Becoming Minimalist

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8 Empty Promises in this Year’s Super Bowl Ads

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It is not surprising to us that marketers use whatever means necessary to separate us from our money. They would even admit as much. But it is surprising, at times, to see what depths they will sink in order to accomplish their goal.

The Super Bowl has long been marked as an American tradition, both for the game it represents and the marketing it provides. Ranked annually as the most-viewed television program of the year, there is no wonder Madison Avenue invests as much time into the game as the football teams themselves.

As somebody who has developed a great frustration over our consumer-driven culture, I often watch the commercials, not for entertainment’s sake, but to determine the underlying promises being offered behind the products. I am rarely pleased with what I find.

Often times, we discover marketers making promises they can’t possibly keep. Here were eight I noticed during this year’s Super Bowl.

8 Empty Promises in this Year’s Super Bowl Ads

1. An Automobile Can Make You a Better Parent. Hyundai.

Parenting is hard work. It requires intentionality, observation, wise counsel, strategy, and follow-through. And I get a little worried when a car manufacturer makes the claim that their vehicle can help me do it better.

Certainly, there is always room for new tools to parent better. But spending tens of thousands of dollars at a local car lot to buy a car I can track on my phone will never replace the parental impact of hard work, significant conversation, appropriate boundaries, and quality time.

2. A Television Can Prevent You from Missing Out. CBS.

I don’t know if there is any product in the world better at promoting its own self-interests than television. When we watch anything, we are bombarded with advertisements promoting other programs.

The networks, of course, are quite calculated in how they do this. Most often they feed on our fear of missing out by highlighting “This Year’s Most Watched Program,” “This Year’s Best New Series,” or “This Week’s Can’t Miss Game of the Year.” Each time, they subtly implant into our minds the false reality that everyone is watching. And with it, they include a promise they will never fulfill: the best way to never miss out on life is to spend it in front of a television.

3. A Candy Bar Can Give You Unparalleled Confidence. Butterfinger.

Over the years, I have noticed countless manufacturers promise their product will grant more self-confidence—cologne, cars, and clothing, just to name a few.

But this year, a candy bar made the same claim— that, somehow, chocolate covering a flaky, crisp, peanut butter-flavored center can make a person bolder than bold. This is a promise I may never understand—other than the fact that marketers routinely try to promise self-confidence packaged in their unique product.

4. A Body Spray Will Help You Discover Your Most Powerful Uniqueness. Axe.

Axe Body Spray is no stranger to attention and critique. Since 2003, they have made a name for themselves portraying various ways their products supposedly help men attract women. Teenage boys have worn their scent ever since.

This year, their promise was nuanced. While they did make a point to remind consumers that their product makes men irresistible to women, they also indicated their product will help wearers discover their most powerful uniqueness. How wearing the same scent as everyone else helps a young man discover his uniqueness, I’ll never know.

5. An App Can Get You a Mortgage (and all the stuff you’ve always wanted). Quicken Loans.

In one of the oddest commercials of the night, Quicken Loans promised its users quick, easy home ownership—mortgages seemingly available to anyone with a smart phone. And because home ownership inevitably results in more purchasing (lamps and blenders and couches), home ownership makes mortgages even more accessible to others as the cycle of demand increases.

I understand convenience is helpful and to a point, their premise is correct. Convenience and accessibility is a major driver in our compulsion to acquire. But the idea that making mortgages accessible to everyone is a smart move for our country fails to recognize the lessons we learned the hard way over the previous decade. I was glad to see The Washington Post renounce it so quickly.

6. A Watch Can Make You Stronger. Fitbit.

Our society loves shortcuts. And marketers love to manipulate this tendency whenever possible—especially when it comes to matters of health. The Fitbit watch advertisement is a good example. In this ad, consumers who wear the medal and plastic device around their wrist often display superior strength and health compared to those around them.

Fitbit had a strong Christmas mostly because of their subtle claims that wearing their product will get you into shape. Indeed, the watch may provide some helpful tools. But when it comes to matters of health, few things have changed within the human body. It still requires discipline and intentional effort—there are no shortcuts.

