn't know. We actually really, really like buying stuff.
Where were super shop sites like Gilt? With all of their success, you would think they would pony up for a little air time. And Groupon's spots, though quirky and fun (oh and offensive too), would have been better served by also speaking to the estrogen contingent, as everyone knows we love to go on said Groupon and purchase facials, massages, and keratin treatments. Now I know I'm sort of contradicting myself, and talking about things that are stereotypically female. That's true- so why not incorporate more gender neutral commercials if so many ladies are watching? Do marketers think we're all too busy juggling careers, babies, and triathlons to be watching the game at all? One or two spots for the broads or ads that were not so macho would have been smart. Unless I was in a banana pudding coma, I can't recall seeing any, even though our buying muscle is pumped and ready for a workout. And back to sites like Gilt and Rue La La- as I sat with my computer in my lap posting updates on how much the Black Eyed Peas butchered halftime, I was wondering why the premier discount sites did not hold some sort of "style bowl" in honor of the game- sure they had their typical Sunday night sales, but seems to me they could have promoted the heck out of some special sales in honor of watchful husbands being distracted by end zones and such. Yet another missed opportunity. My take overall was the car companies came out ahead- Chevy was clever, VW killed it with the Darth Vader Jetta spot, and Chrysler with Eminem was fantastic, loved the voice over and the writing in particular on that one. Other than that, I was less than thrilled. I truly think mad men missed the mark this year by not speaking to us at all. Valentine's Day is coming up and I would have loved to see a spot, with a woman as the principle talent, talking to men about women want this year, at the very least .Not some stupid FTD ad with Faith Hill, where she awkwardly sits with a horny young guy, who has nothing to say on his card to his girl other than "nice rack", or something like that (I'm lost on semantics. Still half asleep over here...) Faith, gorgeous, beautiful, sexy Faith, was there for the taking, to talk to guys about what women want out of a bouquet. Instead the spot was tepid, and once again made men look stupid. If men are truly falling behind after losing their jobs in what many have called a "mancession", we need to empower them yet again to not seem so pathetic. I am all for lad jokes and love hanging with the guys, but I can't help but notice that as women ascend, men are falling down the ladder a bit in how they're portrayed by the media, Hollywood, and Mad Ave. (I wonder how many creatives who came up with all of these spots were women. Probably not many...) Next year, maybe shopping sites will get smart and brands who lease air time will get hip to the fact that women are watching too, and not just because the football players have cute butts. And as someone who has worked in advertising for eons, I too want to be spoken to and not ignored. The gender playing field is getting level folks, time to start acknowledging the ladies when concepting these mega ads. I did notice Old Navy and Chevy went for ads during Glee, which I assume marketers feel women are more apt to watch, after bellies full of food and beer, there is nothing like a good, reworked show tune. I've said my peace. Now let's get on with this day, shall we? Cause that's what's up this post bowl Monday in the MIA. XO