As insidious as the commercialization of college football bowl games has become, the idea of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl showed some nice promise. Kraft had done some nice activities related to the theme of helping those who are down on their luck with their food needs.
But the publicity during the bowl game would prove crucial. So did Kraft and ESPN get out the word?
In each half, there was a 6:1 ratio of Kraft product ads to Feeding America mentions. In the first half, we saw ads for double-stuffed Oreos, Oscar Mayer carved board turkey, Kool-Aid, Maxwell House coffee, Planters Nut-rition snacks, and Miracle Whip. In the second half, we saw commercials for Oscar Mayer hot dogs, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Ritz crackers, Mozzarella cheese with cream cheese in it, Kraft homestyle Mac & Cheese, and regular Oreos.
To be fair, Kraft has a lot of products, and we knew there would be more ads about Kraft Foods than for hunger, but 6:1 was too high a ratio.
The theme of the bowl was Fight Hunger, and those words were on the logo on the jerseys, the field, the stands throughout the game. And there was a Feeding America banner in the end zone along the left-field wall (AT&T Park in San Francisco is normally the home of the World Series champion San Francisco Giants).
In the second quarter with 11:15 to go in the first half, we saw a PSA for Feeding America, featuring Academy Award winner Matt Damon, ran during the first half. That was the first ad of the break (as were the Kraft commercials). Coming out of that break, we saw footage of the Nevada players feeding people at the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.
ESPN play-by-play guy Mark Jones said what seemed to be copy designed to bring the issue to hand while the video showed the players feeding people.
With 1:17 remaining in the 3rd quarter, coming out of the break, we saw more footage of the Nevada players feeding people at that same church as Jones read more copy about how people are struggling.
Jones mentioned that both teams did participate but we never saw any footage of Boston College players.
During the 3rd quarter mention, Jones noted that Kraft helped donate 20 million meals as well as organizing a food drive during the game.
And all of this was very good. But the spot, the footage, and the commentary totaled less than 2 minutes of a 3½ hour bowl game.
The two segments with one PSA ran in the second and third quarters, less desirable places to run ads. Similar footage was used both times. The copy was poorly read with much less concern than promoting an upcoming ESPN event. And the copy focused on recent plights, as if hunger wasn't an issue before 2008. Not a single feature at halftime, when there is usually more time to devote.
There was much more talk about the San Francisco area sports scene than on the need to feed those who are financially struggling.
Someone presented a rather ironic twist, hopefully unintended, of running an ad for Taco Bell's 99¢ Beefy Crunchy Burrito right after the Matt Damon PSA. And the tag for Taco Bell ran over footage of the players feeding the less fortunate.
Again, we praised Kraft for the efforts for what the company did before the game and what happened off-camera with feeding people and raising food and money to help others. But what we saw during the game on television — the opportunity to bring attention to an audience that normally might not pay attention to the issue — was simply lacking. And those suffering deserved far better.
Matt Damon was not the only celebrity who cut a PSA for Feeding America. Ben Affleck and Ana Ortiz ("Ugly Betty") are among other celebrities who put in time to help. The premise of the PSA is the actors are representing real people. Hopefully, Feeding America will get enough publicity coming out of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl to get more channels to run the PSAs to get the word out. Ortiz's version is in Spanish, so that is a good sign to get the word out as well.
Kraft and ESPN did some wonderful work, but they could have done a lot more in the process, especially ESPN.
I agree that the situation is very commericalized. It makes me feel rather powerless in that the thing I love (football) is so corrupted by greed.
I just want to see the games. I've already gotten some Belk Bowl tickets from and I'm looking forward to it. I just hope I can bring my own snacks.
Posted by: Abraham Orr | November 29, 2011 at 12:46 PM