Super Bowl Ads Not So Super
My theory on Super Bowl ads is not that they became the event to see in the mid-1980s when Apple launched its computer with its "1984" ad. No, the ads became the thing in the '90s when the games were lousy and we watched the Buffalo Bills lose four straight and there was nothing left to talk about at the watter cooler the next day except the ads. Last decade, we also saw the rise (then the fall) of dotcom companies, which raised huge sums of capital just to launch marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, a number of the ads were sophmoric, such as Buy.com's diddy in Super Bowl XXXIII when we saw a man sniff a dog's rear. Clearlake Capital Group threw the company a bone two years ago when it bought the company for $20 million. This was after Buy.com raised about $200 million from Mobius Venture Capital and others. To be honest, I thought the company was out of business until I Googled them this morning.
