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.