Note To Journalists: That Super Bowl Ad Is Still A Commercial

No matter how big your company might be, you can never afford to get your message out to every place you would like. Even a conglomerate like Walmart or General Motors still has to make those daily decisions about the best places to put those scarce advertising dollars.

So anytime you can get the media to air your message for free, it's a big win. That media impression means you are either able to spend less money advertising or at the very least retarget that money to outlets that are less cooperative.

The days leading up to the Super Bowl are a funny time for journalists. Media outlets that would frown upon their reporters letting Budweiser buy their lunch for fear of violating ethics considerations have no problem airing that newest Bud commercial for free, hyping it as a "sneak peek of a Super Bowl ad."

Here's the thing: Super Bowl ads are commercials. Yes, they might be very entertaining ones and viewers might be interested in seeing them. But airing the commercial - even a part of it - and hyping the full airing of the commercial during the big game is free advertising. That free attention is called "earned media" in the PR business, or in other words, its publicity gained through promotional efforts other than advertising.

I watched one local TV station here in the Twin Cities yesterday gleefully show a large portion of the new Muppets Super Bowl ad during one newscast, as the anchors laughed hysterically over the footage. You just aired an ad, folks. For free. Sure, the Muppets are cute and it's an easy way to fill a couple of minutes. But Super Bowl commercials are not news, they are not a new movie release or in the same category as a red carpet appearance. These are commercials and the more attention you give them, the more money you are saving the company that produced them.

It's even an weirder situation when you consider that in most cases, media outlets are promoting commercials set to air in a program that their TV station is not going to be airing. So not only is the company that paid for the ad getting some free press, you're reminding your viewers that they really need to be watching someone else on Sunday.

Every journalist looks for fun, pop culture stories to lighten up the story mix. But it's important to draw a distinction between mentioning an event and participating in the promotion of it.