DDB

DDB Chicago for Bud Light. These spots are all part of the "Drinkability" campaign Bud Light had running for about the past four years. This campaign was discussed in a recent article in Ad Age regarding the declining sales of the brand that occurred after this campaign kicked into gear. The article, which was entitled, "Bud's Big Blunder: Letting Consultants Steer Brand," (the title is a bit of a spoiler) discusses the dangers Anheuser-Busch encountered while closely following almost every recommendation of their consulting firm. Bud Light, along with Budweiser, were regarded as two of the largest names in beer, but after the "Drinkability" campaign, Bud Light posted its "first full-year sales decline in its history." The article projected that the decline in sales was due to the switch in Bud Light's advertising from an emotional connection with the viewers/beer drinkers, to a more product-based ad emphasizing features and benefits. DDB Chicago has done a lot of work for Bud Light, much of which has been witty and actually humorous. They definitely dropped the ball on the "Drinkability" campaign; not only is it immature and drawn out, it doesn't make sense to attempt to differentiate a beverage on a the basis of drink-ability. Wassssuuuppppp, DDB?!

BBDO

BBDO Stuttgart for Mercedes Benz.

Car ads that begin without showing the actual car are few and far between, but often those spots are the most memorable because they have a greater chance of breaking through the clutter of auto ads on TV. Mercedes usually takes a more conventional route with their advertising; oftentimes a Mercedes spot involves winding roads, a lot of chrome, and a distinguished Euro accent. This spot immediately sets itself apart from the pack in that it tells a story and makes the commercial about more than just selling a car. By giving the ad more relevance to its viewing audience, people are more inclined to take an interest in the ad because it's not about selling a Mercedes anymore, it's about making the air cleaner so the birds can breathe! And in the P.C. world we live in today, no one wants to be responsible for not being environmentally conscious, not to mention assuming responsibility for choking birds! What really amazes me in this ad is that when they do get around to showing an actual car, it is the fugliest car created by humans. The giant box on wheels shown in this ad is about as unattractive as you can get for a vehicle, and I think I would be a little bit nervous to even use it in an ad. I understand that using the van clearly gets the point across that even a big mother trucker like that van can run responsibly and do its part not to pollute. Still, the van could in no way fit cohesively into the typical Mercedes spots with sophisticated cars and piano music, so Mercedes had to do something different for this spot. This has a completely different message than most Mercedes ads, and the character of the car somehow fits decently into the "going green" theme of the spot.

Audi's getting vicious!

Damnnn Audi...there are some new Audi spots that take jabs directly at competitors like BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes. I always thought Audi took the high road and left competing brands out of their advertising, but that has not been the case recently.

The naming of competitors, showing competitors' cars in the ad, and making the claim of superiority are all things Audi has been doing in their ads which really surprised me. Part of the surprise is that Audi is not a brand you associate as needing to make those claims of "We're better than you" or taking cheap shots at the competitor, and this recent behavior is leaving a bad taste in my mouth about the brand. Perhaps Audi sees the need to use their superiority claims as a way of asserting themselves in the marketplace and establishing themselves as a forerunner of luxury vehicles, just like the trifecta of BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes.

Still, I think a part of Audi's brand image and identity resided in the fact that they are different from any of those three brands; Audi, like Infiniti or Cadillac, is clearly a luxury auto maker but are more exotic, perhaps even more sophisticated because of their previous humility as an advertiser.

As much as I was a fan of the Audi "Green Police" ad at this year's Super Bowl, I can't help but wonder if that was the first step in the disintegrating sophistication of Audi ads to come. Since the 2010 Super Bowl, Audi has continued to put out spots that lack the conservative reserve I want so badly to be put back in Audi ads. The Audi brand is not supposed to be one that stoops to the level of competitor comparisons, especially when done with such frankness. I hope this is just a temporary strategy to capitalize on whatever car awards they were given and is not going to be a permanent change of pace for Audi.

So, these are the ads I am talking about:

Super Bowl 2010

Overall, Super Bowl 2010 was a let down in the commercial realm; Pepsi, who usually makes an appearance at the big game was nowhere to be found, and the typical advertising powerhouses, like Coca-Cola and Doritos delivered work that was decent, but nothing exceptionally memorable or funny. Even so, there were a few ads that stood out as creative, well-executed, and decidedly original. My picks for the 3 best ads of this year's Super Bowl are as follows:



Google made this ad in-house, and apparently it has already been available for viewing on their website for about 3 months prior to the Super Bowl. The ad is called "Parisian Love," and it was my favorite ad of the Superbowl; it is not funny or eccentrically outrageous, but it is simple, clean, and beautiful. The ad shows the title of the product and exactly what it is used for throughout the entire ad, and the variety of searches prove how versatile Google is as a search engine. Also, I think this ad did a great job of capturing some of the obscure things we search for online; i mean, why are we asking a computer for advice on long distance relationships? But we do. Our society is one that wants answers immediately and often with anonymity, and Google services deliver those answers...except that it was next to impossible to figure out who made the Google ad...not even on Google.



