Super Bowl Ads: Local Advertising Experts React
Monday, February 07, 2011
Now that Super Bowl XLV is in the books, it’s time to break down the most important part of the big game. GoLocalProv asked local experts to grade the commercials and select the real winners and losers of last night’s game.
Is Chatter the new Twitter? Was Kim Kardashian enough to get you to buy a pair of Sketchers? Are you planning boycott Groupon?
Steve Rosa and Mary Sadlier, (add)ventures
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOverall, Superbowl XLV ads were pretty disappointing. Superbowl ads by their very nature are supposed to be spectacles - “entertain us” or “sell us” - preferably both. They need to capture attention during big game parties where distractions abound. The best ones can be bigger than the game itself. For example, last year's Betty White Snickers ad was phenomenal - and relaunched her career including a stint on Saturday Night Live. The only ad that came close this year is already yesterday’s news - the Volkswagon Passat’s “Young Vader” spot which has more than 5 million views on YouTube in the past week.
Almost all of the ads had a strong idea behind them, but the selling concept got lost as the agencies behind them over-executed, over-produced or made a poor choice of spokesperson in creating the spots. Any good TV commercial needs both great creative and great strategy, and any good agency needs to keep their ego, and perhaps their client’s ego in check, to not drown out the message. Last year’s winner was a Google spot that was not even produced for the Super Bowl and was low budget but high impact.
Winners
Volkswagon Passat’s “Young Vader” - it’s been all over Facebook and Twitter, and we love watching it again and again. The music, the acting, and the subtle way they work in a key feature of the new Passat make this ad our favorite.
Audi A8 “Prison Break” - Redefines luxury for a new generation. “Cue the Kenny G” and Having Kenny G himself at the end also wins our “best use of a celebrity” award.
Daimler Chrysler “Eminen Detroit” - Great videography that paints a new image of the downtrodden Motor City. The ad gives Detroit a much-needed boost, and who can argue with “made in America”? Eminem’s act at the end almost spoiled it, but the rest was so strong and needed by a down on it’s luck city and industry that he didn’t bring it down. On a side note, Chrysler executives must have hated how Eminem ‘dissed all the products he endorses and hates in his animated Brisk spot.
NFL “Brand American” - great retrospective across TV history with friends from “Happy Days”, “Seinfeld”, “South Park” and “Glee.” All ages at a Super Bowl party could relate .
Best Buy “Ozzy vs. Bieber” - another great use of celebrities across generations. A touch of self-deprecating humor from Bieber goes a long way. The only retailer to stand out Super Bowl Sunday.
Coke “Border Patrol” - simple concept that brings out the human touch in political conflict. We thought the tagline would have been “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” Best Coke spot. The overproduced animated Coke Dragon spot was no where near as effective despite being exponentially the cost.
Bud Light - “Dog Sitter” - who wouldn’t want a dog-sitting gig where the dogs know how to party. And we loved the classic reference to the iconic “Dogs playing poker” artwork at the very end.
Lipton Brisk “Eminen” - the animation in this spot is outstanding.
Chevy Cruze "Glee" - fabulous cross-promotion targeting youth. Much more effective for the car’s target audience than the Cruze ad with the nursing home aide trying to explain the car. Also loved that during the post-game “Glee” episode how they tied the TV commercial into the show storyline.
"Rio" movie trailer - We stayed away from movie trailers for our list, but this one stands out for its tie-in with the iPhone and iPad's Angry Birds video game which we love.
Losers
Bud's “Wild West” This ad gets the special category of worse use ever of an Elton John song. We'll never listen to "Tiny Dancer" quite the same again after this blatant sell-out. Victim of their own success. Can’t compare to their many victories during past Superbowls.
Teleflora “Help me Faith” - this one gets our worst use of celebrity award. Faith, say it isn’t so. A complete waste of a beautiful, charismatic personality.
Stella Artois “Crying Crooner” - Do women find Adrien Brody attractive? We found this Stella Artois ad ridiculous. The beer is better looking than he is.
Doritos "Healing Chips" - Personally, we love Doritos. The mere idea they could have redeeming value by bringing a goldfish back to life, help a plant grow new green leaves makes us want to eat more. But bringing grandpa back to life with ashes on his cheek was a little too creepy.
Kia Optima “Epic Ride” - This is a pretentious, huge budget spot for a very average car. Over-produced concept with Poseidon, space ships and worm-holes so beautiful they stole all attention away from the product.
