What Irony, PepsiCo Super Bowl Ads Not Captioned
By Shane Feldman on Mon 4 Feb 2008 |
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After all is said and done, PepsiCo hypocritically did not caption their two Super Bowl spots, and they know how to caption ads. “Bob’s House” in addition to the “Making of Bob’s House” and the supplemental videos with Keith Wann were all captioned for the deaf-impaired.
The opening of “Making of Bob’s House” says:
What happens when you give, people of different abilities the spotlight? This commercial was created and performed by Enable — a network by PepsiCo which supports diversity and the inclusion of persons with different abilities.
Unfortunately Pepsi excluded people of different abilities from access to their Super Bowl advertisements. Furthermore, Sheri Christianson, PepsiCo Employee says:
We live in a hearing world, where deaf people have to operate within the hearing world. In this ad, what we’ve done is kind of reverse the roles. It’s a deaf world and we’ve included the hearing world.
And the favor wasn’t returned by hearing PepsiCo employees. Clay Broussard, PepsiCo Employee & Actor observes:
…we thought ‘This really shows PepsiCo values, and it shows people with different abilities.’
Some values. Include people with disabilities to tug the heartstrings of hearing people and then turn around and slap deaf and hard of hearing people in the face with Super Bowl ads that are not captioned.
Fortunately Project ReadOn has captioned the recent Super Bowl ads, including PepsiCo’s ads that were not captioned, at:
http://www.projectreadon.com/superbowl2008/
Project ReadOn invite visitors to submit all of the Super Bowl ad web videos that they can find on the Internet.
Hopefully the PepsiCo EnAble network will ensure this doesn’t happen again and all future PepsiCo ads, even outside of the Super Bowl, are captioned.
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44 Comments
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This would be a great opportunity for AGB and NAD to join forces and complain together about the other Pepsi ads not being captioned.
We finally agree on something. ;)
We should cherish these moments– like the Carville/Frist Coke commercial (which was captioned!) *grin*
But I do hope that all the folks who visited DeafDC blog and wrote posts criticizing AGB do indeed make the time to write to Pepsi (and other companies) to criticize the lack of captioning in yesterday’s ads.
It should take up the same amount of time…
no, agbad probably will tell you to lipread what the folks said on tube!
wake up and smell the coffee — agbad will NEVER work nor share a dialogue with NAD. NAD did attempt many times. and agbad never responded.
So arrogant.
R-
There are many issues that NAD and AGB work on together, but it goes on behind the scenes. Without fanfare. And most of the people who do the work in the name of Deaf people are actually … gasp … hearing! Look at NAD’s legal staff. ALL hearing. Why is that? Deaf people not good enough??
For whatever its worth, NAD does have a deaf lawyer now. He’s only recently-minted as a lawyer, but he’s very intelligent, capable, and hard-working.
In addition, the hearing lawyers that NAD has (and has had in the past) are really quite good lawyers. NAD is very fortunate to have had them.
NAD has had deaf lawyers in the past as well - Kelby Brick and Claudia Gordon are two that come to mind.
I think this was an ingenious tactic by PepsiCo to remind us, AGB and NAD, Deaf and oral, etc., that we’re all in the same boat.
Yeah right on! I did noticed that there are no closed caption on Pepsi commercials!! Pls do go view on my video link: http://www.deafvideo.tv/watch/5871
Thank you for bringing up that issues on your blog!
I was really disappointed that the majority of all the Super Bowl ads weren’t captioned. I’m going to head over to that link to see what I missed.
Same old same old same old. Old story for years!
Nothing new, not for Pepsi only but all other hearing world do!
Shane, I’m back– thank you for posting that Project Read On link! I had no idea a company like that existed.
