We’re Just Watching for the Commercials

The Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. For the forty-eighth time, football fanatics across America will be piled around enormous flat screens, downing pounds of hot wings and beer, while rooting for their desired team to take the trophy. The Super Bowl is an annual game looked forward to by millions of Americans; therefore it’s hard for even a small mistake to go unnoticed.

            Last year, it wasn’t all that difficult to point out the biggest fail of the event. Shortly after Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child’s halftime performance, the power went out at the Superdome in New Orleans. Fans in stadium as well as at home watched as half of the field went dark during the beginning of the third quarter. While electricians worked to fix the problem, journalists took to Twitter to live tweet the blackout, and in less than five minutes, the #SuperBowlblackout was the number one topic trending worldwide.

            Journalists and reporters weren’t the only people to bank on the unfortunate electrical shortage. Many other brands thought quickly and took their ideas to Twitter. Oreo created an advertisement with the slogan “You can still dunk in the dark,” while Tide quickly followed suit by tweeting “We can’t get your blackouts, but we can get your stains out.” Other brands like Walgreen, Audi and PBS tweeted out creative puns and slogans pertaining to the blackout.

            Though that particular Super Bowl presented a unique opportunity for brands to bank on, most have to shell out thousands and even millions of dollars in order to grab a spot during one of the highly coveted commercial blocks. Super Bowl commercials have become such a big part of the event over the past couple of years. Some viewers only watch in order to see this years most talked about commercials. Probably the most watched commercial was Dodge’s “God Made a Farmer” commercial. The brand spiked 1722 percent on Yahoo during the game. Other commercials received positive feedback and increases in views such as Mercedes and Budweiser. On the other hand, though some brands got an increased viewership, it wasn’t for the right reason. Go Daddy was the third most talked about brand after Super Bowl 2013, but it wasn’t because of the fuzzy feelings it left in our hearts but more of a disturbing image scared in our brains. Other brands like Skittles and Doritos also received harsh criticism for their unsettling commercials.

            I’ve personally seen both Go Daddy’s and Skittle’s commercials that they decided to play during the Super Bowl and I just don’t understand how so many people thought they would end up going over well with fans. Neither is appropriate for children under 13 and I even found them rather uncomfortable to watch, so I can’t imagine how parents who were trying to enjoy the game with their kids reacted. As far as I’ve read, neither brand is being featured during a commercial break during this year’s Super Bowl game, while other brands like Dodge and Ford have spots again. The marketing and PR teams for both brands have a lot of image reconstruction to go through before we could hope to see them during a Super Bowl again.

http://mashable.com/2013/02/04/brands-super-bowl-social-media/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/sports/football/super-bowl-blackout-caused-by-device-meant-to-prevent-it.html?_r=0

http://searchengineland.com/super-bowl-commercials-2013-edition-what-about-search-engines-147766

Does Unethical mean Illegal? #untj4470

           It has recently been revealed that Microsoft and Electronic Arts, the American developer and distributor of video games, have been paying the creators of YouTube to promote their products while also requiring the information about the payment to be kept undisclosed. Now, both big businesses are under attack by the media for their unethical performance. However, it seems as though, no matter how unethical the act, it doesn't exactly violate the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) guidelines. 
            When the issue was first discovered, it was made known that both Microsoft and Machinima, a video gaming network, agreed to pay YouTube for its promotion of the new Xbox One; $3 for every 1,000 page views. The agreement came with many other stipulations such as how long the promotion had to be, how the product was mentioned, as well as banning any negatives comments said by the creators of YouTube about the product or either company. 
            Though the secret transactions would seem rather illegal to most, according to the FTC, Microsoft and Electronic Arts have done nothing wrong in regards to the law. The biggest reason being is that the FTC guidelines are exactly that- just guidelines. They have no legal power in the way that if a company were to break one of the "rules," it doesn't mean everyone is getting arrested. 
            Punishing Microsoft or EA or even making them admit fault would be pretty difficult and would take a lot or time, effort, and money the FTC isn't going to waste. The backlash on these two from this so called "scandal" probably won't even be that noticeable. Sure people could boycott them all they wanted but both companies are so large, it more than likely won't even put a dent in their profits. 
            How many people do you know that use Microsoft Word or any other Microsoft function? Exactly. Everyone uses them. Nowadays, you cannot get through college or the business world without using Microsoft. So no matter how angry you are at them for their misconduct, you're still going to have to turn in your essays via Microsoft Word documents. Also, EA is the biggest marketer, publisher, developer, and distributor of video games in America. The only people they target are video gamers and I highly doubt that they're going to are that they paid YouTube to promote a product a majority of them have bought or want to buy. Video gamers are still going to purchase their products, no matter who or how much they pay. 
            This isn't the first time a big business has gotten away with slipping money under the table simply because they're a big business. Personally, I think the FTC should have more of a legal standing instead of just "guidelines" that businesses like Microsoft and EA can brush under the rug and know they won't receive any harsh punishment. Plenty of big businesses pay others off in order to get ahead. Giving the FTC more legal power would give smaller businesses to get ahead without having to resort to unethical tactics.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/microsoft-eas-payment-youtubers-may-unethical-illegal/

