Super Bowl ads: super expensive, super perplexing

Why would any company spend $5.5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl ad that leaves viewers perplexed, as some glitzy and abstract commercials did? After production costs are tacked on, you’d think advertisers would want their messages clearly understood, especially in difficult times.

Some prominent advertisers, such as Coca Cola, Budweiser and Pepsi, traditional large buyers, skipped Super Bowl LV; however, Weather Tech did not.

After the game, the list of best and worst ads was released. It did not include three commercials sponsored by Weather Tech — the privately held Chicago-area manufacture known for its high quality, custom-made auto floor liners.

On a 1-5 scale, its ads received 3.5 ratings, which doesn’t make sense. While Weather Tech’s ads may have only scored 3.5, buyers consistently give its products at 5.

Weather Tech’s messages were clear and compelling about the company, its culture and products. In addition, they were as much about the importance of American manufacturing, workers and technology.

David MacNeil, company founder, proudly proclaims his company uses raw materials and advanced technology “Made in America.” One Weather Tech Super Bowl ad features workers saying the company doesn’t have to worry about coming back to America because it never left.

Two years ago, Forbes carried the headline: As WeatherTech’s MacNeil Keeps Promoting ‘Made in USA’ in Super Bowl Ads, America Agrees. The company’s ads resonate with viewers. “He may sell floor mats, but David MacNeil’s real product is American manufacturing,” Forbe’s Dale Buss wrote.

Weather Tech is an American manufacturing success story. It exposes our country’s key advantage — our ability to freely take risks to build new products that consumer want to buy.

MacNeil started WeatherTech out of his home in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, in 1989 because he was dissatisfied with the quality of existing automotive floor mats. He was convinced that he could create a better product in America, using American workers, and America’s best machinery. In 2007, the company opened a new state-of-the-art plant south of Chicago, which houses more than 1,000 workers.

In Washington, there are private manufacturers who share similar success stories although they are not Super Bowl advertisers.

For example, Dr. Edmund L. Schweitzer, founder of Schweitzer Engineering Labs, (SEL) invented and marketed the first all-digital protective relay for electrical power systems which can pinpoint power problems and re-route electricity. The company started in his home in 1982 and today employs more than 5,000 people.

Schweitzer’s invention revolutionized the transmission of electricity and its systems are used worldwide. SEL’s manufacturing base and headquarters are in Pullman.

There are other examples across Washington, such as Nelson Irrigation, Walla Walla; Pearson Packing Systems, Spokane; and, Janicki Industries, Sedro-Woolley, where determined entrepreneurs have taken ideas, took risks, built factories in America, and, compete globally.

Weather Tech’s ads are well done featuring its workers, not actors. Their workers’ testimonials are authentic and powerful.

Moving beyond the pandemic, our leaders must make sure they enact policies which encourage entrepreneurs to continue to invest money in American research and development, modernizing factories, and worker training.

It is in America’s collective interest that we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with strong manufactures who can generate tax revenues and jobs to help pay down our soaring national debt.

We need to re-focus on what makes our country the envy of the world. We’ve witnessed the collapse of totalitarian countries, such as the Soviet Union, when government attempts to controlled production and suppress people failed.

As Weather Tech’s workers clearly pointed out, American workers and manufacturing are our keys to our future. Remember it was the private sector — companies like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — which developed coronavirus vaccines in record time.

Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization, and now lives in Vancouver. He can be contacted at theBrunells@msn.com.