When it comes to ads and the Super Bowl, it's all about you

FOR THE SECOND consecutive year, the star in this year's Super Bowl commercials is you.

Yes, YOU!

USA Today reported last week that at least four major advertising campaigns will feature user-submitted videos during the bathroom breaks for the big game.

No offense, but I always thought you were better suited for falling down the stairs on "America's Funniest Home" videos or appearing on an episode of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" than starring in the sideshow to the big game. Who would have ever guessed some multinational corporation would pay $2.7 million per 30 seconds of air time to show, well, you.

Don't take it personally, it's just that I'm a little disappointed.

In the Super Bowl era of old (circa: Bud Bowl), the commercials starred more interesting people. Robert Goulet destroyed an office in the name of nuts. Dopey Budweiser guys came up with catchphrases. The pets.com puppet was a sock.

But now, average, everyday people are a hot commodity in advertising. And not just for the Super Bowl. Online ads featuring regular Joes are expected to be the next big thing.

By the time we vote for the next president in 2012, researchers predict, more than 30 percent of all online ads will come in video form.

In the future, Alan Jacobson says, we'll all star in commercials. We'll all sell our own stuff through online video. Picture it: You, the incredibly charismatic pitchman for your junk or your skills.

Jacobson, a designer and newspaper consultant based in Norfolk, along with colleagues across the country, launched a Web site in May called RealPeopleRealStuff.com. He worked at The Pilot

until 1992.

The site's philosophy is that online videos are better than a traditional newspaper classified ad, Craigslist blurb or eBay listing. And the spokesperson for these items is not one of the GoDaddy.com girls or Betty White. The spokesman is you, the you who has always wanted to be a celebrity.

Rick Plautz is a real person with real stuff. He's a 25-year-old sociology student at Virginia Commonwealth University, whose video is among a handful in the Hampton Roads section of the Web site.

In his ad, the text reads: "Comfy plaid chair. Very playful chair. Great with kids, housebroken and eats only what falls out of your pocket. It's a loyal chair, from a long line of chair breeds meant to serve mankind. I'm looking for a gentle owner who will love this chair as much as it will love you. It's been fixed and has had all required shots. Especially gentle with tushes of all shapes and sizes."

If this appeared in a classified ad, I wouldn't read it. Why? Because I'm not looking for a chair.

But in the video, Plautz sits in the chair, over the arm, right side up. In the voice-over, he says, "It's pretty old. It's nice. But I don't have a home for it right now, and I have enough chairs as it is... I'd take about 20 bucks if someone wants to come get it... But if you come from far away, with a truck, I don't mind, you can take it off my hands for free."

I hate to critique here, but I have to say that giving away the chair for free is a horrible sales technique.

Still, as a whole, the ad is convincing. Watching it, I want to give Plautz $20 for his chair. A chair like Plautz's, man, it's perfect to watch Super Bowl commercials in.

It's a long way from hawking hot wings for KFC on national television. But I see the possibilities.

Plautz's chair still hasn't sold. He's keeping his laundry on it right now.

That's exactly what I'd expect from you.

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com