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US Census 2010 Super Bowl Commercial
February 8, 2010
Hey! That commercial makes us want to fill out our census paperwork! No, that’s not true. It makes us go, oh wait didn’t the government send us something at some point that wasn’t a bill or a lawsuit? What did we do with it… what did we do with it… oh. It seems to have been a coaster for the last few weeks. Well, you have to admit… it kind of makes a nice coaster.
What were we talking about, again?
and see your tax money wasted in HD!
This seemed more like a slam on Palin than anything else.
2010 Census Ad. What a phenomenal waste of taxpayer’s money and it was neither entertaining nor informative. So, What’s new with this government ?
Such a responsible and efficient use of tax-payer dollars. About $205 mil just to buy the commercial spots. This doesn’t include the production costs and salaries to actually make the commercial. Excuse me, but when did the Census Bureau become a commercial venture needing to advertise its product. It’s the census. Everyone has to participate. It’s the law. Save the taxpayers some money, send out some fliers in the mail and be done with it.
So what you’re saying is the commercial cost $250,000,009.99
So, yeah. $2.5 Million dollars for that pile of garbage? Way to go Obama and your awesome administration! Put our country into even deeper debt! My kids great-grandkids are going to be paying off this stupid commercial at the rate we’re going…This just shows an amazing lack of fiscal responsibility and immaturity of our current administration.
haha, I loved it. I like the actors and their deadpan idiodicy (sp?). I think it’s point is not obvious enough and many people will miss, and thus a waste of money. But I laughed!!!
Quote: “So, yeah. $2.5 Million dollars for that pile of garbage? Way to go Obama and your awesome administration! Put our country into even deeper debt! My kids great-grandkids are going to be paying off this stupid commercial at the rate we’re going…This just shows an amazing lack of fiscal responsibility and immaturity of our current administration.”
WTF has this to do with Obama you dumbass… so it is the US census, you think Obama went out and said , go make a superbowl commercial? Regardless of what you think he doesnt micromanage every titbit in gvtmnt. learn to know your own country’s governing system before you start spouting your sH8** .
btw funny commercial
I agree with this comment. They could use that money to help to increase jobs, not for this kind of useless ad. Why don’t they use their own money to pay for this ad, we taxpayers don’t want to pay for it.
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■beenaroundyaknow on February 8th, 2010 11:20 pm
2010 Census Ad. What a phenomenal waste of taxpayer’s money and it was neither entertaining nor informative. So, What’s new with this government ?
What a waste of tax payer dollars.
I always find it amazing how the ill-informed among us tend to do one thing exceptionally well: pollute internet comment boards with half-truths and baseless outrage. First, for those who bother to pay attention, this ad campaign has been running for several weeks. It did not debut in the Super Bowl nor are any of the comments here accurate when it comes to the cost or frequency of the Super Bowl portion of the campaign. While the Constitution mandates that the U.S. Government conduct a census every 10 years, as citizens, we are NOT required by law to complete a census form. The results of the census are used to determine everything from Congressional representation to the distribution of nearly $400 billion in Federal aid. With advance estimates indicating 20% of adults stating they did not plan to complete their census form (either because they were unaware of the census or confused about the purpose for it) the Census Bureau is granted a budget to INFORM citizens. The TV ads are among the most visible tactics in a multilevel information campaign. While you can argue if the ads are funny or effective (and I think they are both of those things), to call it a “waste of taxpayer dollars” is mind-numbingly shortsighted. Please tell me how else, for $2.5 million (the cost of the PACKAGE of ads that ran in various places during the pre-game and the Super Bowl itself) you can immediately reach an audience of 106 million U.S. TV viewers (the estimated average audience of the game, a record breaking number FYI). That’s less that THREE CENTS a person. You couldn’t send out a post card for that. Plus, these ads are talked about and watched by an even larger audience online. Given the remarkable reach, frequency and efficiency of this spend, I would argue it’s probably one of the smartest things the Government has done with taxpayer dollars. Want more evidence? If this ad campaign lifts the mail-in response rate by even a SINGLE percentage point, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates it will save $85 million in the legwork and manpower it would have to otherwise spend to “find” those people. BTW, it took me less time to research the FACTS in this comment (and cross-reference them with multiple online sources) than it did to actually write the comment. See, thinking (and thinking for yourself) doesn’t have to be complicated or complex but the end result is much more satisfying for everyone involved.
I am totally amazed that the government would spend the amount of money they did on such a STUPID commercial. It did nothing to inform people why the census is REALLY necessary. Nor did it inform them about sending in the mail survey when they get it, so more tax money is not wasted hiring people (at over $18.00 an hour) to go to everyone’s door to get the info. This is a pretty simple process, but leave it to the government to corrupt it and manage to waste more of our money BEFORE IT EVEN STARTS!!!!!
Ron H.
Completing the census form is one of the smartest things people can do; however, running a comercial that is both stupid and fails to provide any information on what people should do, or when they should do it is the exactly the type of collosal mistake we’ve come to expect from our governement. This comercial is a waist of money regardless of when it airs.
To sigh on February 9th, 2010 3:40 am.
Speaking of dumbasses! You obviously did not know that the Obama adminsitration took the Census away from the Department of Commerce and moved it to the White House? One should question, why? In the meantime, you need to be better informed about presidential candidates, the 2010 census and their shenanigans!
I thought it was forgetable and i never got what it was for
…just some thoughts. I think IT IS required by law to complete the census form…part of the constitution…..I am not positive on that though……..and I believe about a year ago there was talk or posturing by the administration on control of census (what’s his face resigned over it)….. but I think it is still with Dept of Commerce and not the “white house”….course they owe the report to the president by end of year….but I admit following all of THAT politics is daunting.
