Big conclusions:
- The Pats have spoiled what may have been a historic football streak. Can you say performance anxiety? Somebody could have made a killing selling warm crying towels in the locker room after game time.
- No matter how exciting a game is, shouting "GO BARACK" in the AdGabber Super Bowl chat room will result in a half-hour-long political death match.
- "Plaxico Burress" sounds like it belongs on a big pharma's drug pipeline.
- Bud Light failed to impress. Well, this was all right.
- The question of the night: Who thought the SalesGenie ads were racist? We didn't much notice -- but then again, we were also sharking Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts after that racist tee fiasco.
- eTrade spots: Latent trauma or the quiet mark of an Ally McBeal fan?
- Coke dives into the Super Bowl -- traditional Pepsi territory -- and accomplishes two goliathan tasks: mending American politics for :60 over Jinx (have you got a better idea?), and recapturing America with "Balloon". The AdGabber chat room is screaming (or rather, furiously typing) "Charlie Brown! Did you SEE CHARLIE BROWN!" for the next 10 minutes -- a cheer only seconded by "BANANAS!" when, for some reason, the Super Bowl camera guys take a few wistful shots of some browning bananas on the sidelines.
Good game. Last-minute crowning glory for the Giants? Very The Art of War.
"It was the art of bad football," snarled twinzdad6 from the AdGabber chat room.
"Jinx" by Coca-Cola sparked a political flare war in our Adrants Super Bowl chat room. In it, James Carville and Bill Frist set aside their differences over a personal jinx (except Carville has to buy Frist a Coke, not a slushee).
Cute. Why can't more things in life be solved this way?
Really, we don't know what we were expecting. But we sure hoped it would be more than what Victoria's Secret gave us.
What a waste of Adriana Lima's come-hither talents. Check out the preview, which is about as unimaginative as the ad itself, which just wastes more time.
We waited...and waited...and waited.....and it finally arrived. Yes, the Amp commercial. Late in the fourth quarter. For a drink that's all about getting you jacked up, this commercial features a chubby auto mechanic type who comes to the aid of a woman in a stalled car. He has all the necessary equipment including a tricked out tow truck, a sound systen, and, yes, nipples to supply the juice to get her car going again. Where does he get the juice? From his Amp drink of course. How humorously logical. We like.
If you take Will Ferrell's word for it, that is.
This spot, where Will Ferrell screws up an uncountable number of Bud Light ad takes with Freudian slips, is probably our favorite Bud Light ad thus far. It actually made us wonder how much sweat goes into every bottle.
Bud Light. Suck one. Lawl.
We can't believe Hyundai waffled over the inclusion of its ads in the Super Bowl this year, a decision (or lack of it) that build unmerited hype for what we thought to be a really boring brand.
Well, that hasn't changed. This Genesis ad was a waste of time and a waste of $2.7 mill or whatever they ended up paying for it. If they were hoping to be confused for the average Lexus, or the average anything-else, good job, Hyundai.
We all know sticking a baby in a commercial usually guarantees it to be a success so we figure this Etrade ad with a talking baby would follow that trend...until, of course, the baby puked. Ew. Gross. And how much can you digitally manipulate a baby before it's really anything but a baby. And, what was it again Etrade was trying to advertise? We still can't get over that baby puke! See the commercial here along with another.
OK, so they are kind of funny but still.
More slapstick Bud Light crap for Super Bowl 2008. Want the ability to fly? Guess what beer can help you out. Anheuser-Busch will not be held liable for jet- or sun-related accidents.
We suppose there's a legion of Carmen Elektra lovers out there but wasn't she popular like ten years ago? And what's up with that secret "whoa" word in this commercial? Yea we get that the security guards are reacting when she says the word but where's the set up? Where's the reason for them reacting the way they do? We don't get it. But, hey, she's still nice to look at so it can't be all bad.
We're not sure what Pixar's Wall-E is about, but the ad includes a Toy Story cameo and the murder of a vacuum cleaner by a cute robot -- a species that, by now, we're bored with.
