USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter — A Good Example of Apparently Influential Nonsense

09 February 2011

If the American media weren’t filled with so many ignorami, we might be more knowledgeable

Here is a minor example of what is wrong with us as a culture — stupidity masquerading as something less brainless.

Bear with me, briefly.

Who won the 2011 Super Bowl advertisement competition? Two amusingly silly ads, both involving dogs, tied for first place in USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter.

The most emotionally powerful advertisement aired during the game, and the only one genuinely pertinent to our nation’s condition, came in forty-fourth.

Apparently Chrysler and Eminem’s statement about the American present and the worth of stolidity in the face of economic suffering was not enough to attract much favorable attention. Lost was Chrysler’s stand on something that went beyond making a quick buck.

Can we really be this shallow?

Curious as to whether Americans could really be so complacently unconcerned with the state of American manufacturing and the plight of the Rust Belt, I read about USA Today’s “polling” methodology:

How Ad Meter works

USA TODAY assembled 282 adult volunteers in Bakersfield, Calif., and McLean, Va., and electronically charted their second-by-second reactions to ads during the Super Bowl.

Shugoll Research and Trotta Associates chose the volunteers, who used handheld meters to register how much they liked each ad. A computer continuously averaged the scores. Scores are the highest average for each ad.

You did what?

Scientifically, one cannot use a tiny sample of 282 (non-randomly selected) volunteers to say anything valid about the actual opinions of 111 million people who watched the 2011 Super Bowl in the United States.

Also questionable, the method relied on instantaneous conclusions. For USA Today, thinking about an advertisement’s message, and reevaluating one’s response over time, is not a valid way of forming an opinion. USA Today preferred instant brainlessness to thoughtful mulling.

Here’s a confirming quotation from one nitwit among the volunteer group:

"I just like it to be funny. Sometimes I don't even pay attention to what the ad is about, just that it is funny," says . . . . 51, of Bakersfield, Calif., an Ad Meter panelist.

She has reason to want to laugh. There are rumblings about cutbacks at her company. "My philosophy is pray on it and hope things turn out your way."

Translated, this means that, “I’m too stupid to look for content or relevance. Passivity and prayer serve me better than directed thought and action, hopefully with God’s blessing.”

If Super Bowl Ad Meter really does serve as an indicator of American witlessness, we’re doomed

What strikes me is the number of people who apparently take Ad Meter seriously, instead of saying something derogatory about its unscientific methodology.

That itself says a great deal about what is wrong with our consumerist, gnat-minded culture.

PeteFree.com

USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter — A Good Example of Apparently Influential Nonsense