Karen Putz,
I wrote two blogs about Project ReadOn last year, check them out at:
http://www.deafdc.com/blog/sha.....aptioning/
And:
http://www.deafdc.com/blog/sha.....ct-readon/
My thoughts may accord too much importance to popular culture, but the Super Bowl television commercials collectively represent one of the premier cultural events of the season, even the year. I’m uncomfortable about the deaf/hard-of-hearing population being excluded from this discourse, because the absence of captioning is depriving us of some of the best content that television has to offer.
It does not help us to be shut from this realm, especially when we need to be up-to-date about the ideas and techniques current among hearing people in advertising and commerce. We’re not going to be particularly competitive as prospective employees if we don’t have the greatest familiarity or literacy in terms of popular culture – especially in something as ephemeral and dynamic as television commercials. Advertising involves huge sums of money, and it seems like a reasonable industry in which more deaf people could develop their careers.
Of course, there’s also the matter of captioning just for accessibility’s sake, a goal that should be pursued for all television content. One could also point to the notion that captioning expands the audience of customers and therefore fattens a corporation’s profit margins.
“One could also point to the notion that captioning expands the audience of customers and therefore fattens a corporation’s profit margins.”
Controversy also decreases a corporation’s profit margins.
It is entirely within the realm of possibility that PepsiCo pulled back on captions in the SuperBowl after receiving criticism from AGB over the PepsiCo commercial that Shane mentioned earlier. Corporations tend to shy away from controversy, real or imagined, and PepsiCo probably never imagined (as a large part of society as well) that there was another side to the story until AGB protested.
Want to bet that AGB will be the recipient of some award or grant from PepsiCo? That’s usually how minority groups are placated after complaints.
Thank you, Bad Demographic for your WARNING info!!!
I am not sure how the captioning process works but if someone can enlighten me, please do.
I have often read how Super Bowl Ads are edited until the last minute for various reasons: FCC, timing, better quality, etc. I wonder if they do not take in consideration the time to send the videos for captioning? Did they have time to submit it for captioning before they air it?
Just wondering …
The Super Bowl game itself was captioned and it was live without any scripts. I see no reason why the commercials couldn’t be captioned either.
There’s simply just no excuse why the commercials were captioned.
Tom Willard reports that he saw an announcement by FOX that the Super Bowl captioning was sponsored by Pepsi.
http://tomwillard.wordpress.co.....-pepsi-ad/
FWIW, I saw the same thing Tom did; in fact, I saw it twice; the second mention of Pepsi’s Enable Co. supporting the captioning of the Super Bowl telecast, came near at the end of the game.
Yes I saw PepsiCO’s Bob House Enable the close captioning for the 2008 Superbowl game but the PepsiCO did allowed the other Pepsi Ads with no captioned! What’s the point??? That’s so confusing. I gotta go work now.
Not to mention that the supplemental video about the making of the commercial is captioned only for the speaking parts. The signing parts were not captioned, thus excluding deaf AND signing-impaired people. Oops.
Goes to show that while for some captioning seems like a no-brainer, for others, a lot remains to be learned.
Sponsoring CC is the same as “naming” a football stadium. The game was played at the “University of Phoenix” Stadium or whatever, because the “University of Phoenix” paid MILLIONS of bucks to have that right. Same applies to “sponsoring CC.”
All Pepsi wants to do is make money - not do “community service” for the Deaf community. Pepsi is proving Milton Friedman was right, especially since the other Pepsi ads WEREN’T captioned.
The whole fuss about Pepsi and AGBad demonstrated one thing: there’s a whole lotta stupid ignorance and hysteria running rampant through DeafRead. I dunno about the rest of the Deaf World, but ….
*shrugs and laughs*
:o)
Paotie
Who here said anything about Pepsi doing “community service” for the Deaf community? Did I miss something?
I think virtually everyone here is sophisticated enough to know that a commercial transaction is the goal of advertising.