Straight to DVD for this one.
OK, so we finally get to see those cavemen do their thing as they struggle to deliver Bud Light to the party which becomes easier when another cave dude invents the wheel. We hate subtitles. We didn't like the ad. We did, however, very much like the Bud Light Fire ad. Now that was funny.
Don't get us wrong. Richard Simmons impressions are funny. Richard Simmons in the flesh is funnier still. How Bridgestone fucked up the formula we don't know, but we're guessing it probably had something to do with the mild shock we experienced from the squirrel ad, which it featured first.
Oh yeah, Alice Cooper's in this ad too.
If all goes awry in a job interview, fall back on Plan B. (Which is apparently more than birth control.)
By Plan B, we mean bring in the witch doctor for vengeful head-shrinkage. Give demonstration on future colleague if necessary.
This spot: Lamer than we hoped.
This year's Zantac Super Bowl ad featured a woman whose facial features improved significantly after a giant thumb and forefinger airbrushed it with a minty Zantac pill.
Because Zantac ain't just for heartburn -- it's tomorrow's surprise contender in the insta-nip/tuck game. Big incentive: minty-fresh breath comes stock! We live for the incentives.
OK, we're not complaining but if half time Super Bowl acts keep going in the direction they have been, they're going to have to resurrect Chuck Berry. At the risk of igniting the firestorm we did last year when we seemed to be the only people who had unkind things to say about Prince's halftime show, we're going to go easy this year. And with good reason. Tom Petty did a fine job.
Petty performed all his usual classics on a very cool looking stage shaped and designed like a guitar. We actually enjoyed the show. See? We can be nice sometimes.
We dug this Career Builder ad where a Jiminy Cricket-type character brings inspiration to a despondent white collar grunt -- then gets eaten by a spider. Looks like CB's learned how to make good use of irony for its new slogan: "Start building." We thought it would be a lamer campaign than it's turning out to be.
Way better than the cheesy high-intensity office-as-jungle thing they were doing last year. And hey, you can't go wrong with maul-by-spider. LOTR did it, and so did Steven King in It.
It's not always a good thing to be in someone's T-mobile Fave 5 as Dwayne Wade soon finds out after finally getting Charles Barkley to put him into his Fave5. Sometimes it's just better to be unreachable. The storyline is humorous enough but, for us, it just fell a bit flat. It lacked something. We're not sure what but it just didn't hold the attention like Justin Timberlake did in his Pepsi Stiff commercial.
Angela: "Barkley's getting fat."
Planter's Super Bowl ad this year featured a dowdy chick with one eyebrow, felling men left and right with peanut perfume.
Weird. But not as weird as that one ad where a person in a mouse suit kicks somebody's ass for Dorito's ... to the theme song from Carmen. Very The Shining (though we're not sure why we feel that way).
Halfway through the game, this hand-drawn spot for GMC feels like the longest spot we've seen thus far.
But kudos to them for being so honest about their Sisyphus complex. Probably few things are more futile than being the one-trick executive team of a senile company. The immortal who rolled stones uphill, then watched them roll down again, makes an apt patron saint.
Adland credits the spot to Campbell-Ewald.
We saw the teaser. We saw the lizard telling his parents he'd be staring in a Super Bowl commercial with Naomi Campbell. Well, this is the result and we like it a lot. We like the effects, the production value, the creativity, the interaction between Naomi and the lizards. Oh, and then there's Michael Jackson's Thriller, a reminder he once was almost normal. Nice job, BBDO. See the commercial here.
So this woman's at her computer, typing away innocently, when her heart -- still pumping -- leaps the hell out of her chest (tearing an unfortunate hole in her sweater) and walks over to the boss' office, where it goes, "I quit."
At first we thought it was an American Heart Association ad. But actually it was for CareerBuilder. The bottom line: "Follow your heart." Definitely didn't see that coming.
If innocent watercooler bitching actually yielded dramatic ultimatums from our organs, we'd all be fucking dead!
