Superbowl Commercial Cost

I have no doubt what so ever that the people developing the commercials for the Superbowl, and the companies benefitting from the advertisements, believe that it is worth three million dollars for 30 seconds... after all, hundreds of thousands of people sit on their butts and watch the game, and will be exposed to those advertisements... which definitely impacts the consumer market for the products being advertised. However, I look at things from a more realistic point of view, so I disagree.

Three million dollars for thirty seconds? Three million dollars, if you have to use it for advertising, could go a lot farther than one commercial. You could create billions of flyers, do hundreds of commercials during non-Superbowl time... any number of things. I'm not sure of exact statistics, but I'm willing to bet that doubling your advertising during off-season would gain you just as many customers as one commercial during a football game.

Furthermore, with disasters such as the earth quake in Haiti, I think that there are a lot more important things to focus the world's money on than Budweiser. I guess that's not really relavent to the media though....

It's obvious that the reason a commercial during the Superbowl costs so much is that it is one of the biggest games of the year, and has the largest audience to broadcast to. As well, it's necessary to make the commercials entertaining and eye-catching, to stand out amoung the dozens of other commercials aired during that time. Worth it though? I think not... especially since, not being a football fan, I don't benefit at all from that 3 million... I've got no idea what trendy new products they're advertising and I know a lot of other people who won't either.