This is the Dove "Manthem" ad by Ogilvy and Mather, and according to a critique by Barbara Lippert on adweek.com, this was a joint effort from several of their offices. I had a positive feeling after watching this ad, though some critics have remarked about its use of gender stereotypes. While I can understand why scenes such as the man opening a jar for his wife, looking obviously bothered and annoyed, could be seen as perpetuating a stereotype in the "nagging wife" role, I felt other scenes like the young boy trying to do a chest press with a looming gym coach showed the b.s. hyper-masculine "rights of passage" that boys are expected to go through as well. Also, this ad found a way to appeal and relate to men without showing 150 frames of beer or boobies. Yay, progress.



This is the Audi "Green Car" or "Green Police" ad created by Venables Bell and Partners, which is located in San Fransisco, CA. I appreciated the sarcastic take on going green, and I thought this was a great way for Audi to stand out as an auto advertiser because the ad was so atypical for a car advertisement. This spot had something many of the other Super Bowl spots did not-a concept that was substantial enough to build a 30 second spot around. I do think Audi should have done a better job incorporating the actual car into the ad; there should have been more frames of the car, a little more meat to the claim about efficient gas mileage to make this feature stand out against other hybrid vehicles, and a more profound transition into featuring the car (the whole getting out of the checkpoint happened too late and lacked payoff for watching the build-up of the commercial up to that point). I liked this commercial because it took a while to figure out what was being advertised; however, this is also one of the weaknesses of this ad because of the confusion/frustration this could pose to viewers. I'm still a fan of Green Police though.

The 3 ads shown above are proof that Super Bowl XLIV did have a few gems, and the 3 ads shown below are proof that the great ads were a rare and stark contrast to the other time-fillers that took up most of the ad spots in the Super Bowl. The 3 worst ads, in my opinion, are given below:



Well it wouldn't be a Super Bowl without a terrible, tasteless ad for Go Daddy.com, and this year did not disappoint. Go Daddy was sexist, cheap, and basically played out the same "scandalous" storyline they have in years past. I'm sleepingggggggggg. They made this ad in-house. Duh. It sucks.



Who did this ad for Focus on the Family? Whoever it is, they tried way too hard to borrow value from Tim Tebow's wholesome image in collegiate football...too bad this was a professional football game and no place for Tim Tebow, or his mom. This ad is totally out of place in the Super Bowl; it is boring, poorly acted, and worst of all, it's all about Tim Tebow. Post game, I heard rumors about what Focus on the Family actually is and why they used Tim Tebow and his mom's story; I am still confused about the brand (a surefire sign they did a bad job advertising) but found out it has something to do with abortion or rather, not getting an abortion. Whatever your view is on abortion, I think everyone can agree there is no place for a fetus in the Super Bowl.



DraftFCB in San Fransisco did this ad for Dockers. It's called "Men Without Pants," so what I am wondering is: how does a commercial with absolutely no pants in it help sell pants? The placement of this ad was definitely a disservice for the brand, as this commercial directly followed the Career Builder commercial with no pants, or shirts, or attractive people in it. The overwhelming amount of pants-less men in the Super Bowl ads this year makes an interesting comment about our society, but I am not sure quite what that comment is yet...Clearly we like to see people without pants on, and perhaps the infestation of these "average Joe" looking, sans-pants men means we are becoming less stereotypical and more accepting of all kinds of people in the media? Even so, Dockers and DraftFCB failed at this commercial; it was redundant, beyond repetitive (I wear no pants..I wear no pants), and did nothing to showcase or differentiate the brand. They offered a pitiful save at the end by promoting free pants- as in, they are giving away the pants that no one wants to wear in their ad. Dockers say what??


This Super Bowl was full of mundane ads for video games and movie trailers that only contributed to the clutter and in no way were worth the massive amounts of money the companies put into them. Also missing from Super Bowl XLIV were ads for cutting edge electronics, including the new ipad (not to be confused with the itampon making its debut soon). This year's ads were heavy on beer (which is no surprise), cars, and career sites.

Some other ads I thought were nicely executed were the Volkswagen "Punch Dub," the Careerbuilder "Job Fairy" and "Casual Fridays," and the Snickers football ad with Betty White. A few of the other poorly planned concepts included basically every Bud Light ad (all were unoriginal, recycled scenarios for a typical beer ad), the "Fiddling Beaver" ad for Monster (which was done by BBDO but totally missed the mark), and of course...the Budweiser ads (both the "Bridge" and the clydesdales were not unique or entertaining). Hopefully 2011 will bring innovative concepts and entertainment back to the Super Bowl, but leave Tim Tebow and his mom-tackling antics behind.