Markets

Google's Super Bowl Touchdown: "We're Lovable, Not Evil"

By David Weir

Updated on: February 8, 2010 / 8:25 PM EST / MoneyWatch

That the most searched team on Google (GOOG) for this year's Super Bowl was the victorious New Orleans Saints comes as no surprise; neither did the news that the losing (but more famous) quarterback, Peyton Manning edged out MVP Drew Brees as the most searched player.

And though there may be no objective way to measure the most effective advertisement at the big game, my vote would have to go to the giant search engine itself for its surprisingly touching love story of an American man who meets a French woman at a cafe in Paris.

As Northwestern Professor Derek Rucker explained to Bloomberg News, what made this rare appearance in the television advertising space effective for Google was the "added emotional layer" of a love story over the simple graphical functionality that is -- and always has been -- Google's core strength.

The images in the ad consisted almost exclusively of the famously spare Google home page, with search terms then entered in the proper order to weave the narrative overlay. No bells, no whistles, no fancy technological display.

Not only did this nice little ad illustrate the way Google routinely meets the very human needs of its users, it was an appeal to view the search giant in its purest light at a time when huge controversies like the Google Book scanning case and the Rupert Murdoch-led campaign against Google News have undercut the perception that the company still can live up to its motto, "Don't be evil."

The ad was Google's way of striking back with a resounding "Yes, we can!"