7. Watching Football Can Improve Intimacy With Your Spouse. Super Bowl Babies.

Certainly the NFL deserves credit for originality. Their internal data suggests Championship-winning cities see an increase in babies born nine months after the Super Bowl. Never mind the fact that “data suggests” is the strongest wording they felt comfortable using, they needed the studies to reinforce their promise: Football brings families together and may, if your team wins, result in more than your team getting lucky.

I won’t argue with their presumption because I haven’t seen the studies. And while the commonality of football may offer some bonding opportunities for families, I have a hard time believing football is an aphrodisiac in most interpersonal relationships.

8. A Fast Food Cheeseburger is Historically Delicious (and Healthy). Jack in the Box.

Fast food restaurants are not unique in making promises they can never fulfill. Chips, soda, and countless other processed foods do the same. Jack in the Box, perhaps with tongue-in-cheek, made the claim that their new Double Cheeseburger is “historically delicious.”

But this year, not only do they make empty promises concerning their burger’s flavor, they also make the claim that their new double cheeseburger is also healthy. Oh, they wouldn’t make the claim with actual words, that would be too obvious. Instead, they rely on image association. In their commercial, the new burger is offered to a healthy, fit, young jogger who gladly accepts the burger and proceeds to take a large bite out of it. The juxtaposition is clearly orchestrated and meant to instill a specific message and promise—this fried double-burger served with processed cheese and mayo is not bad for you. In fact, it is consistent with a healthy lifestyle.

As with most of the empty promises contained in this year’s Super Bowl ads, we ought to know better.

Joshua Becker

About Joshua Becker

Writer. Inspiring others to live more by owning less.
WSJ Bestselling author of The More of Less.

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Comments

  1. Hey Josh,

    you watch TV? I thought a real minimalist don’t owns a TV?
    Just for the fun…

    With this changed perspective on advertisements, one will always find a promise that couldn’t be kept by the advertisers. Its good to look behind the scenes to understand the misleading message(s).
    Well written article!

  2. The game itself was a boring advertisement for over-the-hill Republicans using HGH.

    That Quicken Loans ad was –by far–the most desperate and irresponsible consumption-for-consumption’s-sake advertisement I have ever seen. Its real pitch is, “Use Quicken Loans, get mass prosperity.”

    If that were *ever* true, I suppose that the headquarters of Quicken Loans must be some kind of worker’s paradise right? Oh wait, it’s not. It’s friggin’ DETROIT, where a good half of the city is being demolished thanks to the kind of usurious loansharking of QL and its friends in the banks.

    For the past couple of years, I snoozed through the actual NFL season without a television, and yet I tuned in to the Super Bowl online out of FOMO. Next year, I think I’m going to stick to my normal Sunday routine and turn it into a holiday dedicated to JOMO –the joy of missing out.

  3. Personally I think the biggest offender was “Paypal is new money.”

    But yeah, the Quicken Loans one was horrifying.

  5. We don’t watch the Super bowl here. We own a tv, but we don’t have cable/satellite/net flix. We do, occasionally, watch some shows online. Commercials are annoying to me. They tell us how amazing our lives will be, if we just buy another product. I don’t need another product to have a more amazing life. It is sad the depths of lowness we tend to see advertisers sink to for sure.

  7. So what’s the issue with the Doritos commercial? It’s your picture, but I don’t see an issue with it… It’s chips… Are minimalists allowed to eat spicy chips?

  8. As an advertising agency owner, it is important to note who the target audience is. I agree most of the commercials were horrible yet, some were very creative. The commercials my generation do not like, I am 54, are not targeted towards us. Ex: Doritos, Quicken, Axe.

    I liked the Honda commercial with the sheep and Queen song. Got its message across, was entertaining and memorable. BAAAA

    • Hey Chuck, not for nothing, but I am *the* target demographic for the Quicken/Rocket ad: the upper end of the millennial generation in age, stable employment, and I have some assets. The absolute garbage message of that ad is easy for me encapsulate: it’s the classic “get on the bandwagon!” ad. The problem: the bandwagon is moving 100 mph into a brick wall.

