2.02.2009

Requisite Super Bowl Reflections

I had intended to just ignore the whole Super Bowl commercial buzz and not add to all the noise that we all make over and over again like records on repeat, but I've caved. You got me.

Loved it:
Teleflora- "No one likes to see you naked." Placement packed a punch with a strong male audience and close proximity to Valentine's Day. SO awesome.

Cash4Gold- I had NO idea they could possibly have a Super Bowl budget, not to mention actually get MC Hammer and Ed McMahon--"Goodbye old friend..."

Monkeys! Too bad the Castrol ad was otherwise forgettable. I still liked it for the adorable kiss.

Hang in there, Jack- I usually hate JitB ads, but I LOVED this. Hilarious, and I actually want to go to the website now. 

Doritos- Can't explain why, but I enjoyed the snow globe spot. Crotch joke meh, but whatever.

NFL/Sprint Mobile "football season never ends" spot- AWESOME communication of the value, and reward, of having Sprint mobile all year. Beautiful AND strategic. I would have liked it even if it hadn't been strategically strong. Sprint mobile ad at the beginning was really beautiful too, when it opened up into a stadium--really loved it.

Denny's- Ok, I hated the one that's been showing recently when they're talking about hard times, but I loved the new spot with our mobster trio. And what a great call to action, getting people in for a free grand slam on Tuesday? Perfect. Cheers to GSP for that one.

Coke Zero- New Mean Joe Green spot was GREAT, and it finally starts tying all the Coke Zero advertising efforts together. Hey Pepsi! This is how you REFRESH, not by showing people dancing in the 50's. For more on Pepsi, check out Reflushed from my man Anthony.

Career Builder- Just the right amount of crazy--DEFINITELY memorable.

Disappointing:
Bud Light w/ Conan- How can you mess up with Conan?

G- Meh. I haven't been big on the campaign in general, though.

Go Daddy- This idea is so tired...

Comcast Fastest Speed Ever- I get that its trying to be just ridiculous, but it's still boring.

Captain Morgan apparently offered to donate $ to charity every time one of the players did the Cap't Morgan stand. I didn't see it happen a single time. No buzz about it either. Eek.

Cars.com- They could have gone ANYWHERE with this (including launching a new Wes Anderson flick) but they totally killed it with a lame ending.

Sobe- Sorry but this was boring, and I couldn't quite tell if it was supposed to be in 3D or not. The glasses didn't do anything, but the picture otherwise looked like crap.

Coke avatars- "Ooo! New* technology! There's an ad in that!" Nope. 
*Right.

Vizio- poorly produced, really boring, and actually had tech stats on the screen. If someone understood those stats, they wouldn't be considering a value tv like a Vizio. (That said, I have a Vizio and I LOVE it, and apparently their site had more traffic than it could handle)

In general, they just weren't enough to interest me. I still found myself getting up to help with the food, grab a drink, or talk to everyone, and I was actively taking NOTES on the commercials. That's bad.

I expected more from the Super Bowl. Now to find out if consumers did too, or if I'm being overly critical.


6 comments:

Unknown said...

Claire,

Did you notice more than one Miller High Life ad? I was really stoked on that and they didn't pull through for me. Why do you think they only threw one in there? It seemed terribly unbalanced against the obnoxious Budweiser ads.

Thoughts?

x said...

ed mcmahon's hurting for money, i'm sure he was down for whatever amount cash4gold gave him. he did some viral fcr.com spots for us too.

totally agree about cars.com, it was so promising and then a huge big wah wah at the end.

sobe wasted another 60 sec (it felt like an eternity, was it longer?) of my life, just like they did last year. i hate them, i'm never drinking it, ever.

x said...

idk why i used "huge" and "big" next to each other.

that's what she said.

Claire Grinton said...

xq- waa waa!

justen- I was sad we didn't get all the 1 second ads. I mean, it'd be hard to figure out how to buy and organize those throughout the game, but still--i think at this point consumers are expecting something spectacular from super bowl ads. something that switched it up, like long-format or super short ads, would have been a step in the right direction for getting our consumers' affections (and for the record, shitty 3d doesn't count)

Nguyen Duong said...

what? no mention of the hulu.com ad? although alec baldwin annoys me, he played this part well for what they were trying to say. hulu doesn't themselves so seriously and they had fun with us by poking fun at themselves.

i also enjoyed the cultural relevant coke avatar spot, much more so than the animated insects spot or the mean joe green refresh. having seen the original ad as a kid, this new one didn't pull on my emotional heart strings as it did the 1st time around.

oh, and that pepsi/mcgruber spot was horrible. that work was created by arnell group. the same ppl that brought you the new pepsi logos. ack!

Claire Grinton said...

I loved the Hulu ad all the way until the alien tentacle. And I'm still not sure on the tag. I know a lot of people loved it. For me, the jury's still out.

Coke bugs was kind of forgettable (well produced but meh) but i definitely have to disagree with you on the avatar spot (unless of course i'm missing your sarcasm.) Refreshed Mean Joe Green? I LOVED it. Coke is about happiness, and that ad entertained and got us all laughing. I'm a fan.

In defense of the Pepgruber ad, they did manage to refresh an idea (granted it was someone else's but it was relevant to their target) and that's on strategy...but I wasn't a big fan. That's just me though.