Okay, boys and girls, here is the obligatory Super Bowl post.
- I don't know how much GoDaddy paid Bar Refaeli to kiss that guy but whatever it was, it wasn't enough.
- Amy Poehler was funny. But if Best Buy's management thinks they're going to rescue their rotten carcass by promoting their fabulous customer service they really ought to go to one of their stores and try to buy something.
- Every day, Facebook has an audience that is three times the size of the Super Bowl's audience. That's every day, not just once year. Yet, in its entire history, not one person has ever mentioned or discussed or remembered a single fucking ad they've ever seen on Facebook.
- Sometimes you don't need a strategy. The Audi prom spot was wonderful. But bravery? Please.
- Couldn't believe my ears. That Pepsi Next spot actually said "real cola taste." As horrible as it was, at least Bud Black Crown didn't stoop to "real beer flavor."
- By the way, Bud and Pepsi were the two biggest losers. First was Bud -- remember when they did good advertising? Sorry, boys. Dark and ominous just doesn't work on Super Bowl Sunday. Second was Pepsi. Blew a fortune promoting Beyonce and didn't say a single memorable thing about their products. By the way, Beyonce, where are the wardrobe malfunctions when we need them?
- The Biggest Whack award goes to the advertiser who spends the most money on a spot needlessly. And this year's winner is... Mercedes-Benz for paying zillions for huge stars and the rights to Sympathy For The Devil when the most impactful thing they could have done was just show that beautiful fucking car and then super the price. It would have saved millions and been twice as effective.
- Second place goes to Kia for "Where do babies come from." I'm sure lots of people loved it . It had all the right ingredients -- babies and animals and baby animals -- but the spot had nothing at all to do with the car and in 24 hours no one will remember who it was for. But it's the Super Bowl, so you have to make a spot that looks like a Super Bowl spot.
- Hey Subway -- is it really that hard to say February?
- End of an era? Big losers this year were advertisers who followed the knucklehead script and tied their spots to stupid online gimmicks -- Coke, Axe, Lincoln, Oreo. Big winners were advertisers who just focused on making good spots. Does this mean that the era of Super Bowl dumb-ass online promotions is over? Sadly, no.
- Didn't mind the blackout. Spent the time trying to decide who to vote for on line to win the big bottle of Coke, and whether to vote for cookies or cream on Instagram, and tweeting my "handle-it" moment. By the way, whatever happened to "like us on Facebook?" Is that over? And speaking of which...
- PSY -- please pack your things. Your 15 minutes are up
- Best by a mile: Ram. Also good: Samsung, Tide, VW.
- Hated: Taco Bell, Century 21, Blackberry.
- As usual, a lot of spots trying to look like Super Bowl spots (aliens, animals, slapstick, sex, celebrities) but very few real ideas.
- Only Super Bowl tweet worth reading came from Steve Martin: "I didn't realize there would be commercials."
10 comments:
Agreed with most of what you said, but I'm hoping you'll share your take on the Ram spot being a direct ripoff on a spot Farms.com did back in 2011. They apparently "partnered" on it, but what that means is still unclear. The spot was great but purely from an advertising nerd perspective, it changes my feelings about the Richards Group's work. Still a great shop...but this wasn't their idea in the least.
Also agreed on the Mercedes one, but they're busy doing your favorite thing - selling a car to people who can't afford it. How much does anybody want to bet me the average age of a Mercedes CLA buyer ends up being 45+? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the notion that millenials are going to dash out and buy a brand-new Mercedes while they struggle to pay off their student loans is laughable.
If it weren't for the existence of farm subsidies, I would have loved the Ram commercial.
PSY? Which one was that?
PSY = Wonderful Pistachios
I'd like to hear your take on the Jeep "Whole again" add.
Thanks
Vinny,
I usually agree with everything you say.
But there's 3 things I don't.
1. in your list of best by far you put VW - I'm sure you said you didn't like it. (And if that's right, does this just mean the best of a bad bunch by far)
2. if mercedes didn't try and did as you suggested, wouldn't you just say they were lazy? (and sympathy for the devil may not have been the millions you imagine. we got 'you can't always get what you want' for 150 grand (just for the UK)
3. i really liked oreo library spot - nicely executed, if not a little generic - instagram social nonsense aside, i count it as one of the 'just a Super Bowl ad).
oh and 4. what happened to doritos - they used to do such great ads. (not to mention bud)
Hey Bob,
I believe they were trying to say "Febru-any" in the Subway commercial. Which, of course, underlines your point about how ineffective it was...
Lots of head scratchers out there. The one I liked -- which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere yet -- was the NFL one for Play60 where the kid ends up trash talking the Cam Newton. "...and become your mom's favourite player?"
~Graham
I was blogging my favorite before the game was even over. The minute I saw it, I was in love.
http://womenofcertainage.blogspot.com/2013/02/best-super-bowl-ad.html
That Dodge ad was great. Great visuals, great reading. Gripping stuff which you couldn't drag yourself away from.
@Graham, the reason nobody is talking about that Play 60 spot is that it's been on the air since the NFL season started I think. Not a Super Bowl spot.
An Irish perspective on our agencies blog. In short; some transatlantic agreement.
http://www.bloom.ie/index.php/2013/02/the-bowl-was-super-the-ads-not-so-much/
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