Do-nots of advertising, thanks to the Super Bowl

Every year, Americans spend days preparing their parties and hours watching the Super Bowl, regardless of whether or not they watched football all year. A big reason many people watch the game is to see the best ads played all year long. NBC has the chance to make millions by offering those advertising spots to the highest bidder, and they always sell out. Unfortunately, not every company has the best ads. In fact, it might do more harm than good. Here are three do-nots of advertising we learned from this year’s Super Bowl ads.

1. Do not depress people during a light-hearted event

We all understood where Nationwide was coming from when the company aired a commercial that was about preventing child deaths from accidents in the home. However, most people were in a pretty light-hearted and playful mood just wanting to have a good time watching the big game when they were shown the commercial of a child who ends up dying at the end. Though Nationwide just wanted to raise awareness, it was probably not the right venue. Try not to air a depressing ad at the wrong moment.

2. Do not bash your customers

Though there are quite a few people who love Budweiser, there are also those who love their craft beers. In fact, craft beer has become much more common. In a commercial during the Super Bowl, Budweiser mocked the craft beers, which made the company look threatened and made fun of its own customers. The drink company issued an apology on Twitter afterwards when it realized the blunder, according to Time.

3. Do not air an ad

Foot locker made sure the people knew it was the former employer of one of the Seahawk players, Chris Matthews. The player caught a pass and made a touchdown even though he never had caught a pass in the NFL before. Though Foot Locker did not run an ad, it was still able to get a lot of advertising out of the event. Sure, you don’t know if you are currently employing a future Super Bowl player, but you can avoid losing customers by not airing an ad at all.

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Source: time.com/money/3692333/super-bowl-advertising-surprise-winners/