Well, it’s that time of year again. No, not the holidays. It’s time to write Super Bowl ads.

And all the greats of all the fancy ad agencies across the country are, as we speak, camping out at Starbucks and abandoning all thoughts of REM sleep, and disappointing spouses (once again) in the unrealistic hope of writing. an ad that somehow makes in the Super Bowl.

And they go through this pain and suffering because everyone knows that writing a Super Bowl ad that occurs and is shown during the game will change their lives forever.

You can sleep in February. Anyway, there are fewer days.

This year, the NFL has decided to engage you and me, the fans, in writing an ad for the Super Bowl (call them ads if you want to sound professional). Rather than simply handing over the creative brief to your ad agency and letting the creatives do it like a rib thrown to bloodthirsty hyenas, the National Football League wants to get ‘real’ people involved this year.

Marketing strategy? Yes. Has it been done before? Safe. Who cares? This is beyond huge. This could lead you to ‘Entertainment Tonight’. And everyone wants to get into ‘Entertainment Tonight’.

The fact is, the ads in the Super Bowl get just as much (if not more) attention than the game itself. USA Today will feature a full SECTION on who had the best ads next Monday. People in colorless cubicles and on construction sites and gas stations across the country will talk about which ad was the best. People who have never met will sit in hotel lobbies and wonder things like “Do you think they got you far enough in that Fed Ex place last night?”

That’s how important Super Bowl ads are.

The chosen commercial will be remembered LONG after it is broadcast. It will become part of our culture. Think about it … now you have a chance to create something that will become part of our culture for years to come. Exaggeration? Hardly, the 1984 Apple ad (with its beautiful Russian nuances) featuring a woman throwing the mallet through Big Brother, defined a critical moment in the life of our country.

And instead of dedicating your life to writing a novel or dedicating your entire life to developing works of art, you can do it in just 30 seconds.

Well. So if you’re going to write the NFL Super Bowl ad that is produced, take it to commercial filming, and then fly it to South Florida for the Super Bowl itself … here are a few things to do.

1) Think like a screenwriter

We have all been to the movies. We all know that ‘movie feeling’. It’s epic. It looks like it should be viewed on an IMAX screen. It could be a dramatic re-entry from a lunar mission or the tension between two lovers in Paris, or it could be a boy walking down a hall … the point is, it doesn’t have to be big … it has to feel big.

Get inspired. Go see a Tim Burton movie. Apollo 13 Gold. Gold The color purple. Rent Rosebud. Whatever it takes to put your mind in the right place.

2) Don’t feel the need to explain anything in the ad

Super Bowl commercials don’t talk about product features. We are never told a complete list of reasons why Bud Light is the best beer in a Super Bowl venue or why Pepsi is the only soda you should ‘trust’. And that’s great news, because it means you can focus on your ‘theater’ (the action of your commercial).

Don’t waste time writing an announcer text that explains the benefits of the NFL. People know the benefits of the NFL. You will lose valuable time. So keep your copy to a minimum and focus on ‘writing’ a place that people will remember.

3) Choose to be relevant visually or verbally

Two very different lines of thought here: does it show soccer-related action or not? This is very important. Do you show some action that has nothing to do with football and then tie it to the NFL with a very clever line at the end or do you focus on one aspect of football throughout your theater and then end the place with a very clever line in the end. (Hopefully, he saw the need to cleverly close his place TWICE.)

What is the difference between visual and verbal relevance?

If you write an ad about a monkey and several men with mental disabilities in a garage playing with spoons and singing tonelessly about absolutely nothing and then at the end you write a line about not wasting money (actual super bowl ad), that’s relevance verbal. It is incredibly memorable. Along with a lot of people, I remember it was for E * Trade. And because E * Trade took that risk … I like them better as a brand.

So if you go this route, go crazy. But you better have a great line at the end like they did. Which was about spending money, what they did just by showing crazy people and some money in a garage and what you won’t do if you come to E * Trade.

Brilliant thinking.

However, if you write an ad about the guy who ties soccer balls and cleans towels and then (something great happens here), then you are being visually relevant. Everything about soccer, from the guy who mows the grass on the field to where they try cleats to where helmets are used as cocktail glasses … is visually relevant.

Visual relevance is MUCH easier to sell. MUCH LESS memorable goal.

4) Be very, very hard on yourself.

People in the advertising world would literally sing the Kazakh National Anthem naked at Grand Central Station during rush hour for the next six to eight years for a chance to produce a Super Bowl ad.

So push it. Have fun with it. After all, it is copywriting. Not accountable (sorry accountants, had to do it).