Sunday, February 04, 2007

Superbowl Commercials

It was a good game, but I don't recall seeing 2 back-to-back fumbles before. But since I didn't have a favorite team, I was interested, but not involved, in the game.

So, as we usually do, we critiqued the commercials and we were rather disappointed. Many of them seemed to be aggressive - more than necessary to make the point. And many were rather weak. Additionally, there seemed to be a significant number of ads for other CBS shows, so we wondered if perhaps the sales were not as high as in the past.

Our ratings are below, but I'm interested in your take on this.

Nice: (these are the feel-good commercials)
* Coke's Black History Month – featuring historical dates of significance and the matching coke bottle from that time.
* Doritos/Tostitos/FritoLay – This was the 'enjoy the game' message with the quote,‘getting here is half the battle.' It was a tribute to the first time both teams had Black coaches.

Good for the guys: (designed to appeal to the baser male interests)
* GoDaddy.com where everyone wants to work in the marketing department.

Swing and a Miss:
* Coke – give a little love and it all comes back to you...while the special effects were good and the message was okay, we just didn't like the unrealistic impression that drinking a Coke will solve all the world's problems.
* Garmin – take off on Godzilla movie - we're just not sure what this was for...
* Doritos – check out line, where the clerk is making comments on the variety of Doritos being bought. (perhaps this, too, appeals to the baser male interests, but the guys in our house thought it was lame)
* HHR and the men stripping off their clothes to clean the car...Disturbing was the most common word used for this one.
* BudLight – slap the face commercial was extemely predictable and not very original.
* GM – robot “all by myself” suicide dream sequence - while the message had to do with obsession with quality, it's hard to feel pity for a robot.
* Sprint – connectile dysfunction - parody of the erectile dysfunction commercials was good, but I'm not sure you want your product associated with E.D., even if it is a parody.
* BubbleTeam – march madness...maybe I just don't get it (not the bubble, but the whole commercial).
* E-trade: getting robbed by your bank - again, a pretty aggressive commercial to try and make you want to use E-Trade?
* Myrtle Beach/WTOL– football playing grandmother...please don't ask me to explain this one.
* Budweiser – crabs worshipping the cooler of beer...This one started out well, but the finish was a let-down.
* Salesgenie.com - perhaps this, too, tried to appeal to the baser male interests - as if using Salesgenie.com will make you good looking, successful and popular...

Good: (only two qualified)
* Bud Light – pick up the hitchhiker with an axe - except he's also got Bud Light. Creative, similar to the type of conversation you'd expect and with a good twist at the end...
* E-Trade – things you can do with one finger...again, creative and with a couple of good examples many would like to use...

The rest we ranked as 'okay' - not too bad, but not too good either. So, what did you think and which one(s) were your favorites for the night?

All commercials can be viewed here.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I felt the same way about the game, and I was disappointed with the commercials. I did like the Garmin GPS commercial, and I liked a few of the Bud Light commericals - the first one with the rock paper scissors was violent but unexpected. The one with the english language teacher was a bit different and I agree the hitchiker one was the best. The crabs started out cute but then was a let down.

The blockbuster one was the top voted commercial for the first quarter at AOL and I was shocked, especially since the whole "mouse" thing while very funny was several years old.

I think I would have found the Dorito's crash one more funny had we not just gone thru what we did with my 17 year old last week...

:-)

So...none of them to me were as funny as my favorite superbowl commercial of all time - the cat herder one.

Maggie said...

I don't know that I have an all-time favorite SB commercial...I started to watch the special on Saturday night about the top 15 challengers to the Mean Joe Greene-Coke commercial, but, when they aired #15-10 in a matter of the first 5 minutes and then started with stupid interviews, I knew I wouldn't last.

And I'll say it again...I think they had more show promos than regular commercials - but I wasn't counting....

Unknown said...

I thought that very same thing, I was wondering if the high price of the ads kept companies away so that they promo'd shows instead.

-Sepp said...

I liked the twist to grand theft auto that Coke did.
One thing that bothered me during the doritos commercial was the tiny disclaimer "professional driver on closed course". It that an indication of how stupid Americans have become or, how lawsuit-happy this country is?

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