Dot-com commercials during Super Bowl XXXIV
{{Short description|Super Bowl advertisements in 2000}}
Super Bowl XXXIV (played in January 2000) featured 14 advertisements from 14 different dot-com companies, each of which paid an average of $2.2 million per spot.Pender, Kathleen. [http://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/Dot-Com-Super-Bowl-Advertisers-Fumble-But-Down-2739134.php "Dot-Com Super Bowl Advertisers Fumble / But Down Under, LifeMinders.com may win at Olympics"], San Francisco Chronicle, 13 September 2000. Accessed February 26 2014. Archived from [https://web.archive.org/web/20160201190730/http://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/Dot-Com-Super-Bowl-Advertisers-Fumble-But-Down-2739134.php the original] on 1 February 2016.Though Britannica.com, E*Trade, Electronic Data Systems, Kforce, and MicroStrategy are all companies that ran ads with a .com address, they have not been included in this list because the founding date of these companies exclude them from the strict definition of a dot-com company. Sources do not agree on the exact amount of dot-com advertisers who bought spots. In addition, five companies that were founded before the dot-com bubble also ran tech-related ads, and 2 before game ads, for a total of 21 different dot-com ads. These ads amounted to nearly 20 percent of the 61 spots available, and $44 million in advertising. In addition to ads which ran during the game, several companies also purchased pre-game ads, most of which are lesser known. All of the publicly held companies which advertised saw their stocks slump after the game as the dot-com bubble began to rapidly deflate.
The sheer amount of dot-com-related ads was so unusual that Super Bowl XXXIV has been widely referred to as the "Dot-Com Super Bowl"; it is often used as a high-water mark for the dot-com bubble.Bennet, Dashiell. [http://www.businessinsider.com/8-dot-com-super-bowl-advertisers-that-no-longer-exist-2011-2?op=1 8 Dot-Coms That Spent Millions On Super Bowl Ads And No Longer Exist"], Business Insider, 2 February 2011. Accessed February 26 2014. Archived from [https://web.archive.org/web/20150627163328/http://www.businessinsider.com/8-dot-com-super-bowl-advertisers-that-no-longer-exist-2011-2?op=1 the original] on 27 June 2015.Basich, Zoran. [https://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/01/19/homeaway-goes-for-super-bowl-glory-10-years-after-dot-com-debacle/ "Super Bowl Lures HomeAway, 10 Years After Dot-Com Debacle"], The Wall Street Journal Blogs, 19 January 2010. Accessed February 26 2014. Archived from [https://web.archive.org/web/20160101141914/https://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/01/19/homeaway-goes-for-super-bowl-glory-10-years-after-dot-com-debacle/ the original] on 1 January 2016.Planes, Alex. [http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/01/30/the-biggest-waste-of-money-in-super-bowl-history.aspx "The Biggest Waste of Money in Super Bowl History"], Motley Fool, 30 January 2013. Accessed February 28, 2014. Archived from [https://web.archive.org/web/20140306105455/http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/01/30/the-biggest-waste-of-money-in-super-bowl-history.aspx the original] on 6 March 2014. Of these companies, four are still active, five were bought by other companies, and the remaining five are defunct or of unknown status.{{When|date=March 2017}}
Effectiveness
Many websites saw short-term gains from the advertisements. LastMinuteTravel.com, for example, reported a surge of 300,000 hits per minute during its advertisement broadcast. In many cases, though, this did not translate into long-term gains. OurBeginning.com's revenue jumped 350% in Q1 of 2000, but its $5 million in advertising costs were still ten times what its customers spent. Short-term gains were not enough to recoup advertising losses, and Pets.com, Computer.com, and Epidemic.com, among many others, would fold before the end of the year.
Later references
Less than a year later, E*Trade ran an ad during Super Bowl XXXV mocking the glut of dot-com commercials during the previous game. The ad featured the chimpanzee from E*Trade's 2000 commercial wandering through a ghost town filled with the remains of fictional dot-com companies, including a direct reference to the already-defunct Pets.com's sock puppet. During the game that year, only three dot-com companies ran advertisements.Hyman, Mark, and Tom Lowry. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130718152440/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2001-01-07/whats-missing-from-super-bowl-xxxv "What's Missing from Super Bowl XXXV?"], Bloomberg Businessweek, 7 January 2001. Accessed February 28 2014.
