Dot-com commercials during Super Bowl XXXIV


featured 14 advertisements from 14 different dot-com companies, each of which paid an average of $2.2 million per spot. In addition, five companies that were founded before the dot-com bubble also ran tech-related ads, and 2 before game ads, for a grand total of 21 different dot-com ads. These ads amounted to nearly 20 percent of the 61 spots available, and $44 million in advertising. In addition to ads which ran during the game, several companies also purchased pre-game ads, most of which are lesser known. All of the publicly held companies which advertised saw their stocks slump after the game as the dot-com bubble began to rapidly deflate.
The sheer amount of dot-com-related ads was so unusual that Super Bowl XXXIV has been widely been referred to as the "Dot-Com Super Bowl", and it is often used as a high-water mark for the dot-com bubble. Of these companies, 4 are still active, 5 were bought by other companies, and the remaining 5 are defunct or of unknown status.

Effectiveness

Many websites saw short-term gains from the advertisements. LastMinuteTravel.com, for example, reported a surge of 300,000 hits per minute during its advertisement broadcast. In many cases, though, this did not translate into long-term gains. OurBeginning.com's revenue jumped 350% in Q1 of 2000, but its $5 million in advertising costs were still ten times what its customers spent. Short-term gains were not enough to recoup advertising losses, and Pets.com, Computer.com, and Epidemic.com, among many others, would fold before the end of the year.

Later references

Less than a year later, E*Trade ran an ad during Super Bowl XXXV mocking the glut of dot-com commercials during the previous game. The ad featured the chimpanzee from E*Trade's 2000 commercial wandering through a ghost town filled with the remains of fictional dot-com companies, including a direct reference to the already-defunct Pets.com sock puppet. During the game that year, only three dot-com companies ran advertisements.

In-game ads

The following list details each company, the commercials they ran, and their ultimate fate. All spots were 30 seconds long.
CompanyCommercial TitleCompany Status
AutoTrader.com"I Need a Car"Active
Computer.com"Mike and Mike"Purchased by Office Depot in 2000
e1040.com"Charity"Unknown; domain name redirects to
Epidemic.com"Bathroom"Defunct in 2000
E-Stamp.com"Time Saving Tips"Defunct; domain name redirects to Stamps.com
HotJobs.com"Negotiations"Bought by Yahoo! in 2002, later purchased and liquidated by Monster.com in 2010
LastMinuteTravel.com"Tornado"Active
LifeMinders.com"The Worst Commercial"Purchased by Cross Media Group in 2001
Monster.com"The Road Less Travelled"Active
OnMoney.com"Paper Monster"Defunct in 2002
Netpliance"Webhead"Rebranded as TippingPoint in 2002, purchased by 3Com in 2005
OurBeginning.com"Invites"Purchased by an undisclosed company in 2002
Pets.com"If You Leave Me Now"Liquidated in 2000; redirects to
WebMD"Ali"Active

Companies founded before the bubble

In addition to the companies listed above, several tech companies that were founded before the dot-com boom also ran ads. As these are outside the strict definition of a dot-com company, since their founding significantly pre-dated the creation of a dot-com website, they have been listed separately.
CompanyCommercial TitleSpot LengthCompany Status
BritannicaActive
E*Trade"Wasted 2 Million", "Out the Wazoo", "Basketball Prodigy"0:30 eachActive
Electronic Data Systems"Cat herders"Purchased by HP in 2008
KforceActive
MicroStrategy"Fraud", "Stock Alert"0:30 eachActive

Pre-game ads

The following list details companies which ran ads prior to the actual game time.
CompanyCommercial TitleSpot LengthCompany Status
Computer.com"Untitled 1", "Untitled 2"0:30 eachPurchased by Office Depot in 2000
OurBeginning.com"Untitled 1", "Untitled 2", "Untitled 3"0:30 eachPurchased by an undisclosed company in 2002

Contemporary opinions leading up to Super Bowl XXXIV