      What do I mean? After *just* clearing their balance sheets of delinquencies –through foreclosures, short sales, and the outright fire sales to the REIT’s– the banks are finally back in the mood to make loans.

      In the leadup to the last recession, the people getting ripped off were the working poor Gen X’ers and Boomers who needed homes as shelter for families, but who were severely upsold into more house than they could afford. The tactics were artificially cheap teaser rates as well as propaganda about homes being an “asset.” That demographic has been gouged so severely, they won’t come back to the kind of usurious mortgages they were offered pre-Recession.

      So now the targets are middle class millennials, and it’s easy to see the sort of desperate tactics the finance industry is willing to use. First, there’s the soft sell: a billion and one think pieces talking about how millennials aren’t settling down, having kids, and buying homes. Just look at the so-called “experts” that are quoted: half of them come right out of the same banks who were defrauding Boomers and Gen X’ers only a couple years ago. The other half are the court astrologers who do business as marketing consultants.

      But now, with these ads, you see the hard sell. It’s aimed squarely at taking money millennials really ought to be using to create emergency funds and early retirement savings, so that they don’t spend the inevitable *next* Recession in even worse shape. Instead, the banks want them shoving that money into 15 and 30 year long mortgages (and the required down payments).

      Is that because home ownership is so important? Or perhaps it’s really because there’s a *lot* more money for banks and brokers to either originate or service mortgages than there is in being the lowly custodian/fiduciary of a retirement fund.

      So in essence, the bank and broker cartel’s pitch is, “get a mortgage, you lazy selfie-taking millennials! We don’t care if your parents are looking forward to cat food retirements because of ARM balloon payments, BUY BUY BUY. We don’t care if you’re still paying student loans (or worse, looking forward to the bomb of Income Based Repayment tax burdens)! MORTGAGE MORTGAGE MORTGAGE. And while you’re at it, BUY BUY BUY stand mixers and exotic looking furniture (with even *more* usurious consumer loans and store credit)! And if you care about your future, you’re a goddamned COMMIE who won’t make AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

      And really, who needs that? Not me. And not America.

      • Valentine’s Day could be used as a correlation for an increase in all babies, but not if the uptick is only seen in cities where teams have just won the Super Bowl. Just, you know, logic.

    • I remember learning that Super Bowl was the highest night for domestic violence if the team the man wanted to win did not win. I wonder if that is true any longer?

  10. I realized just how much reading becomingminimalist has helped me see how much junk we all accumulate when I thought of minimalism during the rocket mortgage (Quicken Loans) commercial. Buy a home! Easy! Buy stuff to fill that home! Easy! Are we happy yet??

  11. I really laughed about the Super Bowl equals babies commercial. I think more babies are born in September/October because making babies is a wonderful way to keep warm and release stress in the cold months after the holidays.

    • There’s a cognitive disconnect when you find “analysis” of advertising on a minimalist blog. Owning a television set isn’t minimalist in any way, considering the bourgeois and capitalist messages being spewed 24/7.

  15. You forgot to mention the Prius commercial. How they imply that you can get away with bank robbery with their new and fast car.

  16. I can’t say much as I was intentionally following your advice to pursue experiences rather than things and my family and I had a weekend playing in the snow and taking in mountain scenery. No TV needed. We had a wonderful time.

  17. That Quicken Loans mortgage app ad was beyond ridiculous. I knew there would be many in the PF world renouncing it today–for good reason. Glad to see the Washington Post did as well. What a horror if our economy can only grow with mortgage approval apps!

  18. How about Michelob Ultra is a sport drink! I thought for sure with was a Nike or Under Armour ad until the end, everyone in the room was all WTF? :-)

  19. The quicken loans commercial was the one that really stood out to me. It was like an advertisement for “stuff” and hoarding. It was promoting the american dream to be about buying and communing only. Awful! I do enjoy super bowl ads, but this year was quite underwhelming.

