Google’s Super Bowl Ad Not the End of Civilization

Many people seem to be either shocked or aghast that Google would actually run a Super Bowl ad. There are some who think that it is a sign of weakness or fear that there is a chink in the great Google armor. There are those that just figured that Google should never need to advertise because they are, after all, Google. Well, I think that the Google ad was a smart move and one that was done in typical Google fashion: low cost, no fanfare (except for jittery industry types) and strong impact.

The “ad” has been on YouTube for several months so it’s not like Google ran out and threw together a Super Bowl ad and spent gazillions on it. It was essentially already out there. On Google’s official blog, Eric Schmidt posted the following

“If you watched the Super Bowl this evening you’ll have seen a video from Google called “Parisian Love”. In fact you might have watched it before, because it’s been on YouTube for over three months. We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.”

If you like it too, we hope you’ll watch the others. Enjoy.

Here’s the “ad” in case you missed it:

Now that was the entire post and quite honestly, I don’t get the surprise or the issue. Considering Google’s advertising budget can probably take a $3 million hit pretty easily (do they even budget for marketing ?). Couple that with no other search ads and you have a simple opportunity to win kudos for an “ad” that tells just what people use the search engine for: their life.

Hats off to Google. I hope they advertise more because maybe people can take the hint that simple is better, demeaning any man’s capability to think is lame and the whole idea of seeing regular people in their underwear will not sell product (who did those stupid ads anyway?). Thank God the game was a good one because the rest of the show wasn’t anything to really talk about.