Super Bowl Ads 2008: The Gender Perspective

For the first time in a number of years, I found the Super Bowl game to be more entertaining than the commercials (Giants, you know how to give a girl the screaming mee-mees!).  If you’re interested in my take on the ads, you can read about it here. 

Husband knew I was on assignment to rate the commercials and joined me in the fun (or the yawns, as it turned out).  His choice for the strongest ad?  The Budweiser Clydesdale "Rocky" ad.  My choice was the ad for Ronald McDonald House (narrated by Paul Newman) in which you watched a young woman who is a cancer survivor (thanks to help from Ronald McDonald House) and is now the mother of a beautiful baby.   It seems that Husband loved the idea of fantasyland while I was rooted in reality.

For me, this drove home the point of a recent study conducted by the University of Alberta School of Business, which showed that when it comes to bonding through emotion, men show more involvement when told that a story is fiction; women are moved by stories based in reality. In an interview for Business Week, U of A’s Jennifer Argo said that for men, “Exiting reality is an excuse to relax gender stereotypes.” 

This is something to think about when it comes to marketing your business.  If you’re creating a strong campaign focused on connecting women to your brand, you may be better off with a message based on reality and authenticity rather than a traditional, “fantasy-based” message that is highly creative but not sticky.  It certainly worked for Dove – women were magnetically attracted to the real-life body issue stories of other women, and men loved the ads in which husbands waxed poetic about the beauty of their wives in ways that sounded like the latest version of “once upon a time.”

Root your message in real-life stories and watch women come knocking on your door.

Comments

[Anita Danger]

I agree the game was great! I have always waited for the Anheuser Busch commercials, Super Bowl and Anheuser Busch just seem to go hand in hand, but it was a little disappointing this time around. I can’t really say there are any commercials that really stuck with me, the E*Trade ad was one both my husband and I liked. Of course I’m sure it was the cute baby that drew me in and the silliness of the whole add that drew my husbands attention. I pretty much agree with the article and the picks of the good and bad ads.

[Michael Covington]

I am with your husband on this one Michele, I liked a few, but got a big kick out of the Clydesdale "Rocky" one. Yo Adrian!

[Brett Feinstein]

Michele:

Do you have a link to the University of Alberta article you cited?

[Nadine McKeen]

in the last 20 minutes (@ 9 pm on sunday, 10 feb.) , the grammy awards re-ran the ronald mcdonald commercial. as soon as i heard paul newman's voice, i knew it was him...what woman who grew up in the 60's with hud and cat on a hot tin roof could not recognize the smokey timbre of his voice?