Super Bowl Commercials Take On a Life Of Their Own

The Super Bowl commercials live on forever, whether they feature babies, cute pets, celebrities or supermodels.

Jessica Powviriya, media planning professor at the University of Arkansas, said there’s a formula for standing out. It includes comedy and emotion.

“Just a memorable commercial experience that puts their brand on top of mind,” Powviriya said.

The viewership for Super Bowl XLVIIL is expected to be more than 100 million people, with very little channel surfing during timeouts.

“For overall audiences it’s more of a social event and the commercials are a part of that,” Powviriya said. “They can talk about that for years to come.”

Companies pay up to $4 million for a 30 second spot.

“If they can afford it and it’s their target market, I think it’s probably a pretty good media buy,” Powviriya said.

Frank Jenner remembers one of his favorites from 2005.

“One of the ones that I remember very distinctly is the FEDEX Super Bowl commercial with Burt Reynolds in it,” Jenner said. “It’s funny just because they tell me why it’s funny.”

Sally Roach said one of her all-time favorites is a Doritos commercial from 2010.

“My most memorable ad is the one where there is a little boy and there’s a bowl of Doritos and this guy is dating his mom,” Roach said. “He says, ‘you can’t have my momma and you can’t touch my Doritos.”

These commercials don’t go away after the Super Bowl. They will go on YouTube, Hulu and social media sites, getting thousands and sometimes millions of extra views.

“It could go on for weeks and weeks this brand awareness because of a single commercial, whether it was good or bad,” Powviriya said.

The Nielsen Wire publishes a study on how we watch and connect during the Super Bowl. It breaks it down by gender, age and income.

According to CBS, the most viral Super Bowl commercial of all time is “The Force.” It’s the Volkswagen ad where there’s a child dressed up as Darth Vader.