A Super Bowl idea filled with nothing
Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:03 PM
The idea is called “30 Seconds of Nothing,” and it’s one of those concepts so deliciously loopy that only three college students could come up with it. What’s really amazing about this one is that it was born without the aid of beer. At least that’s what they told me.
The concept is simple. Three college kids from Marietta, Ga., want to purchase a 30-second ad during the broadcast of next year’s Super Bowl. They’ll use the time to sell no product and mention no advertiser. They won’t even put their own names on the screen. It will be 30 seconds for no purpose other than to consume 30 seconds.
But let brothers Brian and Connor Lynch and their co-conspirator, Mark Manguno tell it in their own words:
“We were watching TV, and during a commercial break, we said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we saw a commercial that didn’t advertise anything,’ ” Connor told me today. “There are a lot of commercials that have a good story line, but when you get to the end, it always advertises something.”
Their idea was to show something with a good story line and advertise nothing, not even the name of the spot they’re paying all that money to show.
So they set up a website, 30secondsofnothing.com, that went online Monday night. By Tuesday, thanks to Digg.com and Reddit.com, they’d already had several dozen hits, including mine, which led to a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
Connor Lynch, an 18-year-old sophomore electrical engineering student at Georgia Tech, put his name on the site, which advises visitors:
“I want to see an ad on the super bowl next year that advertises nothing. Nothing at all. It will feature no product, it will involve no celebrity cameos, and no one will go out and buy another thing they don’t need because of it. Unfortunately, I don’t have the estimated 3 million dollars for this noble cause.”
That’s where the rest of us are supposed to come in. We’re supposed to be so moved by their quest we dig into our pockets and send them a few bucks at a time until they have enough to buy their 30 seconds.
Technically, they’re not going to present half a minute of nothing at all. Instead, they intend to run a YouTube video nominated by contributors. They’ll choose the winning entry based on their own tastes, but they promise it won’t be raunchy or distasteful. Just good, clean fun – and no credits.
“There will be a subjective process,” said one of them – Connor I think. (It was hard to keep track , since everybody was talking at once on a speaker phone.) “We’re going to choose something entertaining. And if it works, maybe do it every year.”
“It would be 30 seconds of whatever the content is. It would promote none of us and would not promote the web site in any way,” said another of the team.” If you didn’t know anything about this, you’d have no idea what it’s about.”
I think it’s kind of cool. I can just imagine tens of millions of Americans eagerly awaiting the next swell Super Bowl commercial scratching their heads when a home-made video pops up, struts and frets its 30 seconds upon the screen, and is heard no more.
They don’t have all the details worked out. Manguno, who is studying to be a physicist, said they haven’t worked out what to do with the money, should any actually come in. They’re thinking of setting up a charitable organization to handle it – that would come from Brian Lynch, the law student. They also have to figure out what they’re going to do if they collect a bunch of money, but not enough to do the ad. Do they hang onto it and try to raise the remainder next year to run their non-ad during the 2010 Super Bowl? Or do they send it back? And if they do, how?
“We just put the idea up yesterday,” Brian said, apologizing for the lack of details. “We didn’t expect an interview this fast.”
All three did promise that this really is about 30 Seconds of Nothing and not about Three Guys Running Away to Rio. They did admit they’re in it for the publicity, but they don’t want to make their names by being labeled crooks.
“For me, I’m just very interested to see if it’s even possible,” said Brian. “I’d be very impressed with myself if I could get an ad on the Super Bowl.”
But why?
“Notoriety would be a big thing,’ said Mark. “Maybe it will look good on a resume.”
I don’t know if they’ll succeed, but I kind of hope they do. I’ll keep you posted on how they’re doing.
