The Superbowl Ad Challenge – Reviews

Okay – the craziness has finally settled down. The Pittsburgh Steelers had a last minute win. Super Bowl XLIII was great. However, its the other half of the craziness which I’m about to turn to – the ads. I’ve honestly never been interested in them before, but given that I’m beginning to blog fairly regularly and that advertising is something front and centre to my thoughts of promoting the site, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t miss – the Superbowl Ad Challenge!

Firstly, I don’t live in the US so I missed all the ads you lucky Americans got to see. Instead, I visited superbowl-commercials.org and I’m trusting them on the different ads which appeared on the broadcast. The rules of the challenge are fairly straightforward, hit the play button and see if it works. If it doesn’t find a video of the ad that does. Watch the advertisement once, then write my gut reaction about what I just saw. In come cases I bent the rules a little i.e. when I needed to copy down a site in order to reproduce it for you. Apart from one exceptional case where I just didn’t get the ad, I stuck to simply viewing the video – none of these thoughts have been liften from anywhere else.

This is Part 1 of the challenge. Soon I’m going to be taking my gut reactions to these advertisements to produce an article about some of the trends which we saw, both good and bad, in this year’s broadcast, and then awarding some acknowledgement for the particually good and bad ads. So, here we go!

Note: Chances are that you’ve found this article while searching for a specific ad from the Superbowl. They’re all here. Hit ‘Ctrl’ and ‘F’ on Windows or ‘Cmd’ and ‘F’ on Mac to enter search and enter your search term to find the ad you were looking for.

———————————————————————————————————————

Toyota Tundra – Killer Heat: Yeah, we know you sell trucks, and we also know you’ve been asking the government for bailout money. So why are you telling us that burning fuel and towing a truck up a tower is the best way you propose spending some of this money.

Fast and the Furious Trailer: Its got Vin Diesel in it, but apart from that its a very conventional movie trailer for a rather lacklustre looking movie. Not interesting at all.

Pepsi – McGruber: Good use of product placement in an ad that’s not afraid to poke fun at itself. Go the PepSuber!

Bud Light Lime: Nothing particually terrible about this ad, but for a Superbowl commercial its fairly dull. Next time its fairly dull around here and I need a bit of sunshine, now I know what to do – just wait for the next ad and see what happens.

Castrol – Grease Monkeys: You gave them some Castrol Edge and the Grease Monkeys just showed up. Good mix of being on message while being randomly entertaining. Strange days indeed.

Nextel Roadies: Some guys show up, audjuct a plain and its an ad about a rugged mobile phone? Its an okay ad, but I’m kind of tired of seeing companies burn money on mediocre Superbowl ads when perhaps it might have been better spent on improving the advertising division.

Coca Cola Heist: There’s a really epic feeling about this ad, and the creativity of having insects trying to steal a bottle of coke is genius. It sends a good silent message about why one should drink Coke over the other brand (because even insects will steal it), so in this way I guess this ad succeeds.

Heroes Trailer: NBC could have just figured that since they’re airing the Superbowl, they have a free reign to just show us their regularly scheduled promos for their upcoming shows, but instead they’ve put in some effort by getting together some NFL heroes and pitted them against another crew of heroes. Nice job.

H&R Block – Death and Taxes: I’ll say upfront that I’m kind of disappointed nothing happened to the dude in the ad, but I understand that its all family friendly viewing. Watching the Grim Reaper question an accountant about his taxes is quirky but fun to watch. Perhaps the best part is what I’d imagine would happen off camera after the ad’s finished.

Angels and Demons Trailer: I must say that Angels and Demons looks fairly good to me even though I profess to being one of the few people never interested in reading or even watching the Da Vinci Code. If you’re going to just show a movie trailer, you have to make it a good one. Luckily this movie seems to be a good one worth watching.

BudLight: Right now in our economic slowdown it makes sense that bankers would be discussing how to cut costs, but cutting out the BudLight? Personally I think it works, but I admit the ad is kind of shallow.

Land of the Lost Trailer: The concept seems like it could work. The visual effects look sharp. Will Ferrell in his last few movies has been pretty funny. I guess it could work.