Paotie,
You’ve succumbed to using “AGBAD”!? What’s the world coming to… ;)
Shane, I’m honestly curious, how long has this “AGBAD” thing been such a big deal? Honest to God, the first time I ever mentioned the organization I used “AGBAD” too, because, you know, it’s the “Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf.” A-G-B-A-D. That’s it. No evil intentions. I know of at least one other Deafie who did the same thing, but we both switched to AG Bell after you pointed out that “AGBAD” was …well, “bad.”
Is this a cultural thing that has been going on for years or is this a just a blogsphere thing or what? This is a new one on me…
I think Ridor started using AGBAD sometime last year and many picked up on it. If you think he had noble intentions when he coined that phrase… :)
Can you show me an instance of AGBell using the acronyms, “AGBAD” on their website?
AGB has indeed used “AGBAD” in the past.
But the acronymn became obsolete when AGB officially changed its name to the “Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing” some 10 years ago or so.
The only ones who use “AGBAD” today are the ones who are trying to use it in a derogatory manner. Our friend Ridor would indeed be a good example of such a person. *grin*
I for one never really paid much attention to it. Just seemed like the most natural acronym. AGBADHOH or something probably would have been more accurate but in print it looks awkward. Ah well. AG Bell it shall remain, then… Just remember that there might be a couple of people out there using it who don’t necessarily mean anything by it…
*laughs*
I was being sarcastic. I ain’t succumbed to using “AGBad” - although I did for today and my article at my blog. That’s it.
AGBad .. Gallaudet .. makes no difference to me - I’m just a poor, mainstreamed Deaf boy who sees both sides of the coin quite differently.
:o)
Paotie
Where Evidence goes out for reason?
Does AGBELL already exposed complaint about close caption?
What make AGBELL went through them to prevent release close caption appear on Bob’s house? I would love to see it pretty please?
Pepsi Company did made their promised release Deaf Commercial come with close caption.
Avoid spewing different stories rest other blog/vlog posting all over. Need straighten forward please.
Thank you very much for your time Readers!
Comment »
Captions.com lists which ads were captioned and which were not for Super Bowl XLII:
http://www.captions.com/
They claim that the cost to caption an ad is approx. $200.
Here’s a comprehensive email about the Super Bowl XLII ads from the Northern Virginia Resource Center (reprinted with permission):
(You can subscribe to their email at: http://nvrc.org/)
NVRC’S 2008 SUPER BOWL CAPTIONED AD RESULTS
By Cheryl Heppner, 2/4/08
What an exciting Super Bowl game! But what a complete bummer to see the dismal results of our captioned ad survey.
Sometimes there were long stretches of ads with no captions. Far too many companies still do not understand what a big audience they are missing and how many of us like to do business with companies that reach out to us. With an average 30-second spot price tag of $2.7 million, a couple hundred more for captions is trivial.
It’s nice to have a husband with a quick finger on the digital video recorder to help with reporting about the captions. You can thank Fred for his handiwork the next time you see him. Among his favorite ads were the speeding car/screamin’ critters, the Clydesdale tutored by the Dalmation, and the Godfather parody. Reader Pat Beech, who doesn’t normally watch the Super Bowl, sat with Jim this year and kept ad notes while Jim focused the game. Pat’s notes were a great help in checking my
accuracy.
Between the pre-kickoff show after 4 pm and the end of the Super Bowl broadcast, I counted 109 commercials. That doesn’t include the dozens of small advertiser plugs. Some of the ads I saw may have been regional
placements that were not viewed by a national audience.
________________________________
By the Numbers
Of 109 ads viewed:
- 21 were captioned
- 5 more weren’t captioned but had no speaking or singing
- 1 wasn’t captioned but largely had the sound of a dog lapping water
- 3 weren’t captioned and had no speaking but had singing
- 78 were not captioned
- 1 (Geico) just had a captioned “UHHHH” at the end
We’re not even close to approaching the 50% mark for captioning of Super Bowl ads!
I suppose it sounds silly to some other people, but even if there’s no speaking or singing, I like to have captions of sound cues that give meaning to what I’m watching. I also like to have captions of the singing, or at the very least some cue about the music, such as whether it’s suspenseful or soft. Without those cues, it’s like watching something without texture and color.