Now, I am not 100% pro-govt but this largest project / effort in peacetime is quite an undertaking and does have well intent at it’s core and the people on the ground working it….many are out of work people and it gives them SOME money……but nay-sayers will slice and dice all sorts of opinions on it…….but I think the ad was very confusing and could have been much more effective and left everyone saying “Huh?” ….wtf was that ? It could have played up many slogans census is doing….for example “every hand counts”…..or the “10’s”……..10 minutes to answer 10 questions for the next 10 years”……fire those who made the decisions and fire the ad agency…..many 3rd parties making money off of this and not doing acceptable work.
first, whether or not the ad was good or shit, it was way more economical than “send[ing] some fliers in the mail and be[ing] done with it.” sending a flier to as many people as saw it on the tv/internet would be ridiculously expensive. over 10x as much, easily.
second, the advertising account for the census was awarded to an ad agency in austin before obama was ever elected. if i remember right, it was a $200 million piece of business. moral of the story: it wasn’t obama’s idea.
third, i’ve presented multi-million dollar ad campaigns to a few companies (not exactly the pinnacle of creative, but that’s beside the point). the ceo was never in the room and was hardly ever gave the final approval. none of them were handling responsibilities on par with running a country. moral: the president has more important things to do than spend hours upon hours reviewing commercials.
i’m not arguing politics here. just the business logic behind it all. nothing’s as easy and black-and-white as it seems on the outside.
Yes answering the census is required by law. $5000 I think. But if we don’t want the govt spending $$$ on ads we REALLY don’t want them spending bigger $$$ on enforcement and prosecuting nonresponders – for any number of reasons.
The ads can be a great way to encourage response – but they have to be understandable, relevant, and to the point.
But these ads are silly, snide, elitist. What happened o that delightful ad about the classroom in a supply closet? Now, that was impact.
Just to make something clear–Yes. Federal law requires you to fill out the Census form. PLUS, it is only ten questions long. Some of the population will receive an experimental form or the bilingual–so it may be longer. If you do not fill out the form, then a Census government worker will contact you. They will have to show you a Census badge and give you a privacy notification.
However, I do not believe this commercial makes a clear message or inform citizens of the Census operations.
i like the commercial were the little boy and his mama and the boy friend are in the dareto .
the two commercals that I love are the deritos commercial and the eco baby commercial.
Just to make something clear–Yes. Federal law requires you to fill out the Census form. PLUS, it is only ten questions long. Some of the population will receive an experimental form or the bilingual–so it may be longer. If you do not fill out the form, then a Census government worker will contact you. They will have to show you a Census badge and give you a privacy notification.
However, I do not believe this commercial makes a clear message or inform citizens of the Census operations.
i like the commercial were the little boy and his mama and the boy friend are in the dareto .
Just to make something clear–Yes. Federal law requires you to fill out the Census form. PLUS, it is only ten questions long. Some of the population will receive an experimental form or the bilingual–so it may be longer. If you do not fill out the form, then a Census government worker will contact you. They will have to show you a Census badge and give you a privacy notification.
However, I do not believe this commercial makes a clear message or inform citizens of the Census operations.
I thought it was forgetable and i never got what it was for
Yes answering the census is required by law. $5000 I think. But if we don’t want the govt spending $$$ on ads we REALLY don’t want them spending bigger $$$ on enforcement and prosecuting nonresponders – for any number of reasons.
The ads can be a great way to encourage response – but they have to be understandable, relevant, and to the point.
But these ads are silly, snide, elitist. What happened o that delightful ad about the classroom in a supply closet? Now, that was impact.
I must comment about what Ron H. said on February 9th, 2010:
“I always find it amazing how the ill-informed among us tend to do one thing exceptionally well: pollute internet comment boards with half-truths and baseless outrage. First, for those who bother to pay attention, this ad campaign has been running for several weeks.”
“The results of the census are used to determine everything from Congressional representation to the distribution of nearly $400 billion in Federal aid.”
For starters this is a poor first point. The comments made above is that a super bowl ad costs millions of dollars. Who cares if they were wasting money on this ad BEFORE the superbowl as well….haha. The point is that they spent billions of dollars on this years Census.
Also, the goverment has added a mandate to the Constitution which lets them force citizens to fill out the census or be fined. This census is made to determine the Congressional representation though. (at least in terms of the Constitution). This $400 billion of tax payer money being spread around to different areas is NOT in the Constitution (so YOU must be more informed Ron). This census is meant to be a ‘head count’ so that the goverment knows how many Reps. each area gets, etc. There is no reason they should be asking TEN questions. They do not need to know your race or age or any other personal information to take a head count. THIS is where they differ from the Constitution. But then again, mandating that a private citizen needs to buy a product (health insurance) from a private company also goes against our founding fathers Constitution too….i guess people just stopped caring about things and dont mind blindly taking orders from those in power. Hopefully Ron will think about things before he makes such remarks as HE was clearly not informed well enough about this issue.
William (from April 27th) — they can fine you up to $500 per question you do not answer…so in reply to your question, yes that would total $5,000.
Aside from us not wanting our money spent on dumb ads (and yes i agree with you on this point). The worst part about it all is that IT DID NOT WORK!!!!!!
we got the exact same percentage of return THIS year as we did in 2000
haha…the exact same!!! we spent HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS more and we got ZERO better results. What a joke!! how can people not care??? they must be the people not paying the taxes into the pool…just takin them out…..cause if its YOUR money they are throwing away….how cant you care?!?