NORFOLK -- Touchdown for Betty White!
The former Golden Girls star turned in a game-winning performance that helped her ad for Snickers score biggest with fans. A USA Today national poll puts the ad, featuring White playing football, as the most popular with Super Bowl audiences across the nation.
Local advertising expert Vivian Blaize of Blaize Events & Media Inc. says the ad is a winner because it has many people talking about it the next day. In the advertising business, that means effective recall.
"Most of the commercials in the Super Bowl are for recall," Blaize said. "It's not so much that they'll (the product) get bought from it but the recall. And if someone can recall those commercials, then they'll know who did those commercials and that's the full effect of it and have a residual effect beyond the Super Bowl."
According the USA TODAY survey, the Doritos ad featuring a zapping dog collar used on the pet owner was the second favorite ad; a commercial featuring a house made of Bud Light bottles and cans was third. Blaize attributes that to humor and creativity.
The least liked commercial in the survey was race car driver Danica Patrick getting a massage for Godaddy.com.
As for the most popular Super Bowl ad of all time? Blaize says that pick is an easy one: Pittsburgh Steelers player Mean Joe Greene's commercial for Coca-Cola in which he gives a young fan his football jersey.
"That's still number one, how many years ago was that?" Blaize said. "That's what they look for. That's what they mean by recall."