Now this Tide commercial is one you just love to watch over and over. In an interview, a man who is attempting to explain why he is the right guy for the job, is distracted, as is his interviewer, by a nasty stain on his shirt...that talks when he tries to talk. Get it? Distracting stains? Distracting noises? In other words, it's best to use Tide to remove your stains before you head to an interview.
We like this commercial. We like it a lot. It drives home the point (with a sledgehammer) that a stain is very distracting and can affect your daily life in a bad way.
There's something about the "Rocky" theme that brings out the adrenaline-pumped patriot in us. We would never have imagined Budweiser was gonna pull that card in this spot involving a dalmatian and Hank, an overlooked race horse.
GO HANK! (Blame Rocky.) If that theme had been used for "Italian Stallion," Sylvester's career would probably have taken off much faster than anyone would have expected. With dramatically different results.
This ad is the proud winner of the USA Today Ad Meter poll.
So now we know using FedEx is a far wiser delivery solution tha carrier pigeons. In FedEx's Super Bowl spot, we have an underling discussing the use of pigeons as a method of delivery., All seems well until we look outside and see pigeons reeking havoc attempting to make deliveries. The boss say, "We better stick with FedEx.
There's a lot of drama in the ad. Crashing windows. Cars being mangled. When that;s coupled with the calm demeanor of the boss and his employee, it makes for interesting viewing.
We have no idea what Cars.com's Super Bowl ad was actually about, but it involved a really hot tatted islander who releases a murderous carnal scream, and a circle of flame where we hoped a gladiator fight would take place between the two white collar guys standing inside. No such luck.
We knew Dell was working on changing its image, and we knew it was going to do a spot for its new project (red) line during the 2008 Super Bowl, but we didn't realize it would involve cop fondling and just general gratuitous ass-slapping.
Neat. In, like, a generic Super Bowl sorta way.
Bottom line (which competes only in bottom-line brevity with SalesGenie): "Buy Dell. Join (red). Save Lives."
OK, Doritos. For a minute there I didn't know I was watching a commercial. Some sizzling sound effect with messages we didn't quote catch. The some girl starts singing about...Bum??? Bum, bum, bum. Huh? So I guess this is the chick that won the CGM contest. Kina Grannis is her name and you can hear her song on the Doritos site.
Bridgestone just shocked us into submission with an ad involving a squirrel's near-death experience by tire skiddage. We knew there was screaming; there was just a lot more than we expected. Suddenly we feel like road kill has feelings. Mostly of horror. Possibly of revenge after the fact?
This Under Armour commercial is visually stunning, wonderfully created, beautifully shot. Amazingly colored. However, as we started intently at it, we soon realized we had no idea what it was trying to tell us. Oh sure, Under Armour is the uniform of those who will lead in the future but when a 300-style dude stands atop a crowd and shouts, "The Future is Ours!" you can't really help but laugh. Well, at least we did. View the commercial here.
Bud Light's given us another one of its brief flourishes, with men using large cheese and baguette to smuggle Bud Light into their girls' wine and cheese party.
Yeah, because any man smuggling liquor is going to pick Bud Light -- to the unanimous acceptance of his chums. That's realistic.
Loved that Audi mafioso ad. We know from experience that nothing's more devastating than waking up covered in oil. Well, depending on the oil. See the commercial here.
The Bud Light Fire commercial turned out to be a bit more comical than we had assumed it would be. We have a guy demonstrating his ability to light candles during a romantic dinner until he asks his date if she had cats. Of course, he's allergic and he begins to sneeze...fire. Good stuff. Typical Bud Light humor but amusing enough for Super Bowl audiences.
Um, ouch? Some guy under the knife, giving feedback to the surgeons about whether or not he feels the pinch. Idea is to advocate the voice-activated Sync (now stock in Fords).
The surgery scenario was promising; otherwise that was a really dull ad. Link to follow.
