Full confession: I did not watch the Super Bowl last night. I did not see the half time show during which I understand Beyoncé sang 😉 I couldn’t even bring myself to watch all the ads this morning on the Internet.
It’s not even that Super Bowl advertising has “jumped the shark,” although I largely agree with Deb Rox’s post on BlogHer, that the creativity of Super Bowl advertising continues to suffer, especially when compared to the creativity of good user-generated media. But let’s not kid ourselves, UGC isn’t all sunshine and rainbows either. Some of it is pretty awful too.
I also am not misty-eyed over the old days. There was plenty of cruddy advertising back then too. We just forget the awful ones.
Of course, one person’s trash is another’s treasure. With a few exceptions, — those truly outstanding adverts that rise above every year — there are as many opinions about which ads were the best as there are actual ads. For example, many people love the talking babies. I just think they are creepy. Always have. Always will. And I will not watch GoDaddy commercials. Period.
Overall, I thought last night’s crop was pretty uninspired. Here are a few that I liked:
- Coca-Cola’s security camera footage. Not a new commercial, but a good use of the airtime by the brand.
- Doritos’ UGC commercials. I liked both – Goat 4 Sale and Fashionista Daddy.
- Get out your hankies for the Budweiser Clydesdale spot. Can never go wrong with the Clydesdales.
- I missed the pre-game hullabaloo over the Mercedes CLA spot so was able to enjoy Willem Dafoe’s devil. That the “punchline” was a key product attribute was excellent. I also liked the Bud Light Stevie Wonder spots. All three were a nice nod to the New Orleans locale for the game.
- AllState’s Mayhem is always good for a laugh, and the Samsung spot with Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd was amusing. Brand integration in the Samsung spot was particularly good.
- The Kia Babyland spot was also funny. While a little light on product attributes, it did a good job linking the brand with the target demographic.
- Hands down, though, the best spot for combining humor with product attributes was the Tide “Stain” spot.
My favorite ad of the evening didn’t even air during the Super Bowl, but was merely teased during the Iron Man 3 spot – an Iron Man extended look on Facebook: