American Heart Association Misses Mark with Superbowl Ad

Feb/06/2007 05:28 Filed in: Current DTC
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Surely the folks at the American Heart Association could have found a better way to spend $2.6 million than the "your at risk" spot that ran. I can just see it now..let's leave the most exciting game of the season to see if I am at risk to get heart disease. Give me a break. The problem is that with $2.6 million allocated to online targeted media the AHA could have driven 1 million people to its website and more importantly informed people as to the dangers of heart disease.


By all accounts the TV spots on this years Superbowl were not exciting or entertaining. Creative people have taken over instead of marketing people and when that happens you get spots that may cut through the clutter but don't drive business. The Budweiser spots are a prime example. Although I feel that they are very creative they don't make me want to go out and purchase Bud and that is the driving issue with TV ads today. The commercial for the AHA was bad and misplaced. The website does have a nice interactive tool but I can assure you that not a hell of a lot of people want to go online to find out that their couch potato lifestyles could lead to heart disease. This is what happens when you think of what you want to "push" to online customers rather than acknowledge that the Internet is a "pull" customer content driven channel.

$2.6 million was the going price for a 30-second spot at the Superbowl. What idiot thought that while people are sitting in front of their TV's eating dinner or munching snacks that a reminder of heart disease would cut through the clutter. That is like trying to sell membership for AARP on MTV ! This my friends is what happens when common sense it overruled by corporate politics and media planners whose job it is to get the client to spend as much money as possible rather than engage and reach a targeted audience. Shame on the people at the AHA for such a bad move and wasting $2.6 million.
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