Super Bowl ads score tech touchdown

Football is not my thing, neither is it my husband’s. But we are both in media, he working in advertising. So instead of watching yesterday’s big game, we Tivoed it and, instead of forwarded passed the commercials, we forwarded through the game to watch the commercials.

Although it was at a very high cost, I was glad to see Intel’s return to the game’s advertising after a 12-year hiatus with commercial and post-game sponsorship. Seeing companies like Intel push toward mainstream audience appeal sits well with me, as it, in a roundabout way, encourages better awareness of what it is engineers do and why it’s important. It’s doubtful that the average viewer will get what an Intel Core processor does anymore than my husband gets why I laugh to the point of tears at Intel’s “Sponsors of Tomorrow/Rock Star” ads (view the Ajay Rhatt ad here). But the ads from the company, as well as other tech names like Super Bowl newcomer Google and Vizio, which focused its advertising on consumer electronics ease of use and access to Internet applications like Twitter and NetFlix via TV sets, scored a touchdown with me and were a refreshing change to the typical talking babies and beer “whatzzup” ads of years gone by.

Below is the Intel cafeteria ad, good for a quick chuckle. And be sure to check out this story on the top 10 Super Bowl tech ads of all time, of course featuring Apple’s “1984” ad.