Super Bowl Controversial Ads

The biggest platform for advertising is the Super Bowl in early February. This is where companies pay millions of dollars to have a thirty-second slot to sell their product or idea. It seems in recent years that it has been a competition to see which brand has the most memorable commercial.

This year there were a few controversial ads that caught some people's attention. These ads were seen by some as racy and offensive. However, the advertising firms described it as good publicity. The firms feel like if the commercial isn't attention grabbing, then no one will talk about it. Many people prior to the Super Bowl complained to the companies making the commercials that they were too offensive and shouldn't be shown to such a large audience. 

The two commercials most talked about are by car companies. Mercedes and VW both put out controversial ads. Volkswagen did one that some people would say is offensive to Jamaicans. Mercedes put a polarizing supermodel in their commercial that was seen as racy. Both the public and the companies have valid reasons to have the commercial aired or not, but in the end, money controls everything.

Artifact Find

The cultural artifact that I found for advertising happens to be a person. This person is arguably the most influential person in advertising history and was named as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century. This person is Leo Burnett. Burnett was an advertising executive and a Michigan native. He was one of the most creative people to have ever lived. He created cultural icons such as the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, and Tony the Tiger. He was a main contributor to the creative revolution of the 1960's.
If anyone's accomplishments could teach you about advertising, it would be Leo Burnett's. He revolutionized advertising with his memorable yet simple advertising. He showed how advertising is an every day occurrence and he created countless household names. He also founded his own advertising firm which was extremely successful and had respectable core values such as employee longevity. His main focus was creating ads that represented American values and that goes a long way.