Professor Elam

Monday Feb 8 2010

Speaking of mood, what did the Super Bowl commercials tell us about the public mood?  These commercials are expensive, and usually represent the very best that ad agencies can create. Indeed entire campaigns have started right here like the original Apple Mac campaign. But, frankly I found most of them to be rather hollow, not much there. To me this speaks to the overall downturn in social mood.

One Doritos commercial did speak to the mood and prevailing culture. A man arrives at a house for a date. A small boy is eating Doritos and the man grabs a chip. Mom is readying herself in the other room. The boy replies

keep your hands off my Mama, and my Doritos

Such is the state of marriage, divorce, and dating in America today.

My point is that such a commercial would never have happened in the 1960s, this is about as far from the Brady Bunch and Partridge Family as one can get. The fact that a major company would think all this is humorous is in itself a significant on where we are now. 

There were numerous commericials for upcoming movies. Did you notice that most are of the horror genre, the Wolfman being the lead example. Commercials on the Super Bowl are tested exhaustively to reflect the public mood, and that mood is dark.This is reflective of the bearish financial markets, and just think, we are at the top of a recovering wave. Prepare yourself for what mood will be like at the bottom of the next wave. In other words, if this is the mood at Dow 10,000, what will it be at Dow 6,666 again?