Hartford, CT – February 3, 2009—Sunday night all eyes were on the Super Bowl—and nearly half of those eyes belonged to women, a fact that seemed to be missed by many of the marketers trying to connect their brand with the Super Bowl crowd.  “If you believe Super Bowl commercials, women don’t buy cars, buy tires, watch movies, register website domain names, hunt for jobs online, buy flowers, shop online, plan family trips, drink soda, drink beer or eat snacks,” says Holly Buchanan, co-author of The Soccer Mom Myth.  Buchanan is one of several marketing to women leaders including Marti Barletta, founder of The TrendSight Group; Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, president of Real Living, Inc.; Kelley Skoloda, partner/director of Ketchum Public Relations and Kelley Styring, principal of InsightFarm, Inc. sharing their Super Bowl thoughts today on M2W® E-ssentials, http://www.m2w.biz/essentials.

“If you don’t think heads roll and bonuses are bestowed over this the pinnacle of advertising’s meaninglessness, you are sadly mistaken.  They absolutely do,” says Styring.  Both Coke and Pepsi seemed to fair well with our experts as did CareerBuilder, Monster.com and E*Trade.  Yet, most agree that this year’s crop of ads appealed more to men than to women.  “There was a lot of testosterone pumping through most of the spots featuring fast cars, action and women,” says Skoloda. Included in the testosterone-infused field were ads for products such as Doritos, Bridgestone and GoDaddy.com.  And, surprisingly, Teleflora.  “Teleflora's ‘Talking Flowers’ left us all aghast, women and men alike,” says Barletta.  “Clearly, some clever young fella was looking for "edgy" humor to put on his reel... and shot over the edge of good taste. What a costly way to shred your brand appeal right before Valentine's Day floral order season.” 

Yet, progress appears to be happening as more and more ads work towards a “gender neutral” dialogue.  “The lack of specifically targeted ads would be ok, if all of the spots were gender neutral,” says Rouda.  “And we seem to be getting there, with the exception of the few macho misses. All in all, it was a great night family night of football and creative.”

Visit www.m2w.biz/essentials for a complete look at what our experts thought of this year’s Super Bowl experience including pictures from their own personal “watch parties” and videos from some of this year’s top commercials.

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