News

At the end of a multi-billion dollar feeding frenzy of hyperbole, nobility, triumph and agony, the Advertising Games that propped up the Beijing Olympics are closed. Was it worth it? The majority say no.If you believe some polling data, the only 3 advertisers who actually reaped any sort of return on their investment were Visa, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. TNS Media reports:

“Unaided brand awareness for ads seemed surprisingly low with over 52% of Olympic viewers surveyed unable to recall any brands advertised during Olympic programming.”

People were much more likely to recall the advertisers if they were “very interested” in the Olympics…the less interested viewers were in the Games, the less they recalled the advertisers…which only makes sense. Read more about advertisers’ ROI here.

There were some notably GOOD ads, including these from Chevy and GE:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ITuKHpWKlQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2JUFTU5Lhg[/youtube]
There were some pretty BAD ads too, including this one from Exxon Mobil, a company that tried to re-brand itself as a benevolent force fighting malaria in the Third World, but I don’t think anyone changed their minds about high gas prices and record oil profits through this ad:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7qVlbG1i7A[/youtube]


Here is the critique from the New York Times’ advertising columnist, who opines about which ads were good, bad or ugly.

Which were your favorites?