The dot-com commercials that aired during Super Bowl XXXIV received renewed attention in 2022 following Super Bowl LVI, which featured a large number of cryptocurrency-related ads. Critics drew comparisons between the rise of cryptocurrency and its commercials to the 2000 game's ads and the ensuing dot-com bubble burst,{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/02/14/1080237873/superbowl-ads-crypto-bitcoin |title=Crypto ads are a Super Bowl talker, with floating QR codes and Larry David |author=Tellez, Anthony |work=NPR |date=February 14, 2022| access-date=February 14, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-02-13/why-larry-david-and-lebron-james-super-bowl-ads-are-the-tip-of-hollywoods-crypto-iceberg |title=Et tu, Larry? Why so many celebrities are shilling for crypto |author=Faughnder, Ryan |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 14, 2022 |access-date=February 14, 2022}} and nicknamed the 2022 game the "Crypto Bowl".{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/business/media/super-bowl-commercials.html |title=Prepare Yourself for This Weekend's 'Crypto Bowl' |author=Hsu, Tiffany |work=The New York Times |date=February 11, 2022 |access-date=February 14, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://fortune.com/2022/02/14/crypto-companies-super-bowl-ads-coinbase-ftx-bitcoin-ether/ |title=Crypto companies spent millions on Super Bowl ads. So did Pets.com |author=Mellor, Sophie |work=Fortune |date=February 14, 2022 |access-date=February 14, 2022}} Following a similar crash in cryptocurrencies, as well as major cryptocurrency exchange FTX filing for bankruptcy in November 2022, it and multiple other cryptocurrency-related companies that had bought ad space for the following Super Bowl (Super Bowl LVII) pulled out, resulting in no cryptocurrency-related ads airing that year.{{Cite web |last=Ourand |first=John |title=Fox Sports sells out Super Bowl ad time |url=https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2023/02/06/fox-sports-super-bowl.aspx |access-date=2023-02-11 |website=Sports Business Journal |date=6 February 2023 |language=en}}
In-game ads
The following list details each company, the commercials they ran, and their ultimate fate. All spots were 30 seconds long.
=Companies founded before the bubble=
In addition to the companies listed above, several tech companies that were founded before the dot-com boom also ran ads. As these are outside the strict definition of a dot-com company, since their founding significantly pre-dated the creation of a dot-com website, they have been listed separately.
| class="wikitable"
! Company ! Commercial Title(s) ! Spot Length ! Company Status |
| Britannica
| | | Active (online only; print edition ceased publication in 2010) |
| E*Trade
| "Wasted 2 Million", "Out the Wazoo", "Basketball Prodigy" | 0:30 each | Active (acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020) |
| Electronic Data Systems
| "Cat herders" | |
| Kforce
| | | Active |
| MicroStrategy
| "Fraud", "Stock Alert" | 0:30 each | Active |
Pre-game ads
The following list details companies which ran ads prior to the actual game time.
| class="wikitable"
! Company ! Commercial Title(s) ! Spot Length ! Company Status |
| Computer.com
| 0:30 each | Purchased by Office Depot in 2000 |
| OurBeginning.com
| "Untitled 1", "Untitled 2", "Untitled 3" | 0:30 each | Purchased by an undisclosed company in 2002 |
Notes
{{reflist|group="note"}}
See also
- Dot-com bubble
- {{section link|List of Super Bowl commercials|2000 (XXXIV)}}
- Cryptocurrency bubble
References
{{reflist}}
External links
=Contemporary opinions leading up to Super Bowl XXXIV=
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140303104706/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiny-dot-com-joins-super-bowl/ CBS News article]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140303061454/https://money.cnn.com/2000/01/28/technology/superbowl/ CNN Money article]
- [http://archives.cnn.com/1999/TECH/computing/12/07/super.bowl.idg/index.html CNN Tech article] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084158/http://archives.cnn.com/1999/TECH/computing/12/07/super.bowl.idg/index.html |date=2016-03-04 }}
=In-depth articles=
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140713212027/http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/ourbeginningcom_case_study Analysis of OurBeginning.com and its advertising choices]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160203174011/http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/31/superbowlad/ Retrospective with founders of Computer.com]
{{Super Bowl commercials}}