    • Didn’t you know? the only way to get ahead in life is debt! because when you have payments coming out your ears and your financial life is crumbling, MAYBE THEN you will be happy….oh wait…

  20. I watch the ads for the creativity and entertainment not for the product.

    I personally enjoyed the sheep and Queen. My favorite band and is was funny. Nothing else really stood out this year. The all time best commercial is the Budweiser pony who grows up and sees the fellow who raised him in a crowd during a parade and runs towards the fellow with a touching reunion. (I don’t drink Bud but I sure hope beer is not wrong when becoming a minimalist!)

      • The sad case is that people do fall for that stuff, because it’s entertainment.

        The easiest illustration of this: think of how hard wired American behavior around football is, without any real connection between the behavior and football. And think of how much of that comes from omnipresent advertisement that just blends into the background.

        For example, is there some hard and fast rule that says we *have* to drink beer and eat savory snacks at Super Bowl parties? No. But I bet that if you were to serve wine and sweet snacks instead, someone would look at you funny.

    • Advertisment works on a subconcious level. Studies have shown that most people sincerely believe advertising has no effect on them, that they’re “too smart” for it. But in fact it does alter behavior and effect buying habits. But on top of that, would you buy a bottle of soap you don’t recgonize, or a name brand you’ve seen a million commercials for? It’s just our nature to buy products we’ve seen as opposed to those we haven’t, because we assume if it became a big brand name then it must be a superior product. Not bad reasoning at all, but it might not always be the case.

      • I believe this! My mom used to watch Olive Garden commercials, and when I got home from work, she’d be all ready to go out to eat! Or cooking shows! She’d say “go online and get me the recipe, this looks good and I want to make it!”

  23. Last year I think there was a Super Bowl commercial that had a curse word in it; this year, Axe puts basically a sex scene in their ad. And apparently Axe can help men attract members of both sexes. Commercials may be full of empty promises, but they are certainly full of garbage! Ugh! And I agree that the Michelob Ultra ad was bizarre and the Colgate ad was the best.

  24. We went to the movies instead. Two hours giggling in the theater with my husband and daughter was way better! Plus, we had the theater, and the city for that matter, all to ourselves.

  25. I completely agree with all of this. The Doritos commercial especially got me. Yes your unborn child is already craving sweets?
    I am so glad I found this website and people who think the way I do.
    I did watch the SuperBowl because I’m a Denver fan, but the commercials are just beyond me.

  26. Advertising is what made me pull the plug on t.v. 17 years ago. Some things never change. I haven’t missed a thing!

    • I’ve never owned a T.V. When I mention that to people, they say, “You’re not missing much!” But they insist they can never get rid of theirs!

      The best thing to do with a T.V. set is put it out on your curb. It certainly would solve the problem of “analysis” of advertising, which on a minimalist blog leaves one scratching their heads.

      Here’s Indymedia’s quote on the Super Bowl taking place here in the Bayarrhea:

      ‘The most expensive single sports game on Earth kicked off under unprecedented militarization of the police and the highest levels of inequality since the Great Depression.”

      In my opinion, blustering and blathering on about the advertising legitimizes the system under which the criminal enterprise called professional sports takes place. An opiate of the masses.

  27. Hmmm, the study on pregnancy…… Was it just an oversight that Valentine’s day is a week away from the super bowl?

    • It wasn’t just that the mortgages were easy. If that were the problem, you’d have a fairly small issue, much earlier than the actual bubble burst. The problem is that the mortgages were easy to sign (low requirements and teaser rates), hard to deal with (balloon payments), then allowed to be hastily refinanced to keep the pot growing –all while being packaged, turned into securities, invested into and insured by banks.

      We should not make the mistake of thinking that the poor people who were conned into these arrangements were the ones who blew up the economy. At worst, they wanted more house than they could afford, and they did so because people kept whispering in their ear that the resale prices would justify it.

      Bankers and mortgage brokers blew up the economy. They saw the balance sheets, they allowed for unchecked greed, and they produced both moral hazard and systemic risk.

      They also advertised on the Super Bowl.

  29. “They could secure mortgages of their own, further stoking demand for necessary household goods as our tidal wave of ownership floods the country with new homeowners who now MUST own other things. And isn’t that the power of America itself?”

    Oh my goodness, that Quicken ad!

