Ubiquitous Superbowl Ad Post

So I took a break from my work to watch the Superbowl on Sunday, because, well, it's the Superbowl. The Saints won and there is nothing I can do about that. But I am not here to talk about the game, let's talk about the ads. I mean, I should care about this stuff, right?

Let me begin my assessment by stating that I was rather disappointed at the advertisements this year as a whole. There were moments where I chuckled, where I took notice, where I listened. But I cannot recall a single commercial that made me say "Wow, that was really smart." I saw nothing that took a simple idea, executed it simply and powerfully, and summed it up in such a way that left me feeling emotionally moved or introspective. What does a good Superbowl Ad look like to me? Well, this one stands out in my mind:



Regarding ads that use comedy to make their point. I think that, while effective, straight comedy ads can be somewhat of a cop out. Case in point from this year's crop is the Snickers commercial with Betty White and Abe Vigoda. I know a bunch of people really enjoyed this commercial. I, however, thought that it was kind of stupid and a little insulting. I mean all that money and what you came up with was that tackling old people is funny? Oh and they are playing football. In a commercial during the Superbowl. How clever. I am not saying that I am above low brow humor, I really enjoyed this Doritos ad, but give me something to go along with the immature humor and slapstick.



And the Budweiser Kleisdale commercials where they show an animal that wants be in the group, but can't, but then they work hard and become and honorary member and take one glorious ride have to stop. Enough already. I know they probably have market research that says "people like the kleisdale ads" but at least interject some originality into it. Like the spot a few years ago where they were playing football and the zebra was the ref, that was clever.

I will close this post with some quick thoughts. The dodge ad was almost awesome, but I thought the ending was a let down. The doritos ads were funny. The fact that the company that used crowdsourcing had (arguably) the best ads is telling. Snickers (for me) sucked. The movie trailers looked awesome but those people make any movie look awesome (Donnie Darko is the prince of persia?Really?). Tim Tebow ad was dumb, he should have been more opinionated and the fact that he tackled his mom was confusing. I guess he was getting ready for the special teams duties that will be his NFL career. My favorite ad was Doritos Samurai, but I will readily admit that it was stupid, but whoever made that guy's costume deserves a huge round of applause.

Next week I will post my One Show submissions.

Thanks for reading!