I’ve been thinking about F-words a lot lately—but not the epithet you hear daily on the subway, in the workplace or shouted at a passing driver who doesn’t signal when he changes lanes. The words I have in mind are more suitable for playing Scrabble with your mom, when a lone ‘F’ lands among your tiles and you search for vowels that don’t lead to everyone’s favorite swear word.
One of those F-words is fall and another is football, two things officially in full swing now that October is upon us. Football remains a ratings darling of live TV and one of the last places to find a captive audience for interruptive advertising. And though some of the most daring creative today is found in activations, collaborations and branded entertainment, taking the pulse of the 30-second spot might give us a check on the health of the industry.
The level of creativity found in ads that air during sports programming (starting with the Super Bowl, but extending year-round, really) often reflects the mindset of agencies in general, and what we’re seeing is a dichotomy that borders on the schizophrenic.
Let’s start with the good news: Many of today’s most compelling ads are clearly designed to be unabashedly entertaining, which brings us to the most important F-word: fun.
This wasn’t the case a couple of years ago, when post-pandemic malaise led to a pitiful parade of purpose pandering. Brands came across as self-important rather than empathetic, until CMOs and their agencies shook off their delusions of grandeur and remembered nobody wakes up hoping to see another ad, so you’d better give them some laughs if you want to steal their attention.