Budweiser Eternally Optimistic Prohibition Will Never Happen Again

Highlighting achievements throughout history and the fact there will always be great times to celebrate, Budweiser's Eternal Optimism is a pulse-pounding, music fueled illustration of how American really know how to have a good time. As long as beer is involved.

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Chrysler's Clint Eastwood Ad Best Super Bowl Ad This Year

It's only halftime as I write this but the Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad just aired and it is, by far, the best ad of this year's Super Bowl. Telling the world it's halftime in America and the world had better be ready for America's second half, Eastwood says, "This country can't be knocked out in one punch. We get right back up again and when we do, the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. Yea, it's halftime America and our second have is about to begin." Very, very powerful message.

The ad ties the plight of Detroit to the plight of the nation. It acknowledges we are in trouble but it also lifts out spirits by reminding us we've been down before and we've survived.

We're calling this the best (and we use that term lightly since ads are supposed to be about sales and we'll have no idea about that for quite some time) Super Bowl ad of the year. We just are. That's the way it is. Disagree. But you'll be wrong.

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Hulu Plus. That's Hot.

Well it's official. The Will Arnett Hulu commercial is nowhere near as good as the Alec Baldwin one. Something about mashing your brain up even further. But what do we know. The scientist at the end says, "That's hot." And that's about the most favorite part of the ad for us.

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Doritos: Wise Ass Kid Gets 'Sling Baby'd' by Grandma

So what do you do when your wise ass grandson won't share his Doritos with you? You enlist the the kid's baby brother to help you. This is one of the Doritos top fire consumer created commercials we thought wouldn't make the cut but it did. Just goes to show how much we know. Anyway, we like it.

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Mr. Quigley Out Moves Kim Kardashian

Yes, let's be honest. Wouldn't you rather watch Kim Kardashian be ogled by the camera for thirty seconds rather than watching a moon walking dog? To each their own we guess. So this tear Skechers went for a less sexy approach and hired a dog. The ad, Mr. Quigly, is pretty funny. After all, animals in the Super Bowl, right?

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Chevy Sonic 'Stunt Anthem' Captures Automotive Excitement

The Chevy Sonic ad that has the car and its drivers frolicking in all kinds of adventure does a nice job anecdotally illustrating just how much fun you can have with a car. Of course nor everyone is going to jump out of a plane with their car or to a 360 degree jump but we can hope and imagine, right? Nice hjob

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M&M Gets Naked to Celebrate New Brown M&M

The talking M&M's have been a thing for a while. Mostly, they are funny. Mostly the ads are pretty good. But, this being the Super Bowl, it's time to bring out the stupid. Guy laughs at brown M&M because he thinks it's naked. The a red M&M shows up and strips because he thinks it's "that kind of party." Hilarity ensues.

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Clydesdales Forget 9/11. Celebrate Getting Drunk

It's hard to divorce oneself from the somber respect the Budweiser Clydesdales gave New York after 9/11. Especially when faced with this year's celebration of the end of prohibition. Awesome. First we mourn thousands of dea. Then we celebrate the fact everyone can get drunk again. Yea, it's been ten years but we always felt the Clydesdales should represent something important. Not the ability to get trashed again.

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Best Buy Celebrates Innovators

Good riddance to the Justin Bieber, Ozzy Osbourne idiocy of year's past. This year, Best Buy decided to celebrate what matters; people who innovate for the benefit of others. Fabulous spot. Great job. Meaningful.

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A Blue Bottle Won't Get Anyone to Drink Bud Light Platinum

Not sure who would actually be caught dead drinking a Bud Light Platinum but someone over at Anheiseur Busch thought it was worth spending several million dollars to convince people to do so. Maybe they figured they could tap the last twelve hipsters out there.

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There's Always Another Way at Hyundai

Everyone in this Hyundai All For One ad in which the theme to Rocky is sun are Hyndai employees. One Hyundai employee is a bit stumped but his co-workers come to his aid and motivate him by singing the theme to Rocky. It's uplifting enough. We think a few people will be humming this tomorrow.

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Ford Asks Chevy to Pull Super Bowl Ad

Ford is demanding that rival General Motors pull a Super Bowl commercial that implies the Chevrolet Silverado pickup is more dependable than the Ford F-Series. But GM stands by the ad and says it will run during Sunday's game.

In the ad, a driver in a Silverado navigates a post-apocalyptic scene. When he meets up with some friends, he notices one is missing. It turns out that friend was driving a Ford.

GM says R.L. Polk data shows Silverados remain on the road longer than other pickups. But Ford says it has the most pickups with 250,000 miles on them.

Ford may have the last laugh. The F-Series has been the best-selling truck in the U.S. for 35 years, and outsold the Silverado by nearly 70,000 trucks last year.

Two Studies to Examine Social Qualities of Super Bowl Ads

There will be no shortage of online destinations follow Super Bowl chatter, social and otherwise. You can check out a fairly comprehensive list here. Two we'd like to touch on are the BrandBowl, a partnership between Mullen, Radian6 and Boston.com and Deep Focus' Super Bowl of Social Media.

In its fourth year, Brand Bowl will gauge the social chatter surrounding the ads in the game and rank each ad based on its social profile according to the number of tweets a brand gets along with the sentiment of the tweets.

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Beancast Podcast Takes on Super Bowl

Be sure to check out this special edition of The Beancast which takes a look at what to expect during the SUper Bowl in terms of advertising. We also took a look at the efficacy of the USA Today Ad Meter, agism in the advertising industry and Google's latest move which now defines ads as content in search results.

The podcast, moderated by Bob Knorpp featured The Martin Agency VP Account Director Tedd Aurelius, AdPulp's Dan Goldgewiger, Evol8tion's Joe Jaffe and Adrants' Steve Hall.

Infographic Examines Design Trends

Cake Group created an infographic for Shutterstock that takes a look at the design and image trends in visual media. Not surprisingly, cat imagery tops the list of most downloaded files in 2011.

In terms of design trends, the kinds of files downloaded indicate a rise in the use of vectors, textured imagery and vintage photography. Check out the full infographic here.

You May Now Eat the Bride

Throughout the history of advertising, there have been thousands of ads that portray people having "relationships" with their favorite product. Sometimes these relationships are quite pedestrian. Other times, they're quite over the top such as the relationship portrayed in this new Jack in the Box commercial.

In the ad we have a son telling his mother he's getting married...to bacon. Yes, bacon. And the voiceover says, "If you love bacon, make it official." It's all for the chain's new BLT Cheesburger (hmm...just another name for bacon cheeseburger?).

And the "official" part comes when we see the bacon-loving son standing with his BLT cheeseburger in front of a priest who pronounces, "You may now eat the bride." Hmm, we wonder how long before there's a porn version of this one.

The spot, created by Secret Weapon Marketing and StruckAxiom, breaks February 5 in 30 DMAs in 20 western and southern states

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