A parade of contenders
Perfection, on the field and off, proved elusive.
Coca-Cola didn’t show up until the fourth quarter, but the very best ad of the whole game was clearly the one with Underdog and Stewie Griffin cartoon balloons from New York’s Thanksgiving parade wrestling for a giant Coke bottle balloon.
It was light and sweet and had a nice little surprise at the end. Coke’s ad with Bill Frist and James Carville bonding over a cola wasn’t quite as good, but engaged just the same.
FedEx scored a huge “coo” with its carrier pigeons. The bit with the big birds run amok was hilarious. Like tracking an overnight package, you could see it coming and you were pleased when it got there.
Now, as a typical viewer, I’m going to be hard-pressed to remember that the Toyota Sedona and Nissan Murano were advertised during the game. But I will not soon forget the understated genius of the Hyundai Genesis commercials. No gimmicks, just a really good car ad.
The Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade went from flattered to flustered as chatty former pro basketball star-turned-TV analyst Charles Barkley added him to his T-Mobile “Fave 5.” So long as you have caller ID and Sir Charles doesn’t have your number, you should be in fine shape. Funny, funny ad.
Tide’s “Silence the Stain” ad for its cleansing pencil was spot on. Everyone who has had a sloppy lunch knows how you feel like when no one sees anything or hears anything but that smudge on your shirt. OK, maybe it’s just me, but still. …
The talking baby buying stock with E-Trade left me worried my 4-year-old is going to get online one day and bankrupt me. Cute ad, even with the spit-up at the end, but kind of scary, frankly.
And let me get this straight. GoDaddy.com bought an ad so we’ll go to our computers and watch their real ad? Yeah. Right.
Bottoms up
Most of the Super Bowl beverage ads had one wondering, as often as not, what the ad people were drinking. Some hit real highs. Others were a bad trip.
Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light spot touting the ability to breathe fire was funny enough, but isn’t it a tad counterintuitive to imply a beer will make your breath hot enough to torch tablecloths? Whatever happened to quenching thirst?
And contrary to the Bud Light ad saying the ability to fly is no longer included, you just have to drink an awful lot to achieve that goal. Alas, you do feel like you’ve been sucked through a jet engine afterward.
I do not want to contemplate the Amp energy drink with the battery clamps, the smoke and the … eww.
PepsiCo’s Gatorade G2 ad let the grass grow beneath the feet of New York Yankees star Derek Jeter (and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts, too) in a cool way. Sure, it could be construed as some sort of hallucination, but it’s more interesting than just a caffeine buzz.
When Sobe’s Life Water splashes into lizards’ mouths, they start doing the “Thriller” dance with Naomi Campbell. When Shaquille O’Neal downs Vitamin Water, he thinks he can be a jockey. It usually takes alcohol, and lots of it, to produce this level of bizarreness.
Bud Light’s wine and cheese ad, with beer and a TV being spirited into a couples’ party, played to the old cliche of guys not wanting to do what their girlfriends and wives do. Kind of makes you wonder how they got together with the women in the first place.
Tags: alcohol, amp, bud light, energy drink, fly, fourth quarter, game, irl, lunch, mak, peyton manning