________________________________
Honor Roll
Bud Light (4 of 6 ads)
Budweiser
Cars.com (1 of 2 ads)
Chase
Coca Cola (2 of 2 ads)
FedEx
Ford (1 of 2 ads)
GMC
GoDaddy.com
IceBreakers
McDonalds (1 of 2 ads)
Sprint
Tide to Go
Toyota Corolla (2 ads)
White House - Office of National Drug Control Policy
Honorable Mention
Amp, Dell, Doritos, Gatorade and SoBe did not caption their ads, but had
ads with no speaking or singing.
Raspberry Roll
The top honor was won hands down by Fox network, with an honorable
mention to all the studios advertising their movies.
________________________________
The Breakdown
Pre-Kickoff Show
1 Ford - NO
2 Verizon - NO
3 Overstock.com - NO
4 Apple on Macbook Air - NO
5 Fox (American Idol) - NO
6 Columbia Pictures (Vantage Point) - NO
7 McDonald’s - YES
8 Sprint (Blackberry Pearl) - YES
9 Ford (Sync) - YES
10 Fox (Terminator) - NO
11 Fox (House) - NO**but only guitar music
12 NFL (Matt Hasselback) - NO
After National Anthem
13 Paramount (Drillbit Taylor) - NO
14 Chase (secret agent) - YES
15 AT&T (monkey) - NO
16 Dell - NO
17 Fox (Prison Break) - NO
18 Fox (Pro Bowl) - NO
19 Ford - NO
20 Fox (postgame shows) - NO
21 Troy Aikman - NO
22 Ford - NO
23 Bud Light (fire breathing man) - NO
24 Diet Pepsi Max - NO
25 Salesgenie (Indian salesman) - NO
26 Fox (Terminator) - NO
27 Bud Light (wine tasting) - YES
28 Under Armour - NO
29 Fox (House) - NO
30 Bridgestone (critters screaming) - NO
31 Doritos (music video) - NO
32 Fox (Unhitched) - NO
33 Maryland Lottery - NO
34 Universal Pictures (Wanted) - NO
35 Dell (Red) - NO**no speaking
36 Gatorade G2 - NO
37 GoDaddy.com - YES
38 FedEx - YES
39 Cars.com (extreme fighter) - YES
40 Tide to Go - YES
41 Budweiser - YES
42 Paramount (Iron Man) - NO
43 Toyota Corolla - YES
44 Universal Pictures (Leatherheads) - NO
45 Garmin GPS - NO**no speaking, but singing to music
46 Career Builder (follow your heart) - NO
47 SoBe Life Water - NO** no speaking
48 GMC Yukon - YES
49 White House Office of National Drug Control Policy - YES 50 Bud Light
(Carlos Mencia) - YES
51 Fox (American Idol) - NO
52 Disney (Narnia) - NO
53 Planters.com - NO**no speaking, but singing to music
54 T-Mobile (Wade/Barkley) - NO
55 Pepsi (Justin Timberlake) - NO
56 Doritos (mouse trap) - NO**but no speaking
57 Fox (Kitchen Kickoff) - NO
58 Ford (F-Series) - NO
59 Geico - NO**except for captioning “UHHHH”
60 Acura (Advance) - NO
61 Comcast - NO
62 Constellation Energy - NO
63 NFL Network - NO
64 Fox (American Idol) - NO
65 Fox (New Amsterdam) - NO
66 Chevron - NO
67 Lexus (GS) - NO
68 McDonald’s - NO
69 Barackobama.com - NO
70 Fox (Simpsons/King of the Hill) - NO
71 Fox Sports (Daytona) - NO
72 NFL - NO
73 Zantac - NO
74 NewLine (Semi Pro) - NO
75 Claritin - NO
76 Cars.com (medicine man) - NO
77 Salesgenie (bamboo furniture store) - NO
78 Glacau Vitaminwater - NO
79 Fox (Daytona) - NO
80 Bud Light (cave man) - YES
81 IceBreakers - YES
82 Bridgestone (Alice Cooper/Richard Simmons) - NO
83 CareerBuilder (wishing on star) - NO
84 Fox (Terminator) - NO
85 Hyundai - NO
86 Disney (Wall) - NO
87 Fox movie (Jumper) - NO
88 E-Trade (baby) - NO
689 Bud Light (man flying too high) - YES 90 NFL (Chester Pitts) - NO
91 Nissan (Murano) - NO
92 Nationwide - NO
93 Wachovia - NO
94 Sunsilk - YES
95 Coca Cola (dueling balloons) - YES
96 Coca Cola (Frist/Carville) - YES (some out of sync)
