Super Bowl Ads: Amateur Hour

Advertisers are still shelling out big bucks for commercials on the big game, but they're worried about the classic TV spot - and they think you (yes, you!) can save it

Do Super Bowl ads still matter? If you're the network selling them, sure (CBS got a reported $2.6 million per 30 seconds this year). And the spots get a lot of attention--for a day or two. But as a pop-cultural force, the TV commercial may be, like the evening news, a pricey vestige of the mass-media era. In the days of TiVo and nichecasting, MySpace and spam, how often does any TV spot become a big, Energizer Bunny--big, part of mass culture? What recent commercial could you imagine Hillary Clinton citing in a debate, as Walter Mondale did "Where's the Beef?" in...

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