Did You Miss Any of the Ads?

Ad Age has so kindly put all the ads online!

The Final Rankings

From Meredith Freeman:

I am excited to visit Hulu (props to that advertising) so I can see all the ads there too!

So I took a small hiatus in the name of pondering and came up with my top 3 and bottom 3. Is it terribly pessimistic of me that I easily came up with the worst 3 (and more?) but had a hard time deciding my 3 favs…

I’ll save the best for last:

Worst 3: easily:

1.) Doritos. There was so much potential — I mean your target audience is probably EATING your product right now, and they didn’t say a darn thing in their advertising. Is eating a Dorito going to make me strong, able to please all of my co-workers and strip unsuspecting women of their clothes? No (and let’s hope not for the last one). It was just a silly waste of a few million throw away bucks.

2.) I hate to say Pepsi, because I really liked their first Pepsi generation ad. It was fun and consistent with thier “Pepsi generation” theme. The fact that they brought older generations in and illustrated truths about my generation (I’m obviously the TM) made it identifiable to those who related to the specifics that made each generation special. Although I don’t know what truths they were actually using, but it’s also past my bed time. I’m not thinking clearly. REGARDLESS, whatever positives that first commercial established were quickly and violently blown away by that embarrassingly obnoxious fake 80’s (?) ad at the end. Maybe I’m just not in the target market, but if it’s that offensively terrible to me, and possibly anyone else younger than myself (helllllooooo, we’re the habit-forming and trend-setting age group) then it didn’t do a good job. Sorry Pepsi, you ruined it.

3.) Sobe Lifewater/the spoof of Mean Joe Green. I couldn’t decide which was worse. Sobe could be redeemable in that it definitely encouraged a lot of talk and got a lot of hype. That’s good I guess, but I still haven’t tried it and quite frankly have no interest. It floats somebody’s boat though because the same concept (only bigger) ran two years in a row despite the controversy over what the lizards actually meant. the Mean Joe Green spoof just ruined a classic. why?

Da dudu DAH!! My favorites!

3.) Hyundai did do a good job of establishing themselves and defining their position as a good looking, but understandable and affordable car company. And I like that in one of the ads they said “Hyundai… like Sunday” because I never knew how to say it before. How can you like a brand you are too afraid to say out loud lest you sound like a uninformed dum-dum?

2.) Bud Light Lime: Take summer wherever you go. It’s true! Corona has the position of the summer, vacation beer and BL Lime COULD be creeping into that positioning a little but, but it gives itself some mobility in that you CAN (and should) drink it in the winter and it is like bringing summer TO YOU. It’s just wrong to drink a corona unless you are: a.) at a Mexican restaurant b.) on vacation or d.) in flip flops. Which is great strong positioning. They OWN that spot in the consumer’s mind. Great. BL Lime is making room for that place in the wintertime too. I like it. I also like how it tastes. (Don’t judge…it’s delicious)

1.) GE. Beautifully art directed, makes me feel good about going green. I like. I also felt happy when I watched that Coke ad with the bugs. Maybe I just wish it was green and warm outside. Anyone else?

That’s all for now. I’m tired and going to watch Hulu in bed until I fall asleep.

Final Thoughts

From Will Chamberlin:

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by most of the ads.

From a strategic perspective, I think Hyundai definitely wins.  It was a great way to build the company as a name recognized and respected in American households.

The Mr. Potato Head Bridgestone commercial wins for cuteness.  Maybe I liked it because it reminded me of being in the car with my parents?

GoDaddy and Teleflora were both terribly rude, but I think only Teleflora will suffer– GoDaddy will probably just build more buzz, which was its goal anyway.

Budweiser did a great job with tone– keeping it patriotic but still fun.

The biggest winner?  The advertisers’ websites– some of these sites will see HUGE increases in traffic from being mentioned.  And increased traffic = increased sales.  Ah, a new reason to defend Superbowl ad buys.

Post-show: Give It A “Meh”

From Amanda Bower:

I’ll only catch bits of this, but…

USA networks. Awesome. Completely shows the characters’… uh… character.

Hardees ads make me feel like you have to have an eating disorder to eat there.

Overall:

At the outset I’ve (and others) have said the big challenge was tone- how do you go big without going big. And it appears that most of these advertisers chose the “go home” option. Very little was Big and Big was meh. Most ads looked normal, and any ads that were new for the SB looked more like the SB was their debut and not that they were “Super Bowl Ads.”

