TiVo Testing The Super Bowl

I have to admit, I am a football purist.  I watch the Super Bowl because I want to see, a football game, not the commercials.  Yes, I am in advertising and I like a good commercial like the next person, but generally speaking the commercials are what I avoid when I get up from my seat to get something to eat, drink, or run to the bathroom.  And, if was up to me, I would have started watching the game 30 minutes after the actual start so I could TiVo through the bad ones.  Having said all that, here's what I remember most when I was too lazy to get up from my chair and make another tongue, pastrami, mustard, coleslaw sandwich on rye bread (yes, I wrote tongue).  BTW - I don't know the actual names and I refuse to look them up at one of the websites tracking the ads, because I want to watch the game and don't want to glorify the commercials.

1. The Doritos consumer generated ads were pretty damn good and I enjoyed the checkout version - thought it was smart, funny, and showcased the different Doritos brands
2. The Career Builder ad, while I don't actually remember what it was, was awful and obviously made no visible impression in my memory other than it was bad.
3. The company with the navigation software product - you know the one with the Power Rangers like ad, needs to fire their creative agency because for the 20 people that watched the game with me, they ALL agreed that that was the worst ad in recent memory.
4. Federal Express once again scores a touchdown with a funny ad that reinforced their product.  I really thought the what's in a name ad was well down and tried to make fun of type casting people or companies based on their name.
5. The Budweiser ads were also well done.  The kids and I loved the Crab God ad and I personally thought the slasher ad was very funny and still got the point across which was the male driver loved the beer more than anything else.
6. All car ads were pretty run of the mill to bad; my son saw so many GM ads finally asked what a GM was and when I told him it was General Motors a car manufacturer, he said "oh that was what the ad was about..."
7. Finally, I think Coke needs to get a new strategy.  Enough of the how important Coke is or where it fits in the world.  I just think people don't care.  Celebrating breaking the color barrier is important, but positioning Coke with important historical points in the Civil Rights Movement is a little much, know?  And, the Avatar ad of a guy solving everyone's problems because he drinks Coke was over the top.  Coke is a good tasting drink, not something that solves world hunger.  Yes, the song from the 70's was great, but we have all grown up a little bit....

That's it.  Seven commercials that stuck in my mind, bad or good.  They all past my TiVo test this one time.  Now that the big game is over, we can all go back to our usual habits of watching our programs while waiting to get through the ads. 

Oh, and in celebration of this event, how about one last look at my favorite Super Bowl Monkey.  Now that was a memorable ad.  BTW - did you notice how E*trade was a sponsor, yet I didn't see any commercials. (Correction from Frank in comments:  they ran two ads, but given my history with them, I probably got up on purpose.....)

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Comments

[Frank Boesch]

E Trade ran two ads: Bank Robbery and All You Need is One Finger. You can see them (and all ads) on USA Today's admeter site.

[Jeff Herz]

Good Point about the Coke ads. They are so full of themselves to actually believe that they have as much significant cultural value as the facts they tried portray themselves against. It almost became comical.

I also agree with your observation about the avatar guy doing good and being rewarded with a coke. I had actually seen that one in theatre a few weeks back, and could not remember it was actually a coke ad. Kinda sad

[C. Day]

BTW - The avatar coke ad is actually a direct parody of the game series Grand Theft Auto, and the game play within (ie - killing innocent people, stealing cars). Having played the game, I understood the "inside joke", while the people sitting around me had no context to go on. Generally not an ad aiming at a broad demographic.