Is it just me or are Superbowl commercials getting worse with each passing year? Every second costs a fortune, so you’d think advertizers would make good use of their time by producing the best, the coolest, the funniest, the freshest commercials. You’d be wrong. Here are my very brief thoughts on this year’s commercials. If you’d like another Pittsburgher’s take, check out Gclectic.
Bud Light (office) – funny but the message is apparently “beer makes people stupid”
Burger King – pathetic and awful
Sierra Mist – chuckle, but weak
Bud Light (magic fridge) – freakin’ hilarious
16 Blocks – eh
Toyota – yawn
FedEx – not hilarious, but original
Bud Light (bear) – so-so
V for Vendetta – deja vu 1984
Diet Pepsi (P. Diddy) – catchy but forgettable
Aleve – pathetic use of the ST license
Ameriquest (fly) – kinda funny
Bud Light (roof) – π
Diet Pepsi (Jacky Chan) – chuckle
Cars – looks dumb
Nationwide (rope swing) – eh
Budweiser (lamb streaker) – chuckle
Mobile ESPN – yawn
CareerBuilder (monkeys chart) – yawn (wasn’t funny last year)
Cadillac Escalade – dumb
MI:3 – could be interesting
Dove (self esteem) – touching but doesn’t belong in a football game
Shappy Dog – dumb, poor Tim Allen
Ford Escape (Kermit) – cute (I’m a big Muppets fan.)
Michelob (tackle) – great π
GoDaddy (wardrobe malfunction) – I have no idea what they were advertizing.
Poseidon – could be OK
Gillete Fusion – not new, still lame, how many blades do we really need?!?
Overstock.com – boring
Sprint (deterrent) – funny because it’s odd
Ft. Lauderdale – Dan Marino sucks as a spokesman. Ad is boring.
Ameriquest (airplane) – kinda funny
MotoPEBL – dumb
Sharpie (pirate) – chuckle
Budweiser (pulling cart) – cute
Nationwide (Fabio) – funny π
NFL mobile – eh
H3 (monster love) – amusing but odd
Practical Solutions (clean suits) – eh
CareerBuilder (jackasses) – the joke has jumped the shark (or monkeys or asses or whatever)
Taco bell (crunchy wrap love) – weak
Slim Fast – boring
Gillette Fusion – dumb once, dumb twice
Toyota (webcam beach) – different, but eh
Sprint (Benny Hill) – chuckle
Degree (3x risks) – dumb
Emerald Nuts – amusing
Fidelity (McCartney) – not new, still boring
Budweiser (stadium signs) – creative and mildly amusing
Pirates of the Carribean 2 – hope it’s good
MasterCard (MacGyver) – cool! π
Mobile ESPN – yawn
Beer Institute – educational, Irish only ones with real beer
World Baseball Classic – intriguing
GoDaddy – huh? (again)
Running Scared – definitely not Hines and Crystal
Outback – eh
Westin (nonsmoking) – simple but effective, smoking sucks
Well, that’s it. I’m sorry if my descriptions aren’t memorable, but I was writing quickly when I took notes.
Did anybody else notice the switcheroo from last year? We went from erectile dysfunction every other commercial to Lifetime. I half expected “Mom, do you ever get that not so fresh feeling?” The attempt to reach women was too obvious and overplayed. Subtlety would do wonders for these advertizers.
Anyhow, the final verdict is that this year, except for Bud Light and a couple others, was a dismal failure for Madison avenue. I suspect there were some firings this morning. Let’s hope next year’s better.
I liked the Degree commercial. Did you catch the “no helmets” sign?
Apparently the careerbuilder.com is funnier if you’ve ever worked for one of those companies. Nancy has.
Taco Bell: Come on — the geek woman was cute!
Aleve: They blew it: Aleve long and prosper! He takes the drug, it lasts long and gets the appearance money!
I’m surprised you even got the MacGyver and Benny Hill references! You young whippersnappers are more on the ball than I would have thought.
Hey, I liked the Jackie Chan with the Coke stunt double! The weren’t the best though – I agree.
Eric,
As soon as I saw the MasterCard commercial, I thought of you and the “MacGyver-theme” ringtone on your cell phone …
“I’m surprised you even got the MacGyver and Benny Hill references! You young whippersnappers are more on the ball than I would have thought.”
I used to watch Benny Hill reruns on PBS. I’m old enough to have watched MacGyver during its original run, though. Man, I love that show. π
It is certainly a strong trend that the best beer commercials (among the best of all commercials) are invariably for the worst beers, e.g., Bud Light and (not recently) Miller Lite. Coors Light, on the other hand sucks equally in commercials and beer quality. The very best beers (e.g., Samuel Smiths, Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head), on the other hand, don’t advertise at all, at least on TV. And I suppose they don’t need to and wouldn’t waste their money on advertising anyway. But the among the advertised beers that are passable, e.g., Guiness, Sam Adams, in a pinch Killians, their commercials are almost invariably lousy. What is freakin’ wrong with this world!?!!!
I liked the Burger King commercial, if you are talking about the one with the dancing tomato slices. Fed Ex appealed to my sense of the warped. The Bud ads were pretty good, though I’m not sure they were worth the money.
The self-esteem commercial took me back to Beloved-but-Expensive-Daughter in grade school. “Self esteem, self esteem, they keep talking about self esteem. If I hear one more thing about self esteem, I’m going to puke.”
My favorite was all the Stillers practicing how they were going to say “I’m going to Disney World.” And when they had the black and white shots of the players with the Lombardi trophy…even though that probably really doesn’t count as a commercial per se.
My other favorite, for my more hostile side, was the Sprint commercial for the “theft deterrent” phone. π
during the game while I was an emotional wreck. Rob of Unspace fame did live blogging of the entire game. I vaguely remember a lot of my thoughts while watching so itΒs nice to see someone elses! I nearly forgot about the commercials! BothEric @ Ales Rarus and Gclectic surveyed and critiqued the commercials that many watch instead of the game. (UPDATED) Anthony posted the best sight of the entire game. Period. Julie has stories and scenes from all the hoopla
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