If I’m thinking who overall won… Hyundai maybe? If you cobble together both benefit and strategic underpinnings. I do have to say though that Budweiser’s stuff is in the Hall of Fame. However, in terms of net benefit instead of gross, I’m going with Cash4Gold. Cute ad, cheap to make (assuming MC Hammer and MC Mahon aren’t going for too much these days) and it lent legitimacy beyond a 30 second spot during a Cities of the Underworld rerun on the History channel at 10 in the morning butted up against an ad for a Medicare supplement. (Update: I’m happy to report that Bob Garfield of Ad Age agrees with my take on Cash4Gold.)

If I’m thinking who lost, I’m going w/ Teleflora (if that’s who did the talking box flowers). I mean, ungrateful. It’s not enough that I sent flowers, I had to send them in a tacky duck arrangement. If I sent you flowers in a box, I’m actually obnoxious. Speaking as a target market of one, someone who gives and receives flowers, I had a real “…and the horse you rode in on” reaction.

In the end, you pay all that cash for a Super Bowl spot because of the benefit you think you’ll receive. That benefit may be pure numbers of eyeballs, or maybe it’s the associated PR, or maybe it’s the “bigness” of the SB, or the control over your message because this tends to be an event experienced simultaneously rather than time-shifted (this is one of the advantages to Hyundai). Maybe it’s- in the case of Cash4Gold- a sense of legitimacy and arrival. Or maybe it’s something you create yourself- a synergy with an event like SB- so that 2+2 = 5. Or maybe a sense of presentation- that you are helping us out, offering us something new, something that actually benefits us. That could help build a relationship with a brand, a sense of reciprocity. Even the 3D stuff is cute but not exactly innovative. I mean, we did 3D a few years ago in my advertising class. I don’t know. It’s just hard to see the synchronicity of the pre-game show “brought to you by the Glad family of products.” Glad either needs to stick with Top Chef, or tell us why on God’s Green Earth Glad fits in at the SB. It could fit in, clearly. Like a great ad that night on ESPN replays showing somebody trying to put away all the leftover wings, 7-layer dip (thanks Tina Fey!), etc. Make it more of an experience than a one time, superficial, cheap shot “Brought to you by…”. Stop assuming that the value of an ad exists only within the confines of a single 30 seconds spot. Blech. Boring.

But this year, I think they were mostly paying for eyeballs, which honestly, is kind of depressing. Little in the way of taking advantage of anything the SB had to offer other than eyeballs (and like an annoying teenager trying to annoy me with annoying stuff and get my attention, I’m ignoring you Go Daddy). It was sort of energy-less, joyless. Bright spots, sure. But there’s no sense that the marketers have strengthened their relationship with anybody (aside from the three I keep coming back to). I’m going back to the Fallon term of “Creative Leverage”- there wasn’t enough.

Overall- Oh a scale of “Woo-hoo” to “Bleh” I give it a “meh.”

Agree with GE

Beautiful…it must be nice not having to really convince anyone to actually USE your product though… do you really have a choice if we switch to smart grids? I love love love love these ads though.

 

Also, WTF Pepsi? McGruber?

AND THE GAME IS GETTING GOOODD!! Marketers must be jumping for joy!!!!

GE- If I Only Had a Brain

Song makes it catchy, topic is interesting, beautifully executed.  Well done.  Solid ad.

Will Update, Again!

Clydesdales– “I love this country”  Really sweet.  For serious.  I’m not a huge Budweiser/Clydesdales fan (I know, I know), but this was a great one.

A third Witch Mountain?  NOOOOOOOOOOO.  Don’t mess with the original or the sequel!

Careerbuilder was so annoying.  Huge opportunity, and they messed it up.

Kelloggs– Charity!  Good!

Joan Rivers will be on the Apprentice??? I’m so there.

Hyundai “Assurance” — fantastic offer, and definitely the place to promote it.  Should Hyundai and I run away and get married yet?

4th Quarter

From Amanda Bower:

Which snuck up on me by the way…Must have had some local commercials in there that I ignored. I think U.S. Cellular might have been involved, which would explain a lot.

Okay- More Hyundai. Here’s what’s so great. They finally realize you can’t just say “Hey- just like a Honda only cheaper and spelled funnier.” You have to give me a reason to go TO you, and not just not get a Honda. You can’t be the un-option. (Ask John Kerry how well that works.) Hyundai is now giving us a reason to feel a certain way about them rather than have to be only rational about how it’s just-the-same as Honda but cheaper. Which frankly feels like you are settling.

Coke Zero. No. Just no. Maybe somebody else liked it. But it was poorly acted, was poorly edited (HOLY SMOKES poorly edited) and just… No. No. Absolutely not. and the worst part is they’d hyped it up all “OH history repeats itself.” No. It doesn’t.