97 Toyota (Sequoia) - YES
98 Sony (Don’t Mess with Zohan) - NO
99 Fox (Terminator) - NO
100 E-Trade - NO
101 Taco Bell - NO
102 Gatorade - NO**only sound of dog lapping water
103 Fox (House) - NO
104 Bud Light (Will Ferrell) - NO
105 Hyundai (Genesis) - NO
106 Fox (Moment of Truth) - NO
107 Victoria’s Secret - NO**no speaking, but singing
108 Amp - NO**no speaking, no singing
109 Fox (American Idol/Ben Roethlisberger) - NO
________________________________
Miscellaneous Information and Ramblings
- “Bob’s House” appeared here at approximately 4:09 eastern time, prior
to the time I started keeping count.
- It was disappointing to see that neither of Pepsi’s ads during the
game was captioned.
- Though not counted here, there were numerous ads for the Pro Bowl,
none of which were captioned.
- Fred and I thought it was ironic that an NFL “all rights reserved” ad
was not captioned - people could be crooks and not know it!
- Budweiser and its Bud Light accounted for more than 20% of the
captioned ads, yet two Bud Light ads had no captions.
- Was it just me, or were the captions in the Coke ad with Bill Frist
and James Carville really out of sync at first?
Anybody who wants to volunteer to find contact information for these companies, to thank them or express disappointment, we need you! We’ve got too many other projects at NVRC right now to do it!
Thank you very much shane for your time.
Am I missing something? I watched the entire game and all the commercials. But the “Bob’s House” commercial did not air. Pretty sure I did not miss any commercials.
I also did not notice the commercial. Did I miss it somewhere?
From Cheryl’s report above:
- “Bob’s House” appeared here at approximately 4:09 eastern time, prior to the time I started keeping count.
I understand people saw it around 4:15 so Cheryl’s estimate is on target.
I caught the end of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” last night and the Pepsi “Night at the Roxbury” ad was captioned (including song lyrics, etc.).
Shane,
is there an email address for us readers to write to, to Pepsico, to thank them for the pre-game commercial, for underwriting captions on the actual Super Bowl program, and also to ask them why they didn’t caption their own Super Bowl ads????
Thanks! Sheila
Sheila,
Send your emails to Pepsi using this webform:
http://www.pepsiusa.com/help/help.php?or=/
some of the ads were for future TV shows or the next TV shows. All of them were never captioned. There is a different between commercial Ads and TV shows ads
yes the listis at http://www.captions.com and http://www.caption.org
And why would NAD join with AGB on captioning issues? HOH people tried so hard to be hearing. If AGB wants their own TV ad, well, any hearing people speaking could have been HOH except if they have hearing aids…
Since we’re on the subject of captioning, I came across a citation for Gregory J. Downey, Closed Captioning: Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). It looks formidable, since it weighs in at nearly 400 pages, and the publisher’s description makes clear that the study deals in part with “education for the deaf.” It could be useful to cite scholarly studies on the history of closed-captioning in persuading either corporate or governmental authorities to accord a higher priority to the practice.