Stuart Elliott: Madison Avenue Gets a Lead Medal for the Ad Olympics

I estimate that I watched more than 1,000 commercials, promotions and branded-entertainment vignettes during NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympic Games from Friday, Aug. 5, through Sunday, Aug. 21. There were plenty of complaints in the press about the volume and clutter of it all and, obviously, not all of the breaks from coverage of the Games were for advertisements. But most of them were, and little has been said about the commercials themselves – a largely repetitive and uninspired bunch that collectively packed none of the punch associated with ads during the Super Bowl or the Academy Awards, to name two obvious showcases.