Year One Trailer: Year One for me looks like at could be one of those movies which could base itself on a foundation of stupidity, and still be a box office hit. Honestly not my thing, but I know that lots of you love these kinds of movies, so you have my permission to check it out in June.

Monster.com: Another timely ad given the Global Economic Downturn. While I get the analogy that having animals being stuck in the wall is like not having an ideal job, I think its kind of weird and not very interesting. On the other hand, I don’t know any other creative angles a job website could have taken during the Superbowl, so they’ve done a decent if not partially memorable job.

Race to Witch Mountain Trailer: This movie looks pretty good considering its from Disney. The Rock stars in this one, but it probably suits better considering its an action film when you compare it to his role in The Pacifier.

Coca Cola – Mean Troy: I must admit that I wasn’t around back in 1980, so hearing that this was a remake of an old ad means that its probably one that people about 40+ would enjoy seeing parodied. Apart from this, its a nice ad that gets its short but simple message across.

Toyota Venza: Another boring car ad that doesn’t do anything particually interesting. Normal guy. Check. Looks at all of car’s ‘amazing’ qualities. Check. The car moves. Check. In this case, the checks probably aren’t a good thing. These car companies need to come up with something more creative for Superbowl.

NBC – LMAO Clinic: I don’t really get the point of this. I know that you’re trying to say that these funny shows will make you go to the LMAO clinic (most of which is easily understandable), but you guys must be able to come up with something better than this.

Cheetos – Annoying Caller: I don’t think this works. Watching an annoying person on a phone being shooed off by a flock of pidgeons doesn’t seem too compelling, and then attributing it all to the Cheetos mascot guy – it doesn’t really cut it.

Budweiser – Romeo Horse: Another brand of alcoholic beverage. Another random ad. This one tries to tell the story (as simple as it is) or a horse being separated from its love, and then searching for her only to be found in a circus. They escape. I certainly commend this ad for trying to be compelling, although the results are certainly debatable.

Budweiser – Clydesale Generations: Now I get it – Budweiser’s are types of horses, so at least that’s what these ads are making me think. Pretty much the same points as the last ad (‘Romeo Horse’) except I prefer this one better, but that’s a personal preference since they’re pretty similar thematically.

Gatorade – Talking Heads: This ad tries to define what ‘G’ is. Everyone comes up with something different, although it pretty obvious everyone was prompted with what Gatorade wanted them to say. Simple but effective ad.

Bridgestone – Mr and Mrs Potato Head: Nice, simple, amusing ad. It could be nice in an alternate galaxy if our female friends had the ability for our mouths to fall off whenever they began going off on tangents, but that’s something I’ll leave for Mrs Potato Head.

E-Trade Babies: Parents especially will love watching babies talk about investments, and singing about who knows what. For the rest of its, its also rather amusing. I think it shows that if you’re aiming to do an ad that inherently has nothing to do with your product, keeping it as simple as possible is the way to go.

Doritos – Magical Chips: Everytime he takes a bite – his dreams comes true. The girl, money, monkey, getting slammed by a bus. Doritos? Amusing enough to keep it interesting after one sitting, but if I saw it again I’m not so sure I’d be interested to watch it till the end,.

Doritos – Crystal Ball: This ads pretty amusing – a guy looks into a crystal ball and predicts he’ll get free Doritos. He slams it into a vending machine, so there, free Doritos. Its probably the sort of ad that would get as much publicity if you posted it online, so while I’m still sceptical about spending up to $3 million on it, probably for Doritos it was worth it for this particular ad.

Budweiser – Drinkability: A guy with fancy drawing powers illustrates how Budweiser compares to other beers by comparing a downhill skier performing a clean trick vs a guy who magically bumps into a whole stack of magically drawn trees. Pretty mediocre for me.

Budweiser – Fetch!: Compared to the last Budweiser ad, I like the simplicity of this one. A man throws a stick, his dog fetches it and is rewarded with a stick. His horse notices this and goes to fetch a log. He’s branded a show-off. It shows once again how simplicity often makes good advertising, especially if its got nothing to do with your actual product.

