You Cannot Escape From Carlos Mencia

By Spencer Hall
The Super Bowl is a huge event for both professional football players and the advertising industry. If this is news to you, it means you probably spend the commercial breaks during the Super Bowl talking to friends, making impromptu bets, and otherwise being human. Kudos to you for doing that.
If you’re like the rest of us, though, you spend the breaks waiting like happy lemmings for the latest and greatest in extremely expensive advertising. Some of it’s awful, and occasionally, some of it’s brilliant, like ETrade’s dancing monkey ad from the height of the internet boom in 2000.

For those who like their advertising with easy racial stereotypes and stolen material, I have great news: Bud Light, a very prominent buyer in the Super Bowl market, will trot out the Hottest Comic of 2005, Carlos Mencia, for another Bud Light ad featuring his innovative views on race, gender, and sexuality. When this ad comes on, I’ll be doing something more fulfilling, like putting my fingers in a vise grip or touching glowing lightbulbs with my bare hands.
For those who think that Super Bowl advertising doesn’t matter anymore, take the cautionary tale of those office-combat ads from Career Builder.com as an example of just how wrong you are:
[quote="Chicago Tribune"]Last year, after issuing pink slips to its popular chimps, CareerBuilder kicked off a new ad campaign during the Super Bowl called “Jungle Inc.” One spot had employees attacking each other in a promotion pit.
When the ads weren’t included in USA Today’s Top 10 commercials of the game, CareerBuilder put the account up for review and Cramer-Krasselt, its agency for five years, either was fired or resigned the account, depending on reports.[/quote]
Oh, and don’t try to use the word “beaver” in ads. No idea why this word is banned--none--but GoDaddy.com’s already had a spot rejected because it used the word. Oregon State is saddened to hear that they are forever shut out of the Super Bowl ad market, I’m sure.↵