Cash4Gold: Hee. MC Hammer. Ed McMahon- My gold hip replacement. HA!! Seriously- look for comScore numbers tomorrow for Cash4Gold to indicate visits spiked. I may get myself one-a-them envelopes my own self.

Vizio- Dude no, I looked down and it said “Samsung” and it’s a tube tv and it needs replacing and I didn’t pay too much for it. You have COMPLETELY overestimated where people are on the diffusion curve. One thing you never want to do in advertising is induce counterargumentation, and you just did it.

Taco Bell guy- He has violated my restraining order. Go. Away.

Scarecrow ad: I think it was for GE. It was beautiful. And I personally have simply never totally understood corporate advertising. I mean you just paid all that money for placement and for special effects so… I’d get a warm fuzzy feeling about GE’s energy partners? Whuuh…? I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just not quite able to wrap my head around what it’s supposed to do and is this the best avenue for it? What’s your value for that kind of dollar?

Hulu: Ha. Got the message across about Hulu, embraced every beautiful horrible stereotype of TV about turning your brain to mush like a ripened banana, edited beautifully… Score. I think the only question is about how exactly does it work (he said “beamed” right?), so I might have done a little smidgen push towards another info outlet, but people can largely figure that out for themselves. So score.

McGruber- No. I know I’m not in the target market, and maybe there’s some method to this “People who drink us are idiots” but… Although I do like anything w/ Richard Dean Anderson in it. Speaking of which, why can’t he go and do a MacGyver movie b/c that show was kind of awesome.

Okay- since I’m not all that interested in the game which is a shame b/c it’s pretty good but the Panthers aren’t involved so… where was I? Oh- so while I’m waiting for the commercials to come back on (a not unstrange experience) I looked up information about the Budweiser Clydesdales, and here’s what I’ve come up with- it’s not a bad job and they are treated quite well. Except they are geldings, which 1) sorta undermines that Daisy commercial about the the two horses falling in love (Isn’t Daisy going to be disappointed?) and 2) where do new Clydesdales come from? Magic? Rainbows? Vats of hops and a Harry Potter wand?

Bud Light Lime- Okay- the stuff tastes really really questionable and is basically just a Corona without the craft project, but the ad is cute for this time of year. Your own bubble of summer.

Oh God. Go-Daddy. I think the less said about it the better. Except for this- the AMA just changed the definition of marketing to include societal issues and impact. I don’t think the world is a better place for those Go-Daddy ads. I mean, that’s the best you can do? I know their web hits spike afterwards, blah blah. But don’t you offer a value that’s far more interesting than cheap boobs? Ah… Let me rephrase: Don’t you offer a value that’s got more widespread appeal to people than just those who like cheap boobs? Thing is, I know somebody who has a Go Daddy site and is pretty happy with it, but I’d avoid them like the plague. An STD plague at that. I just think cheaply appealing to basest elements just cheapens everybody and lessens potential. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really “offended.” More just disappointed.

I’m shocked SHOCKED the Steelers won.

Third Quarter

From Amanda Bower:

Coke/ Avatar:… Oooooooh. Innnteresting. That you keep it real with Coke, you don’t have your face on. That Coke is about underlying relationships and truth and authenticity. I believe Will and I would agree there’s something interesting there. In fact the more I think about it, the more interesting that ad becomes.Who you pretend to be, who you are, and Coke as a brand facilitates that authenticity.

Bridgestone: Moon walk. Meh. Who stole the tires? I dunno, that’s almost like don’t use Bridgestone b/c even on the moon somebody will steal them. No matter where you go, your Bridgestones will be a problem.

Denny’s serious breakfast: Up against IHOP? Also- that’s about 5 years too late to take advantage of full Sopranos fever.

Monster.com: Oh sure, the guy under the moose’s butt has a bad gig. But I feel sorry for the moose. He’s got the worst job of everybody.

Budweiser Immigrant: HOLY SMOKES!!! One of the best!! Perfect! Wow! Heritage, quintessentially American, toughness, effort, work ethic… wow.

***I miss some stuff doing Mommy things***

Coke Bugs: Awesome. I like the joyful, playful nature of it. The sneaky part is how they make Coke feel like it’s “natural” which is cute.

LMAO

From Meredith Freeman:

Don’t know what shows they’re talking about, and I probably wouldn’t LMAO while watching them, but I think that is by far the funniest commercial I have seen. But it only works because when someone asked me what show they were talking about I could logically infer NBC shows..

Bower asks: Is this the Heroes one, or the one where the casts of the casts of a few different shows are singing?