Well now here's something different. A truck at that doesn't show the vehicle pulling something but rather illustrates its strength by showing how much stress it can take on a centrifuge machine. We suppose it gets the point across. Though we're guessing it was a lot more fun to shoot the thing than to watch it of television.
Here we go, starting with the outdated-hipster head-bobbing for Ford Focus and Verizon's wannabe iPhone. (Stacking 'em up, knocking 'em down like Dominos? Yeah, nobody's ever done that before.)
The tail-end of the pre-game ads are followed by a bunch of meatheads carefully pronouncing "Resiliency" (phonetic pronunciation in the background and everything). This kicks off the game.
Foreplay foreplay foreplay. Give kickoff already!
We don't normally pay much attention to pre-game shows, but we couldn't help noticing the impersonations of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin gracing the screen alongside stars like Peyton Manning and superimposed images of the Constitution.
WTF? Propaganda much? Where's the party?
OK, we can totally understand why FOX didn't accept the "beaver" version of Danica Patrick's GoDaddy commercial. Paparazzi drooling over "beaver." "Celebrities" holding beavers in their laps. Danica cooing into the camera, "A domain name and a website from GoDaddy.com give me all the exposure I need so I can keep my beaver safe and out of site." Right. Like there's no double meaning there, Bob. Yawn.
Oh, and let's not forget the Candice Michelle version in which a doofus is too busy registering domain names to watch the game and his friend can't help but inject his sexual fantasies into the scenario. Hey Bob, we've got the perfect tagline for GoDaddy. Ready? Here it is. "GoDaddy Gets You Laid." Simple enough. After all, that is what you're trying to say, right?
While the photography and special effects are beautiful in this Dell spot, there's really nothing special about it. It shifts very quickly from the beauty that is the destruction of competing computers (which we guess is the point) to you basic, standard, "buy a Dell closer." Well at least the pre-game version of the spot did. The spot that is set appear in the first quarter is supposed to be tied to the Red campaign. Not a bad spot. Created by Mother New York.
Alicia Keys made a rousing appearance during the Super Bowl 2008 Pre-Game Show which the crowd appeared to enjoy. Nice. Safe. No wardrobe malfunctions. All good in the eyes of FOX and the NFL.
In a segment during the FOX Pre-Game show, Budweiser got some nice added exposure when the caveman which will be seen in one of the spots were given some attention as if they were a news story. Some lawn gnomes showed up as well. Nice.
Created by Venables Bell & Partners, Audi's much talked about Godfather-themed R8 Super Bowl commercial (preview) is worthy of the discussion it has created. The ad, which marks the automaker's return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 20 years, features Alex Rocco's Godfather character Moe Green in the famous scene during which the Jack Wolz character wakes up to find the bloody head of his prized stud horse in bed with him.
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So here's Pepsi's Bob's House commercial in which two deaf guys get lost on their way to a friends house and resort to honking their horn to hep them locate the right house. The ad was created and enacted by deaf members of the Pepsico workforce. No doubt, due to it's silence, the ad will command attention during game viewing along with the subtitles which will actually draw people further into the ad.
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We have to tip our hat to Wieden + Kennedy for their Super Bowl efforts this year for Coke. In Jinx, which we reviewed here, Republican pundit Bill Frist and Democratic pundit James Carville share a friendly day together in Washington. In the second Super Bowl spot W+K created for Coke, we are treated to the slow, graceful dance of two Macy's Day Parade balloons as they engage in a battle for a balloon in the form of a Coke bottle. In the end, a third balloon, Charlie Brown, wins the prize high above Central Park.
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By now you've heard the spot GoDaddy's Bob Parsons wants you to see won't air during the game. The spot(s) that will air feature a crowd of people at a party scene. In one, White Light, Candice Michelle makes her appearance in a doorway to a transfixed audience. In another, Spot On, Danica Patrick teases the crowd to check her out online in her "OMG! Fox Rejected Commercial!" So after the game, if you care, that's where you can see Danica and that whole beaver thing.
We're going back to sleep now.
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