    Isn’t this exactly what we should be going away from?? Isn’t this why Half the world hates America? And don’t tell me people are buying hand made wooden legs, they are buying massed produced goods from China. Awful, awful ad.

  32. If you’re on the Minimalist blog/ site /email list….something pulled you here. The idea to me, is that there is a payoff w/ growing your awareness that these commercials are even playing in the room and are loud and clear, but possibly have a subliminal aggravation, that your mind must respond to. . .Is it a message (I) want to have to filter at all? Yes, I believe it is worth mentioning in a Minimalist lifestyle article. Awareness, name of the game…I watch tv some, and try to watch my thoughts around commercials & content (w/ shows, movies & series). To me, it’s like a game….I desire some things I don’t need. Good article !

  33. I love this and am sharing it on facebook.
    I don’t watch the Superbowl nor do we have cable, but I am often talking with my kids about marketing and ads and why it always comes down to companies wanting to make money. I love how you broke these down into empty promises…so wise.

    Sarah M

  35. You never see cute young laughing people in fast food restaurants. Only in their commercials!

  36. I agree with the comments that you’re taking this too seriously (or at least writing about it too seriously–perhaps for effect?), not to mention that you should give people more credit than you are regarding their ability to see advertising for what it is. Although I readily admit that if there are any demons, they arise from the world of marketing and advertising and their ongoing drip-drip-drip of messaging–but that’s not any different from the ongoing promotion of minimalism as a lifestyle. All effective marketing manages to capture a something that resonates with people and is thus able to be successfully promoted, regardless of target demographic or “product” offered.

    Call me cynical :)

    Anyway, I’ve no doubt that Super Bowl ads are first and foremost viewed for their entertainment value; I’ve no issues with deconstructing them, but would suggest beginning with the premise that the ads are designed to entertain and stir up discussions like these (while selling, of course). Doesn’t bother me–but I’ve been in marketing my entire career and view consumer marketing as an interesting form of interpersonal communication and social interaction that is no different from political organization, creating community, and so forth.

  37. Interesting post, Joshua! Still, I think saying any of these ads makes an empty promise, is a bit of a stretch. Like me, most people I know appreciate the creativity and entertainment value of these ads.

    Given that, I can’t image anyone taking the Hyundai ad as promising to make one a better parent. Frankly, I took it as an overprotective parent (not a better parent) using new technology in an obnoxious way.

    Some ads are simply aspirational, and I think that applies to fitbit. As a fitbit user with many friends and business associates who also use it, I’ve not found anyone who thinks the device provides a shortcut. For many, the data provides great feedback and motivation on the road to better health.

    As it relates to ads, you may want to take a look at Virginia Postrel’s “The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion.” In it she says:

    “Glamour is an illusion and, according to its critics, a dangerous snare. But because it recognizes and concentrates real desires, the mirage can also prove a valuable, life-enhancing inspiration. Glamour, we can now say, is … an illusion “known to be false but felt to be true.” It focuses inchoate desires and embodies them in the image or idea of a person, a setting, an artifact, or occasionally a concept. By inviting projection and making the ideal feel attainable, the glamorous image intensifies longing and, in some cases, moves the audience to action.”

    Frankly, I think minimalism (especially as visually presented) similarly makes a transformational promise! Yet, I think we’d agree that it’s not an empty one.

  39. I don’t really think that somebody is going to go out and buy a car just because an ad promised them something. BUT I do think that someone who is already looking at buying a new car would be heavily swayed to choose a particular brand if they enjoyed their ad.

    I think most people reading your blog however would not be the kind of people to be swayed in this way which is probably why they think you are over reacting.

    I work in retail & I definitely know that people ARE convinced to buy things because of advertisements.
    “Do you have that thing from that ad” is something I would hear many times a day. “Sorry sir, I don’t watch ads, do you know the name of the product” is often met with such disbelief! It’s actually pretty scary the amount of times somebody doesn’t even know the name of the thing they want to buy.

    • I work retail too…and trust us…ads work! And yes, people don’t even know what they’re coming in for…*just that thing I saw in the ad*!!! And they always leave without that “thing they saw in the ad” but have arms full of useless junk.

