Super Bowl ads aim for sentiment over sex

Several factors have contributed tosluggish Super Bowl ad sales this year.

For starters,the price of a 30-second spot has risen to $4.5 million US from $4 million last year. Thegames image has been tarnished by the NFLs domestic violence scandals. Mostsignificant of all is a growing realization that Super Bowl ads can be a bad investment.

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Adog helped Volkswagen launch its redesigned Beetle in the 2012 Super Bowl, which illustrates two current trends.

Research indicates that Super Bowl ads perform below average in brandawareness and purchase intent compared to much cheaper ads running the rest ofyear. And car ads are among the worst performers.

After playing a prominent role in many SuperBowls,VWis reportedly sittingout Sunday's show, along with GM, Lincoln, Jaguar, HondaandAcura.

The only ads that actually do wellare for new, unfamiliar products, and ads that generate emotion.

Which brings us backto dogs.

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Last years winner of the Super Bowl Ad Meter which measures viewer favourites was Budweisers Puppy Love,a spot that shamelessly tugged at heartstrings bydepicting the relationship between a puppy and a Clydesdale.

While in the past, sexualdesire was more popular, todayits teary-eyed sentiment.

This year, eschewing the sexual objectification of previous Super Bowl ads, GoDaddy decided to pair spokeswoman Danica Patrick with a golden retriever puppy in an ad that cheekily references Budweiser's Puppy Love.Thespot, which makes a joke about selling dogs online,upset some animal lovers, promptingGoDaddy to pull the ad before the big game.

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Toyotas Super Bowl ad will be an inspirational story from Paralympicsnowboarder AmyPurdy.

Seven out of 10finalists in this years DoritosCrash the Super Bowl contestfeature babies or kids, proven sentiment generators.

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After spending so much on the game, this years marketers definitely want ads thatgenerate results. So many are opting for emotion, which tends to bypass our consciousmind and go directly into our subconscious.

This builds warm feelings for a brand wemay not even be aware of until we see the product in a store.

Bruce Chambers is a syndicated advertising columnist for CBC Radio.