Cars.com – David Abernathy: A lot of the good ads I’ve seen during the Superbowl have either stayed on message while finding a narrow area for entertainment, made an simple but entertaining ad that has nothing explicitly to do with their product but shows their logo at the end, and those who tell a good, simple story that links to their product. By telling the somewhat unbelievable story of David Abernathy, this ad succeeds in completing the last of those three observations. It probably benefitted from being aired at around the time of the successful film ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ which also struck a similar style, although on its own its certainly a successful advertisement.

Pepsi – I’m Good: Watching people get inflicted injuries that would almost certainly otherwise result in hospitalisation is not particularly funny, even if they say “I’m good”. Probably not the most interesting Pepsi ad during the Superbowl, but at least they gave it a shot.

Hyundai – Angry Bosses: I have to admit, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this advertisement if I hadn’t heard of the gorgeous, upmarket looking Hyundai Genesis. The ad shows luxury car makers around the world going crazy over the company. Unfortunately, most people probably won’t get it unless they knew more about the car, which is a shame since for me (given my understanding about the car) it was a fun ad which payed out all of those luxury car companies who’ve been hiking their prices up for far too long. Cheap luxury – I like it!

Hyundai – Smashing Pumpkins: This ad, also for the Hyundai Genesis, shows off the car (unlike the last ad) and shows off edited snip-its made by certain people. It then redirects you off to ‘edityourown.com’ where you can make your own car ad featuring, guess what? The Hyundai Genesis. Once again, probably a little more detail could have gone into defining this, but overall its a nice idea that will get people seeing Hyundai over and over again.

Hyundai – Chase: Probably its the first time in this challenge that I’ve thought that the ordering of multiple ads from a single company could actually impact on the success of the others. If they’d put this ad first out of the two I’ve seen so far, I think it would enhance the other two given the straight up knowledge this ad delivers on. There’s no entertainment factor here, but they sells their message strongly, and that’s probably all that matters here.

E-Trade – Baby Outtakes: Watching babies engaging in a mixture of adult and baby behaviour is quite humorous and works well here. The message of using E-Trade probably is second to actually getting you interested in the ad in the first place, but they do include some subtle messages about the state of the economy which might make you ring them up.

Cash4Gold: I have to say that I have no idea who EdMcMahon and McHammer are, but they feature in an ad for Cash4Gold which I don’t think could have afforded such an ad if not for people using their service to gain some cash during the downturn. While they send their message that they’ll give you cash for any type of gold, it seemed to be stretched out longer than it should have been (they go through about 8 different examples of gold items), and the final shot of the old dude not wanting to part with his possessions really puts a bad dampener on the entire ad. Probably the worst ad I’ve seen so far. If you’re going to make people part with their gold, at least make them think its a good thing.

Star Trek Trailer: A new Star Trek is hitting the screens soon, seemingly updated for a new generation of fans. It looks like they’ve tried to prepare non-fans like me to embark to the cinema by preparing a more mainstream, less geeky look at the Star Trek universe. I might actually check it out since the trailer looks okay.

Transformers 2 – Revenge of the Fallen Trailer: The sequel to the remake of Transformers looks rather sharp, but I must say that I didn’t really have any interest in the first movie, so my judgement probably isn’t the best here. If you’re a fan, I’m sure you’ve already seen it, so for the rest of us, we might have to take a look.

GI Joe – The Rise of the Cobra Trailer: Hang on – GI Joe’s back? After seeing the last two trailers, my mind has gone kind of numb to the ‘key lines’ they use and the cuts of action sequences, so I’ll probably just recommend you check it out for yourself.

Pixar – UP Trailer: To me it feels like only a short time since Disney and Pixar released Wall-E, to me one of the best movies the combination of them have created, so to be out with a new movie already seems rather abrupt. I’m not so sure I’ll be entertained by the kiddy premise of an old man who has a flying house, but I’m sure legions of fans will be queuing to watch it when it comes out soon.

Careerbuilder – If You Hate Going to Work: This is one of those ads which tells you exactly the same thing, albeit a slight variation about 6 time in a row, after which you get to see what company you’re dealing with. If I wasn’t ‘forced’ into doing this, I would have tuned off by about the third time since you’ve gotten the jist of it all by then.

Pedigree – Adoption Drive: This is a simple ad which delivers its message by showing people doing things with animals that should never be pets. Its pretty bland but we get the picture afterwards. Just don’t expect that people will view this video 1,000,000 times on Youtube.

