Wow! Did you guys catch those Super Bowl ads? Did they not make up some of the most exciting and historic moments in Super Bowl history?? Like when that Clydesdale intercepted Alec Baldwin's pass and returned it 100 yards for a TD to end the first quarter? Or when the E-Trade baby caught that bag of Doritos deep in the right corner of the end zone with only 35 seconds left in the game? Brilliance, people. Sheer brilliance.
Okay, so if you didn't already know, you might be getting the sense that the Super Bowl itself was much more important to me than the commercials. And, although it damn well was, I did manage to pick out several ads that I liked. This was especially quite a feat in the 4th Quarter, considering that my heart actually stopped a couple of times.
I realize that we tend to focus on ridiculing "badvertising" here at FTA, but I am in a damn good mood and will, therefore, give some love to the best of this year's Super Bowl commercials.
1st Quarter
Like its last play, the 1st quarter's last commercial was the best. Even though I hate Budweiser because it's kind of shitty and always gives me a throbbing headache, I adore any of their commercials with the Clydesdales and that beer-loving Dalmatian.
Budweiser "Fetch"
Honorable mention: Conan O'Brien's Bud Light spot was a vroom vroom party starter!
2nd Quarter
It's the triumphant return of the E-Trade baby! I realize that most of America is still split over the whole talking baby issue, and while I agree that such things are usually creepy, this particular baby never fails to crack me up. And baby's new friend spontaneously bursting into a Mr. Mister '80s classic nearly had me choking on my meatball sandwich. (See, Bruce? Not ALL of America was eating chicken fingers.)
E-Trade Babies, "Broken Wings"
Honorable mention: The ultimate point behind the Cars.com "David Abernathy" ad was weak, but everything up until the sell was pretty funny.
3rd Quarter
Commercials about job suckage are always good. And while this year's CareerBuilder spot wasn't as funny as their previous monkey campaign, how often do you get to see a bespectacled Koala get punched in the face?
CareerBuilder.com, "Hate Work"
Honorable mention: It wasn't funny, but I loved the Coca Cola "Picnic" commercial. The special effects were cool and the whole thing was just very cute and clever, especially the ending where the Coke was poured into the leaves.
4th Quarter
The last quarter had the highest percentage of good commercial spots, and they weren't the only "spots" I was seeing at that point.
Hulu, Alec Baldwin
Mmmmmmmmm...cerebral mush.
Cash 4 Gold, MC Hammer/Ed McMahon
My gold sledgehammer!
Honorable mention: Will Forte's foray into commercials with his SNL character MacGruber aka Pepsuber, also starring Kristin Wiig and Richard Dean "MacGyver" Anderson.
My favorite commercial of all also came in the last quarter, and it should shock no one that it was a Steelers-related ad. When the Troy Polamalu Coke Zero spot started, I was actually annoyed, thinking that they were going to do a frame-by-frame ripoff of the classic Mean Joe Green commercial. However, the ad poked fun at how lame that would really be and...well, it starred Troy Polamalu so it was AWESOME!!! And so was the game!!! STEELERS, BABY!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!!!
Coke Zero, Troy Polamalu/Brand Managers
I'd also like to share my favorite Super Bowl-related print ad, which I saw in Monday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I couldn't fit the whole page in, so just make a note that this ad is brought to us by the good folks at Highmark.
Whoever Highmark's ad agency is really knows us Southwestern Pennsylvanians. Just combine two of our favorite things - fuzzy rodents and football - and we're happy. There's only one way that ad could be better, and that would be if Punxsy Phil were eating a Smiley cookie.
Posts
9 comments:
I was really disappointed when I saw that Bud commercial where the horse travels across America to see his girlfriend. I was all like, "This is a great ad!" and then the Budweiser logo came up and I threw up a little in my mouth.
What was it Eric Idle said? Budweiser is like making love in a canoe: it's fucking close to water.
I'm so over the talking babies thing.
And by "so over", I mean "I've always hated them".
Alec Baldwin was awesome...as usual.
The E-Trade babies made my party laugh the loudest, but there were a lot of dumb people there. Still, I was happy that Mr. Mister made a few bucks for the first time in years.
The children, however, could not get enough of the koala being punched in the face. "Take that, you stupid koala," they'd scream in glee. And then, "Why is that lady riding a sea lion?" to which I'd answer: "It's a symbol, used to symbolize a dumb commercial." They liked the punching a koala joke much better.
Wait... The Superbowl was LAST weekend! Aw, dang.
I hope the Lakers won.
I liked the Alec Baldwin spot, pretty funny and hit a nerve. Yeah, we are all just a bit too plugged in!
Your groundhog with the scarf on is pure brilliance!
I loved the Conan ad, the Hulu ad, the koala-punching ad, and the one for flowers where the flowers say "Nobody wants to see you naked!"
I didn't like the talking babies (I've always hated them) or the Troy Polamalu ad. That was a cheesy ripoff of the original.
I loved this post! Especially the koala punching.
I laughed my ass off when Alec (we're on a first name basis dontchaknow) was laughing at the other guy. Now that's comedy.
Post a Comment