Snickers “Lumberjacks” - Another victim of their own prior year success. Last year’s ad featured the beloved Betty White and Abe Vigoda. Roseanne Barr and Richard Lewis this year are just not that likable and they tanked the spot.
BWM “Changes” - positioning their advanced diesel as “green”? Really? Too much coughing, black smoke and smog to get their unrealistic “green” car from a green company message across.
GoDaddy.com “New GoDaddy girl” - Joan Rivers. Don’t insult our intelligence any longer with sex and silliness, just keep selling us low-cost domains.
Coca Cola “Siege” - this spot was overly done and wasted a ton of money with little payoff, especially compared to Coke’s “Border Patrol” which was more dramatic at a fraction of the cost.
Homeaway.com “Vacation Homes” - this spot was so focused on the hotel rooms that you didn’t know what they were selling. The baby being flung across the hotel room and getting it’s face smashed-in were even more distracting. We’re still not sure what homeaway.com does, and not sure we want to find out
Michael Silva, Creative Director, Duffy & Shanley
Once again, taking it in the grapes is our winner. Unfortunately. First off, in the interest of full disclosure, who the hell am I to be doing this? I’ve never created a Superbowl Spot. That said, if you’re going to do a Superbowl spot,
DO A SUPER BOWL SPOT. Tonight, that was my yardstick. Is it worthy of the huge spend? An epic audience?
I was watching at the house of friends, surrounded by smart, funny, worldly, interesting and humble people. Nothing like us ad guys. And of course, the overwhelming favorite: A shot to the nuts, courtesy of a couple preppy douchebags and Pepsi Max. Was it worthy?
Really? Beber and Ozzie? Ozzie? Really?
Bud Light. The home renovation TV show parody. Not worthy. Not even close to deserving the number one slot. In fact, that whole “Here we go” campaign makes me embarrassed to be in the business. Not, like, Go-Daddy-Embarrassed, but still. Doritos had a few spots again this year, and I sorta liked the one where the office guys were licking that sweet, sweet orange dust off each others fingers. Classy. Pretty funny. Worthy? Not so much.
Eminem. Claymation. Iced tea. WTF?!
Telaflora. Not bad. Not worthy.
Shame on you Sketchers - or whomever you were - for wasting Kim Kardashian’s boundless talents.
Bridgestone Tires had a couple of good spots. The one with the chest bumping beaver was cute. And I think we’ve all seen that before. And before that. Sorry,
E-trade Baby, but you were a disappointment. Still, you set the bar so you get a pass. Plus, you’re a baby.
BMW was really kinda okay. Not exactly the ultimate. Not worthy of BMW, nevermind the big game.
The Snickers loggers were funny. It was funnier last year with Betty White and Abe Vigoda. Still, watching Roseanne taking it in the face. Can’t beat it.
And Groupon? Oh. So close. You started strong and almost faked me out. Too bad Timothy Hutton apparently didn’t have time to learn his lines.
The Chevy Cruze spot in the nursing home was pretty big, The performances were dry and brilliant. Well written and sorta worthy. The Chevy spot where the driver updated his Facebook profile from the car (“Best first date ever.”) was dubbed “stupid” by the crowd. I kinda liked it. Quietly. Still, not worthy. The Chevy as Lassie was beautiful. Amazing SFX. Truly Big Game worthy.
The Audi spot, with all the white people in prison - and, of course, Kenny G - was pretty darn worthy, I must admit. Epic.
Now, despite the Evil Empire soundtrack, the VW Darth Vader kid was anything but epic. It was just small and sweet and charming as hell. Worthy. Too bad everyone had already seen it. Curse you, Facebook.
Again. The cowboy Tiny Dancer spot from Budweiser was greatness. Not life-changing, but truly worthy.
CarMax Kid-in-a-candy-store, hippie-in-a-drum-circle, acrobat-in-a-mattress-store. Great. Big. Smart. Funny. And I’m guessing the best spot no one will remember.
Same for the NFL’s Best Fans Ever spot, where sitcom favorites sported their favorite team’s gear. Marsha’s “Oh my nose” in a Chargers shirt almost made me not hate Philip Rivers for a second there. And then there was that awesome iPad spot. You know, the one that wasn’t for the iPad? That Motorola thing got me all goosebumpy. A sweet little love story, shot beautifully. In the end, a couple of bright spots. The brightest of which I’m watching right now on ESPN at 11:55, five minutes before deadline. The Nike Free spot with the “Nobody” soundtrack. Look it up. And thank you, Nike. I’m not worthy.