Bridgestone – Hot Item: This ad is probably the ad that brings up the most questions but answers none of them. Its a teaser for an upcoming Bridgestone product, most likely a tire but the ad is so ambiguous that honestly it could be anything. It doesn’t even feature a logo, only that by the time the ad airs (February 1), we should know what it is. Maybe somewhere down this playlist I’ll see the unveiled product, but right now I’m really confused.

Go Daddy – Danica Patrick Shower: Go Daddy’s tactics on advertising are fairly well known in the web world. They’ll push the limits on 99% of their advertising which won’t make it past the Superbowl’s strict family friendly monitors, ensure the rest pushes it to the limit, and then gets you to watch all the uncut stuff on their website. And by the way, did I mention that you’re going to them to purchase domain names? This tactic, as barbaric as it is, probably will work, but as an ad its as dull and probably demeaning as it will ever get for a Superbowl commercial.

Godaddy – Enhanced: Okay, pretty much the same thing as the last ad. Why do we have a lineup of beautiful women in a courtroom being questioned about ‘being enhanced’? Pretty low stuff.

Heineken – John Turturro: This ad sounds like its trying to pack in a whole lot of information, most of which is kind of difficult to absorb in one viewing of the ad. Some of it is philosophical, others is insightful, some tries to convince you that drinking beer is ethical. Don’t know whether I believe it all, but it was deep enough that I was forced to pay attention to the entire ad, including the branding at the end. Will regular viewers who aren’t doing this challenge adopt the same view, perhaps not, but it seemed fairly satisfying for me.

Audi – Chase: A real old fashioned ad followed by the modern equivalent. Probably the best car ad of the entire Superbowl that stands on its own. Personally I thought the Hyundai Genesis ads were the best, but I knew stuff about that car which probably biases me towards the ads.

Monsters vs Aliens Trailer: I never would have thought it, but is this an advertisement about other advertisements? Now that thought is crazy. Best thing to do is just to watch it, and then think ‘How insane is the Superbowl!’

Coca Cola – Avatar: So far if my memory serves me correctly, I’m thinking Coca Cola has delivered some of the best consistency across their multiple different ads in the Superbowl. This ad which shows the different avatars which people can have is amusing and light-hearted, and definitely kept me entertained for the ad’s minute duration.

Sobe – Lizard Lake: This ad is kind of crazy. A combination of humans, lizards and other bizarre lifeforms are dancing around drinking Sobe. Personally, I think the dancing which attempts imitate ‘Swan Lake’ (prior knowledge; wouldn’t have picked it otherwise) isn’t that entertaining, so considering that there is no message to the ad, it just all falls apart. If you’re into the weirdness though, this one’s worth checking out.

Pepsi – Forever Young: Nice blend between the old and new. The music by Bob Dylan surprisingly keeps the ad on message, and the tagline ‘every generation refreshes the world’ is excellent. I think this might be the most surprisingly good ad so far, not because I doubt the ability for Pepsi to create good advertising, but because the premise of this ad is pretty bland. Pepsi have really pulled off something special with this ad.

Gatorade – What’s G: I’m not sure whether this ad actually aired, but compared to the other ‘G’ commercial from Gatorade, this one is exponentially more confusing and certainly less interesting.

GE – If I Only Had A Brain: Mildly amusing ad that plays off the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. The tagline is actually explained; its an analogy to the power grid which GE say they will make more intelligent. Its not the most compelling ad, but it does the job fine.

Dennys – Thugs: I confess that I had absolutely no idea what this ad was about when I saw it about the first three times. I broke the rule here, since I otherwise would have had no idea what to say. Apparently its about mobsters having to scale down their breakfast meetings because of the recession. Maybe if others got it, then it might be a fine ad, but I didn’t get it at all.

Pepsi - Ingredients: Another variation on their diet cola for men campaign. Talking about the ingredients of Pepsi isn’t as interesting as if KFC were to do an ad on it. The discussion sort of feels meaningless, its neither interesting nor informative. This one’s not a winner.

So the insanity is over! For now. Coming up soon is my analysis of the trends found in this plethora of advertisments. For now, I’m just going to bed – these Superbowl ads are kind of tiring to watch.