And the Oscar goes to... #untj4460

January always marks the time of new beginnings; “New Year, new me” or “This years the year I finally [fill in the blank]” and multiple other new years resolutions that quickly die out by Valentine’s Day. January also happens to mark the beginning of award season! Stars and celebrities put on their fanciest get up, strut down red carpets to answer the same question 20 times, then if they’re lucky, some of them even get to take home a small, golden statue at the end of the night.

Be it the Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes, or, the holiest of grails, the Academy Awards, hundreds of celebrities are being interviewed. Although they look stunning and smiley, their publicists and PR team are standing just feet away, sweating bullets, praying they don’t say something that will call for serious damage control.

The Golden Globes took place Sunday, January 12. It has always been the award show that kicks off the award season, ending with the Oscars in early March.  The Golden Globes celebrates actors and actresses who perform in films and on television. Even though this is the first awarding ceremony of the season, the entertainment world has already lost some of their PR team.

The night started off with a pretty big fail when the sprinkler system went off and drenched the red carpet with 5,000 gallons of water before the ceremony even started. One of the biggest PR fails of the night occurred when Jonah Hill and Margo Robbie from “Wolf of Wall Street” were feed the wrong script on the prompter. Though they tried their best to laugh through the awkward situation, eventually some unfortunate soul had to run out and hand them a piece of paper to read from. A similar situation occurred when Diane Keaton accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award on behave of Woody Allen. Mid hear-felt speech of her dear, oldest friend, Keaton was abruptly cut off and was heard dropping a few f-bombs.

Despite the many PR pitfalls and multiple job openings now in the PR field, the Golden Globe Awards hit a 10-year high for total viewer ratings. I personally think it had to do with the fact that they had Tina Fey and Amy Poehler host the show yet again. Last year, when they hosted for the first time, the show had one of its highest viewing rates in 10 years.

So far, we’ve gotten through the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards without too much damage being done on the PR field. However, we’ve still got to get through the Grammys, Emmys, and finally, the Oscars. Hopefully, after the Golden Globes, PR professionals are stepping up their game and getting prepared for the rest of the award season.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronn-torossian/2014-golden-globes-public_b_4654833.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Advertising distractions leading to big payday’s for PR firms #untj4460

            Changes are happening in the advertising industry and they’re leaving a big window open for PR firms to bank on. The consolidation going on between Omnicom and Publicis advertising agencies, along with a few other advertising industries, has created a distraction amongst the employees of advertising field. This diversion has created an opportunity for PR firms to gain a bigger marketing budget that is usually set aside for advertising.

            Richard Edelman, owner of the world’s largest privately held public relations company, wrote on his blog that PR firms “will need to show up differently” this time around. In his blog post, Edelman advised PR professionals to be inventive and original in order to get ahead of advertising in the eyes of the business. However, Edelman also warned for the PR pros to move quickly, seeing how advertising has a knack for figuring out how to do things differently, faster.

            Others aren’t as optimistic as Edelman however. Tom Formeski, writer for ZDNet, commented that PR has had the chance to get ahead of the advertisers on multiple occasions, but hasn’t ceased the opportunity. Formeski said, “I’m continually astounded as to why they [PR firms] are so risk averse and haven’t tried to implement business strategies and new services that seem obvious to me.” He continues by saying that no matter who is trying to get ahead, PR, advertising, or any other industry, make sure whatever you’re bringing to the table, it’s new.

            Though I’m not sure if the PR industry will go for its chance to get ahead this time, I do agree with Formeski on always being creative and innovative. Whether you’re pitching to the market or some other big business tycoons, they don’t want to see the same thing over and over again. You need to bring something new to the table every time. Boring and dull isn’t going to grab their attention and its sure not going to get them to invest in you.

http://www.zdnet.com/2014-prs-war-with-advertising-could-lead-to-big-paydays-7000025117/