Students at the University of South Carolina will rate the commercials during the Super Bowl for a ninth straight year.

Cocky’s Super Ad Poll ranks the commercials based on likeability, persuasiveness and brand identification.

USC Professor Bonnie Drewniany teaches a class of 100 students devoted to Super Bowl advertising.

“The Super Bowl is really such a part of our popular culture and in the course we actually look at the evolution of the ads and how they reflect society,” she said.

Drewniany said the course is one of the most popular in the School of Journalism.

“I think they gain a greater appreciation of the advertising process and really understand how it really is a part of our culture.”

The winning commercial will receive the Cocky Award, which Drewniany said is well-known in the advertising industry.

“If you were to pay a surprise visit to any of these ad agencies (that won), you actually see the Cocky Award front and center.”

Drewniany said people enjoy the Super Bowl commercials because they’re the best ads of the year.

“The average person knows that they’re going to be entertained in the evening by watching the ads,” she said. “People are expecting to laugh and cry as they watch the commercials.

“They’re often new product introductions or new campaign introductions. A lot of money is put behind them to make sure that they stand out from the regular commercials.”

Interest in the commercials increased after Apple released its Orwellian themed ad for the Macintosh Computer during the 1984 Super Bowl.

“This was the first time the media treated it as a news item,” she said. “All three networks at that time in 1984 stopped what they were doing and covered the commercial because it was so different.”

The public can also vote in Cocky’s Super Ad Poll on the USC Website.

The U.S. Army has chosen to build a new reserve center at a site near Orangeburg. 

The 15-acre Army Reserve Center is expected to cost nearly $12 million.

The Orangeburg Times and Democrat reports the training center will be built on Cook Road, near Interstate 26, on the city’s northeast side.

Program Manager Dale Polston says the site will include a 34,000 square-foot training building and a 5,000 square-foot maintenance shop.

The site will provide reserve units with space to assemble, perform weapons simulations and train physically.

Polston says the new center will also feature a library and learning center.

Eight Army Reserve units will use the site. Construction could begin as early as this summer.

The state is steadily regaining its overall economic health and will continue a slow, but steady recovery next year.  That was good news for the state’s business and policy leaders who gathered to hear the projections of Doug Woodward and Joey Von Nessen of the Darla Moore School of Business at USC.

Woodward meets the press to discuss his research

The two highlighted some bright spots for the state. A few are:

-Charleston, the home of the largest increase in population with four-year degrees of anywhere in the country, is creating what Woodward calls a “stable creative class” that draws and keeps higher-qualified workers, especially in information technology.  Woodward calls this region the “hottest” for economic growth in the state.

-Aiken’s landing of Bridgestone tire manufacturer will offset a depletion of jobs caused by Savannah River Site’s gear-down of stimulus funded projects. That money will run out as Bridgestone gets online.

-Myrtle Beach enjoyed a good year according to employment numbers, despite the problems with second-home sales and construction. “But something’s generating jobs down there, ” says Woodward,”because they did have a strong jobs profile. I think that tourism is still a strong cluster.”

-The Palmetto State’s  job training programs work, even though the average overall education attainment of South Carolina is not, says Woodward.  Woodward says industries are going to look at Boeing and BMW success in hiring large amounts of skilled workers.

Woodward and Von Nessen’s South Carolina regions at a glance:

• In 2011 total employment growth was positive throughout most of the state (through October 2011, compared with employment activity through October 2010). The biggest gains came in Myrtle Beach (+2.6 percent), Anderson (+2.3 percent), Columbia (+1.6 percent) and Florence (+1.2 percent). Greenville (+0.9 percent), Charleston (+0.9 percent), and Spartanburg (+0.7 percent) had smaller gains and Sumter (-0.3 percent) had virtually no change in total employment over the last year.

• South Carolina total employment in retail trade was slightly down overall (-0.9 percent through October 2011, compared with October 2010), though retail sales activity varied significantly in the metropolitan areas over the first 9 months of 2011 in comparison with the first nine months of 2010. The biggest gains came from Columbia (+7 percent), Spartanburg (+4.4 percent), and Charleston (+3.2 percent). The largest declines occurred in Sumter (-14.8 percent), Greenville (-7.5 percent) and Florence (-6.8 percent). Smaller changes occurred in Anderson (+2.6 percent) and Myrtle Beach (-2.9 percent).

• Several regions of South Carolina experienced increases in residential building permit activity last year. Comparing single family building permits issued through September 2011 with permits issued through September 2010, Sumter (+20.9 percent) and Greenville (+12.3 percent) show the greatest gains, while Anderson (-12 percent) and Columbia (-10.4 percent) show the sharpest drops. Other areas of the state showed more modest changes: Myrtle Beach (+5.6 percent), Florence (-6.5 percent), Charleston (-4.4 percent) and Spartanburg (-2.7 percent).

• In October 2011 unemployment rates had only minor changes in the various metropolitan areas compared with October 2010. The biggest drops were in Greenville (-0.6 percent) and Anderson (-0.5 percent), followed by Spartanburg (-0.2 percent), Charleston (-0.1 percent) and Myrtle Beach (-0.1 percent). Sumter had no change (0.0 percent), while Florence (+0.2 percent) and Columbia (+0.1 percent) had small gains.

Sixth District Congressman and House Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn did not vote for a bill to curtail the work of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

In a statement today after the vote for passage of the bill in the house, introduced by 1st District Rep. Tim Scott, Clyburn said the board is charged with protecting workers’ rights.

“As the former director of an independent agency — the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission – I know firsthand that such agencies come under fire when decisions they make are not popular. I don’t agree with the NLRB’s case against Boeing, but I believe in the purpose of the agency and its independence from political influence.” Clyburn said. “The current House action is an attempt to meddle in work of this independent agency in order to gain political points. I don’t support the NLRB’s Boeing complaint, and I don’t support this political gamesmanship. That is why I voted against the legislation.”