  41. Thoughtful post! I could not stomach how stupid these commercials were. In the past, at least,these used to be more creative!

  42. I was more disturbed that Peyton Manning said the same thing twice during his interviews about his priorities of hugging his wife and kids and drinking Budweiser all night. I’m like….really dude? You can’t even answer a question without being paid off to advertise? He said it twice, Robot-Peyton like Robot Rubio. Disappointing.

    • They asked him in the second interview to repeat what he said in his first interview so he did. He is not paid by Budweiser.

      • The author of the blog has acknowledged that he’s a neoliberal capitalist. Doesn’t make any bones about it. He thinks it’s a great system and that it will “solve” all of society’s problems. His perspective lacks class analysis, but then capitalists don’t examine political and social issues through the lens of class. All they care about is profit and protecting the bourgeoisie’s oppressive policies.

        How that fits with minimalism is anybody’s guess. Maybe you can take a stab at it!

  44. We watched one of our favorite westerns ‘Cheyenne’. Haven’t had cable for 16 years. I agree that ads are made to make you discontent. I was born in the 60’s and we never had a TV. What a blessing.

  45. As a Brit I found this interesting because we don’t have adverts during sporting events (BBC has a licence fee – isn’t funded by advertisers) – although we do get oodles of ads during other programmes on other channels.
    How does it work with sport though? – I mean, when do they insert adverts? – isn’t there the possibility of missing a goal/try/run/wicket (sorry, over here it’s mainly football(soccer), rugby, cricket that would be most popular).
    Oh, and I totally agree about the Axe comment (we call it Lynx here) – how on earth can you be individual when every other young man is wearing it?!

    • Really, what you need to know is that play in American football is not a structured around continuous play like soccer or rugger. It uses similar skills, but used in a series of timed set pieces (called “downs”).

      Timekeeping for the game is thus separated from real time –the clock that matters is the duration of the play in the set pieces– which is how a game that is ostensibly 1 hour long actually runs 3 hours of real time.

      American football is thus not a great in-person spectator sport, but enjoyable on television –most of the fun is trying to understand the tactics and strategy, which television can make much more enjoyable than IRL.

      That’s in total contrast with European styled sports, which are mostly from the pre-television era when you’d have to be in the stadium (and in the case of West Indies cricket, where entire towns shut down for the matches). In that case, advertisement is bought and sold wholesale (e.g., entire stadiums with one big sponsor, or advertisements on jerseys).

      This isn’t to say that one form is better or worse than another, they’re just different. The norm for soccer, where you have AIG or Etihad’s logo on the front of a jersey, would be totally rejected by Americans as “too commercial” just because it violates our sense of normalcy.

      The closest America ever got to that kind of marketing was when there was when Disney formed a hockey team and called it the Mighty Ducks (after their own movie), and they were a laughing stock until Disney sold the team off.

  46. Interesting perspective! I think it can provide great value to watch commercials with a critical eye. I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, so I didn’t have the pleasure of viewing these ads. But, I can think of another scenario where analysis of commercials may be beneficial…during a conversation with children as they watch Saturday morning cartoons! Advertisers strive to convince children that “this toy” will make them popular, happy…whatever message they seek to convey. Questioning and challenging the message from advertisers is a great lesson to teach children, and one that will hopefully stay with them into adulthood.

  47. The first one made me mad about something else. That Dad is so over the line that he cannot see it anymore. I see it in a lot of americans movie so I guess that it is a okay way for a dad to behave? (I am not an american).
    I would be so angry at my dad and then meet up with friends or date without him knowing it.

    It is sad to see ads for what they are, I don’t stop enught to think about the message they are sending.

  48. Not a sports fan so I skipped the Super Bowl, but a friend emailed me the “Puppymonkeybaby” commercial. My take away: Looks like people who did serious drugs in their youth can go on to a very lucrative career in advertising!

  50. I can definitely see your issue with the commercials here! I just try to take them with a grain of salt, though. In fact, before I started reading this article I couldn’t even remember all that many of them. The only thing I was interested in that night was the new Captain America trailer, honestly :). But I do agree with one of the above commenters that PayPal was another commercial filled with empty promises.

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