SuperBowl Commercials

Wow what a Super Bowl. What a come-back for the Saints. At the end of the first half, I thought the Colts had it in the bag. I didn't have any "dog in the fight" so to speak, so I didn't really care who won. However, I always enjoy watching the game and the commercials.

In case you didn't see them, you can watch the Super Bowl commercials and vote on each one (thumbs-up or thumbs-down) here on YouTube. Although, flipping through the videos on YouTube, I note that not all of the ads are there, and some of the ads I don't remember seeing at all. Also of note, the ad with the most controversy around it, the Focus on the Family Ad, wasn't included in the YouTube lineup.

Here's my recap of this year's Super Bowl commercials. As I watched the Super Bowl, each ad that came on I put into one of the three categories below.

Cool: These companies got their money's worth, and their advertising agencies deserve some kudos.

• Doritos - anti-barking dog collar
• Doritos - little kid "keep yo hands off my mama and keep yo hands off my doritos"


• Cars.com - the wonder-kid who saves lives and does monumental things still needs help figuring out which car to buy, so he goes to Cars.com.


• TRUtv spoof on the Punxsutawney Phil groundhog, only it's a Pittsburgh Steeler football player that gets pulled out of the tree stump, and when he sees his shadow, they declare 6 more weeks of football.


• Bud - The Bridge Is Out (and there's a Bud truck on the other side). You could tell Bud spent a lot of money on their entire ad campaign. The fact that I despise Bud in general may bias my opinion on this, but most of the Bud commercials didn't do anything for me. The "bridge is out" commercial was kinda funny though.


• NCIS head slap. You would of course expect CBS to run commercials for their own shows, but CBS really put on a good show of making significantly better than average TV commercials for the Super Bowl. Like the NCIS commercial that ran sort of alike a documentary explaining how the head-slap has replaced the handshake. Overall, I give a thumbs up to CBS for not just putting in plain commercials for their TV shows.


• VW - a new spin on the old bunch buggy game. Instead of punching each other for bugs though, it was for any VW they saw.


• HomeAway.com - An old and gray-haired Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) visits a hotel in that same old monster of a green station wagon with the wood paneling on the sides.


• KGB - Sumo Wrestler. Two skinny little nerds are given two different smart phones, thrown in a ring with a Sumo wrestler, and told to look up how to say "I surrender" in Japanese.


• eTrade baby - He's actually grown into a toddler, and now he's having girl troubles. Milk-a-holic. :-)


• Google - A series of over a dozen Google searches that described a couple's initial meeting, courtship, marriage, and expected baby.


• Comcast's "Don't Fall for FIOS" was pretty funny.


• Defeatthedebt.com had a commercial with kids saying a modified pledge of allegiance about our national debt.


• Vizio - the robot arms picking up samples of everything from the internet (including the Numa Numa guy) and dropping it into a box.


• Career Builder: "Casual Friday" where everybody at the office was wearing tighty-whities


• Bud Light: LOST spoof. One character finds a working emergency radio on the plane and they can call for help. Another character finds the plane's stash of Bud Light. All the other characters run toward the Bud Light.


• Honda - everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda


• Dodge Charger - you can make me do this and that and anything else, but I'm gonna drive what I want.


• Snickers ad with Betty White playing football with the guys


• Acura: The ad with the life-sized kid's toys out partying.

Weird: a.k.a. "a swing and a miss." You could tell these companies spent some money on their Super Bowl ads, but they missed the mark. These are commercials that make you scratch your head and say, huh? Then again, maybe they were just hoping that weirdness factor would make their name brand stick in your head.

• The nuts and popcorn commercial with the people swimming, doing tricks, and jumping out of the water to get the nuts and popcorn like they were trained dolphins.
  


• Doritos - the funeral where the casket was filled with doritos


• Monster.com - The Beaver violinist
• Most of the Bud Light ads


• Bridgestone Tires - The guys with the killer whale in their SUV.


• Dr Pepper Cherry: A little KISS (with midgets dressed up like the band KISS)
• Intel: Robot in Cafeteria. I missed something. I didn't get it. What was the point?


• Dockers: No Pants. Guys marching through a field in tighty-whities singing a song about "no pants." What the...???


• Dove for Men - kinda funny storyline, but at the end you're like huh? What did that have to do with Dove soap?


• Teleflora flowers in a box.


• All of the Coca-Cola commercials. What was up with them tonight? I'm a big fan of Coke, so it's not even like I was predisposed against them like I was with Budweiser, but all of Coke's commercials tonight just seemed... off.


• Denny's Free Grand Slam - All the chickens are going nuts.


• FLOTV - Jason's spine has been removed, and he's holding bras for his wife shopping in a department store and helping her pick out lavender-scented candles

Lame: These commercials made me say to myself, "Self, seriously? How much money did they spend to put that ad on during the Super Bowl???"

• Lame: Papa Johns, Sketchers shoes, Mrs. Paul's Fishsticks, Freight Rail Works


• Lamer: Carmax dramatically smart with the beaver and the parrot


• Lamest: Boost. That was so lame, CBS should be ashamed they allowed someone to pay them to put it on TV

Did you watch? What was your favorite ad during the Super Bowl?