Super Bucks & Risks for Super Bowl Spots

This Sunday it won't just be the New York Giants versus the New England Patriots, Eli Manning versus Tom Brady, or the NFC's #4 seed versus the AFC's #1 seed in Super Bowl 46, it will also be company versus company in the heated commercial-spot showdown.

Every year the marketing departments of gigantic, sustained companies, mid-level's looking for high-level attention, and upstarts hoping to make a monster splash, have to sit around their respective offices and try to develop a commercial that's original, visually astounding, funny, and thought provoking enough to encourage the boss to scribe a US$3.5 million (this year's average Super Bowl commercial spot price) cheque for a 30-second spot.

It's a huge risk. There's never any guarantee that any commercial is going to strike the chord in which a company shelled out the big bucks to hit. But if one does, I'm only to assume that the company reaps some kind of reward after the fact.

That said, I'm much more interested in knowing what it's like for those who created spots that ultimately fumbled the ball, dropped the pass, or kicked it wide right, if you will.

When they wake up the next day and discover that the media has put their contributions on the "Worst of" Super Bowl commercial lists, do their stomachs instantly turn as visions of pink slips and want-ads dance in their heads? Does it become time to start hunting for vacant window ledges?

Furthermore, do they somehow think that as soon as they leave their homes, they're going to be chased by pitchfork wielding bosses and an angry mob of online advertising elitists that trash such failures via Twitter and blog posts?

More interestingly, do they really care at all? Sure, it must suck to be creative contributors for a Super Bowl commercial that didn't impress, especially considering the millions upon millions of eyes that saw it. And sure it must be an awful feeling to think about how the higher-ups are going to react to investing heavily in something that died on the screen. But, it's not like these creative dudes created the Super Bowl commercial landscape, and its obvious risk and (potential) reward situation.

This perverted environment has been manufactured and continually expanded by the networks and the National Football League (NFL). They know how wide of a TV audience the Super Bowl will receive, and therefore uses that as a way to justify such incredibly ridiculous commercial spot costs. As a result, companies need to get more bang for their buck, and have to go big, or go home whimpering.

Naturally the commercial makers need to be cognizant of the larger stage in which they're expected to perform upon during the annual event, and should aim for the sky. But, like in the game, there's going to be winners and losers. I hope both they, and their bosses understand that.

There are very few guarantees in life, and when it comes to creative endeavours that are embarked upon with the hope of capturing and influencing a mass audience, there are even fewer guarantees. It's just a shame that nowadays life has to work that way for the artistic types in the commercial development world.

Three and a half million dollars (plus production costs) is a big number to live up to: I don't know if I'd be able to create affectively with such a high figure hanging above my brain. Kudos to those that can, and kudos to those that take their best shots.