Oh, Yes, I Suppose There Were Some Commercials During The Super Bowl

by BeckEye from The Pop Eye

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.

2009 Superbowl Ads: Hyundai's World Domination

From the Imaginary Reviewer at the Imaginary Review


Football, like many team sports, can be seen as a metaphor for war. There's the need to gain territory, offensive and defensive strategies, the crushing desire for victory and, of course, the metal hats that keep your head from getting hurt.

So maybe it was just because it was shown within the context of the Superbowl that this ad brought to mind a certain - how can I put this? - international conflict.



Is it just me? Am I the only one here who sees businessmen from a Japanese company and a German company getting all upset about Hyundai's success, and thinks, "Heh, in your face AGAIN, Axis Powers!"? There's points in this ad when I feel like I'm watching that scene from the film Downfall when Adolf is going mental in the bunker, only instead of realising he's lost the war, he's realising that his company's dominance in the North American luxury vehicle market is being eroded by an up-and-coming Korean car manufacturer.

It's like the ad is suggesting that in some way, Hyundai is somehow preventing a potential rise in global facism by keeping BMW and Lexus in check. I'm not crazy, am I? Isn't that the beginning of the theme music to The Dambusters playing in the background?

Pause the ad at 29 seconds: doesn't the big screen show a split second from the end of The Great Escape, with Steve McQueen jumping over the fence on a motorcycle? A Hyundai motorcycle? No, wait, maybe I am going crazy. I should probably close my eyes and count to ten.

Christ, this ad makes me want to buy a Hyundai, and not because I like the cars, not because I need one, but because I feel like I'd be helping out with the war effort! Never mind that the war ended more than sixty years ago, you can't be too careful when the freedom of the world is at stake! Sign me up for two, and I'll take some war bonds while you're at it!

I tell you what, though: Ferrari must be pissed that they didn't make it into this ad. Just saying.

Identical Ads

by Michael Roesler from i am playing outside

The Multiple Sclerosis fund raising commercial goes like this:



The Phillips Arcitec Shaver commercial goes like this:
(apologies for bad video quality, but this is the only full-length version on the web. Go here for higher quality short version.)



The two cents from Michael:

I saw these two commercials within 24 hours of each other, both on CNN. How the hell did this happen? My best guess is that one ad agency is lacking ideas. Did the MS people need a cheap commercial [since they're trying to raise money, not spend it], so they just stole Phillips' idea? Did Phillips think 'Hey, lets be assholes? Razors are way cooler than stopping MS?' And why is CNN dumb enough to be airing identical commercials? Haven't they noticed that something is up?

Whatever the outcome, I think its pretty tacky that a razor is putting itself up against fighting a disease.

Tsk tsk.

And two more cents from the Editor (Katrocket):

The people who schedule commercials work in a department called "Traffic". I used to be a Traffic Manager, and I assure you that the staff at TV networks don't actually view any ad content before scheduling airtime, so they would never know that the scripts for these two ads are similar. Scripts are read and approved ahead of time by Advertising Standards Councils (a sort of censor board), and given a pass or fail based solely on their national broadcasting regulations. If it's good enough for them, the network will air it until a complaint is filed.

Because MS is a registered charity, their time slot is usually donated by the network whenever there is low ad inventory (i.e.- not enough paying advertisers to fill up commercial breaks). It's a wild card situation where schedulers try to give all charities their fair chance at viewership, so they rotate PSAs (Public Service Announcements) as equally as they can, and absolutely no consideration is given to the content of the ad itself, or any other ads in the cluster (a not-so-fancy word for "commercial break") because all spots are labelled by client or product.

There's a few exceptions. They would obviously avoid running a beer commercial right after an ad for Alcoholics Anonymous. They try not to put car commercials, beer commercials, and "don't drink and drive" PSA's in the same cluster. But these poor schedulers have a dozen other more important criteria to consider, like meeting broadcast regulations and advertisers' demands, so occasionally something slips through the cracks.

I guess I'm just saying that CNN isn't that dumb, at least not in this case. They're just automated to the point where computers can't make the same kinds of creative or moral decisions that humans can. It's all monkeys and machines, baby.

And Now, a Moment With Andy Rooney.

By Andy Rooney

Syndicated Exclusively by Grant Miller Media Unlimited LLC

I don't know how many of you read the Sunday paper anymore. I still do. And I'm always amazed at how many ads there are.

If you read a newspaper, chances are you read it for the stories. But advertisers always find a way of sneaking their product right below your nose.

Here's one for a free furnace. I don't need a free furnace. The one we have works just fine. But I'd hate to turn one away for free.

I guess if you're going to get a free furnace, January is the time to do it. Probably can't give them away in July, not even for free. At least not in New York.

Here's another ad for women's shoes. I don't normally look at ads for women's shoes, but I couldn't help but notice the woman in this ad is holding the shoes, not wearing them.

The least you can do if you're selling women's shoes is to show a woman wearing them. Somehow I don't think this ad was made with someone like me in mind.

I don't mind ads in the newspaper. Without them, newspapers would go out of business and that would put a lot of good people out of a job.

My first job was as a newspaper reporter, Stars and Stripes during World War II. Here's a picture of me interviewing Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower. He was a great commander and became president after the war.

We need more men like him. Men who aren't afraid to stir things up every once in awhile for the good of the country.

Although I didn't know him well, I'll bet he never bought a pair of women's shoes.