Ultimate Super Bowl: Commercial Lovers

The Super Bowl is a mass market spectacle that usually draws in nearly every American demographic, but rarely satisfies any one of them. The Ultimate Super Bowl examines what would happen if the NFL could focus on one demographic at a time.

Target audience: People who watch for the commercials.

Ultimate Super Bowl: The Apple 1984 ad is often labeled the greatest Super Bowl commercial ever:

But I would argue that while the famous MacIntosh ad was compelling, it wasn't the kind of thing viewers really want to see. People who watch for the commercials are at parties, with their friends, trying to enjoy themselves. They don't want to look at an Orwellian dystopia.

What they want to do is laugh. So the Ultimate Super Bowl for commercial lovers would feature a healthy dose of humorous ads. Cedric the Entertainer spraying Bud Light on his date. The relationship between a Coke truck driver and Pepsi truck driver. Horses playing football with the zebra as the referee.

The Ultimate Super Bowl for commercial lovers would also include ads featuring athletes (Michael Jordan and Larry Bird playing HORSE was one of the best ever), as well as a lot of movie previews -- the Super Bowl has in recent years become the unofficial launch of the ad campaigns for summer blockbusters. Everyone likes a good trailer.

Chances of anything like this happening: Unfortunately, not great. In recent years we've seen a lot of Super Bowl commercials that are designed to -- gasp! -- give viewers information about the company, not to entertain. That probably makes business sense, but it makes the game less fun.