Olin students, faculty, staff and families huddled with advertising executives from D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles -- the creators of the famous "Bud Bowl" Super Bowl ads for Anheuser-Busch (A-B) -- in Simon Hall Feb. 3 to critique and evaluate the ads. The event, dubbed the "Super Bowl of Advertising," gave the highest marks to the A-B ad that featured the brewery's famous Clydesdales in a poignant Sept. 11 tribute to New York City.

Photo by Kevin Lowder

Second-year master of business administration student Prem Shunmugavelu (center) discusses the Super Bowl ads with D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising executives Ron Crooks (left) and Arlo Oviatt at the Olin School of Business' second annual "Super Bowl of Advertising" Feb. 3.

Master of business administration student Mike Henson said A-B found a respectful and patriotic way to honor Sept. 11.

"It seemed heartfelt and helped strengthen A-B's image as 'America's Beer,'" Henson said.

Ron Crooks and Arlo Oviatt of D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles developed a methodology called the "4 R's Framework" to analyze the Super Bowl ads and lead the commercial review with the Olin students. The "4 R's" include:

¥ Resonance: Are elements of the ad meaningful to the audience?

¥ Relevance: Is the brand uni-quely positioned to the audience?

¥ Rarity: Is the execution surprising to the audience?

¥ Relationship: Is the commercial an acceptable extension of the brand's personality?

"We wanted the participants to use a criteria that is much more in line with what a marketing and advertising professional would use and try to disregard their personal biases," Crooks said.

Henson, who also served as student coordinator for the annual event, said: "It was an extremely successful event, and we all learned a great deal from the executives at D'Arcy. From now on, whenever I see an ad, I'm sure that I will think in terms of the '4 R's.'"

Coming in at No. 2 was the A-B ad featuring a falcon descending on a bottle of Bud Light. Crooks said the humorous ads all rated very highly.

"That's pretty much a hallmark of Super Bowl advertising," Crooks said.

Other ads didn't fare as well. Yahoo.com's spot featuring a talking dolphin was judged as "funny" but ineffective because you had to hear it.

"That's going to be a problem at Super Bowl parties," Henson said. "But this will probably make a good post-Super Bowl ad."

The monster.com ad that featured former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was also found wanting.

"Overall, the audience didn't understand the connection or relevance between monster.com and Sept. 11," Henson said. "It seemed contrived."

The ads that rated the poorest by the Olin students were AT&T's "What Is M-Life" series.

"It's pretty risky to ask a consumer to fill in the information gaps themselves," Crooks said.

Corporate sponsors of the Olin event included 3M, General Mills, Aurora Foods, Nestle Purina Pet Care Co., Spectrum Brands, Anheuser-Busch and Pontiac GMC.