The Super Bowl is this weekend, and unfortunately for the city of Indianapolis, the Colts are absent this year. What makes it even worse is that the New England Patriots, the Colts current biggest rival, will be representing the AFC this year. I will be honest, if the Colts are not in it, I am really only interested in the commercials and the half-time performances (Paula Abdul is making a comeback!?!?)

The Super Bowl has long been considered selling season; a time which corporations put their best foot forward and spend the most money to come up with a commercial that people will remember. I came across an article today discussing whether or not these Super Bowl ads actually get consumers to spend money, which I thought was a good question. After spending months coming up with the perfect commercial and millions of dollars to get air time for that ad, is it actually worth it? The article goes on to state that success also depends on the buzz beyond the bowl, which is where I think a little bit of PR comes into play. The day after the Super Bowl, there seem to be more articles and blog postings written about which commercials were the funniest rather than articles written about the actual game. This editorial coverage often leads to links to watch the commercials and discussions in the comments sections and forums. After all is said and done, I think the advertisers are aiming to get people talking about their product after the commercial airs, which is exactly what we in the PR industry do. We get people talking about a product, generating interest and hopefully ending in the sale of that product. In the end, I think the corporations that benefit the most from a Super Bowl commercial are the ones that get people talking about it the next day (or week).

So, in a world saturated with advertising, PR goes hand in hand. So, which advertisements are getting the most play on Monday, February 4? There is your real winner.