Who Won the Brand Bowl? Twitter.

It’s not easy to enter text on an iPhone or Blackberry with BBQ sauce stuck to your fingers.

But millions of people at Super Bowl parties did last night, introducing Twitter to millions of others who still ask, “who the hell cares what you’re having for breakfast?”

Reading the “live” tweets of friends, colleagues and participants in last night’s Brand Bowl (co-sponsored by Mullen), Google’s Paris ad was the clear favorite among blue-staters and advertising/branding professionals.

That same ad, however, scored a disappointing No. 43 in USA Today’s more populist Ad Meter, losing even to Teleflora’s dreadful abusive flower box ad and Punxsutawney Polamalu.

That might just be because of the digital divide. (Although, I’m sure there will be many more Twitter adopters today, after watching friends use the service last night.) But I think it says even more about the creative chasm between how ad professionals and everyday consumers think.

Update on Mon, February 8, 2010 at 03:40PM by Frank J. Oswald

DUAL-SCREEN VIEWING. One eye on the TV, the other on Tweets. Is this the future? Or just a Super Bowl phenomenon?

Update on Tue, February 9, 2010 at 12:15PM by Frank J. Oswald

A DAY LATER, AD AGE ASKS MY QUESTION. Just how popular was Google’s Super Bowl ad, anyway?

And, two days later, Silicon Alley Insider repeats the same question, too.

Comments

[David DeCheser]

Are you suggesting that there's a gap between what people in agencies think is important and what normal folks do?

Shame on you ;-)

Another way to look at this is - most people don't seemed to be moved about search engines.

The Google ad did an amazing job of telling an emotive, human story in a creative way - I mean, they quite literally connected it to the product.

More specifically I think that normal people kind of look at Google as a utility - maybe akin to electricity.

And how can a commercial from your electric company beat out a commercial that has bud light in a fridge made of bud light?

[Frank J. Oswald]

Hey, David. Good to hear from you!

You raise some GREAT points. But it may also be that meeting a girl in Paris is only an "emotive, human story" to educated urbanites.

Or that USA Today's Ad Meter is just one big sham, which I've suspected for years, anyway.