Andy Cutler, Cutler & Company
What stood out to me about this year's batch of Super Bowl commercials is that for once the half-time show was actually decent and by in large better than the much anticipated (and coveted) commercial spots. Now that the game has been decided and Super Bowl MVP awards are being selected, I compiled my own list of awards
* Super Bowl Commercial MVP: Volkswagen's Darth Vadar commercial was my pick for best of the night. Atypical car commercial, but VW has shown us before when it comes to making car commercials, they do not follow the formula of 90%+ of automakers. VW was successful at telling a family story that we can all relate too, and stayed away from the usual specs (like engine size and torque) that other automakers seem to think we want to hear about....maybe they will learn after tonight that the old way of making commercials is kind of like the old way of making cars; you can't be successful doing it the ol' fashioned way anymore.
* Super Bowl MVP Runner-Up: Usually runner-ups are made for beauty pageants and not sports-related activities, but I have to give it to Chrysler. I know, a car company, how crazy is that. Here's where I have to tip my hat to them though---rather than talking about their car, they talked about their roots in their geographic location; that being Detroit. Liked their honest portrayal of the city and how Eminem (local Motor City boy made good) chipped in to amp up that message. Taking on the tourist Meccas of the U.S, I loved the line in this spot that reveled in the fact that they
Who would ever have thunk it...a corporation partnering with the city of their residence to promote their brand. What's next? The state's most revered big business brands (large pharmacy retail chain) and our institution's of higher education heavily promoting their local roots in Providence (and RI) and its rich history (both past and present) in promoting their brands? Too late, such nationally and internationally acclaimed brands such as AS220, The Hub, Betaspring, Providence Geeks, Pecha-Kucha Providence, The Steel Yard, A Better World by Design, New Urban Arts, Yacht Club Soda and MakerFaireRI already beat you to the punch.
* Big Spenders Club: Had to be Chevy. I lost track at the number of commercials they had. Most of them fit the usual mode, but the one that caught my attention was the Chevy Cruze (good news can't wait) spot highlighting their car's ability to have voice-activation connection to Facebook. Wonder if Facebook shared the cost on that spot? The other Big Spender Awards goes to Budweiser (surprise, surprise) and Hollywood--RIO, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor, Captain America, Super 8. In the end I am not sure either Chevy or Hollywood will be able to show that these spots moved the dial on consumer behavior, but shows the American what sector of the economy has money to spend (or rather burn) right now.
* Best Hit: That's easy. Verizon's spot linking them to their new alliance with Apple's iPhone and going for AT&T's biggest achilles--dropped calls. As any loyal iPhone user such as myself will tell you, anything that spell's AT&T's demise after the lousy service they provided us in the early days was neither forgotten nor forgiven.
* Biggest Hype (i.e., Biggest Dud/Waste of Money): Go Daddy. One of the definition's of hype speaks the "promotional ploy" aspect of an ad. Seems like Go Daddy is stuck in the land of beer commercials aiming for 18-25 year old, sexually deprived young men. Didn't know they are the majority of the market for registering domains...or are they. In addition to the cost of the commercial, Go Daddy must have spent an equal fortune air-brushing Joan Rivers (their secret Go Daddy girl). OK, so their special effects department (and/or her surgeon) should receive some special recognition. That point, I will concede.
* Best Cinematography -- Has to go to one of the oldest brands in the bunch, Coca-Cola! They seem to have been the only company that looked into making their spots more like movies, which I thought showed the versatility of the company and their brand. Watch Hollywood (and Hasbro), looks like Coca Cola is going to make a play to be seen as an entertainment company, just like Hasbro moved from being a toy company to an entertainment company with their Transformers brand. Coca-Cola could buy Pixar 10 times over (and then some) so maybe the quickest way to that goal would be to invest in or just buy the best in order to give you instant leadership position (and validation) in the world of movie-making. Only time will tell.
* Out of Nowhere Award--This goes to the company that came out of nowhere to advertise on the high holidays of all advertising days. This would have to go to a media outlet! No, I haven't been drinking. Yes, a media outlet. The Daily. The company that launched earlier this week (February 2, 2011 to be precise) with the with the mission "to provide the best news experience by combining world-class storytelling with the unique interactive capabilities of the iPad" was the darkhorse that came out of nowhere on Super Bowl Sunday. I actually thought I was watching an Apple commercial at first. Way to go The Daily. You definitely caught my attention. Mission accomplished!
