So it is Thursday just 4 days after the Super Bowl. We all can relax and stop being overwhelmed by the hysteria that goes into the Super Bowl game, halftime show, and ads. I have seen a ton of people giving their reviews of what Super Bowl ads won and lost and a lot of people did this incorrectly. I’m sorry but you did. Just because an ad was the funniest doesn’t make it the best ad. This can make it the most entertaining, but not necessarily the most effective. The other part a lot of these reviews forgot to focus on was A) Who was the ad for? B) What was the ads purpose? and lastly C) What/Who are you viewing the ad as? With “C” I am simply stating, “Who are you, and what demographic do you fall into?” I am a 22 year old male, who is an advertising enthusiast, loves football, eats chicken wings, and usually drinks Coors light. So I go into viewing commercials a little bit differently than my mom who is (besides last name) the complete opposite of me for example. So now I will go into my ad breakdown but just a little bit more context. I watched the entire superbowl and commercials without getting up except during like one punt and the halftime show which I never care for. After the superbowl I only viewed one commercial online after and it was the Jack N Box at marrybacon.com so automatically Jack N Box won my attention and is a winner.
Analysis Begin!
Well I wasn’t drinking and I was paying a ton of attention…. so….. What commercials do I actually remember?
I remember a good amount of them and here is the list in no particular order:
Pepsi (Elton John), Pepsi Max (Regis), Sketchers (Dog with Shoes), Chrysler (Halftime + Clint Eastwood), Chevy (Yellow Camaro), Chevy (Longest Lasting Truck Apocalypse), Coca Cola (Polar Bears), Cars.com (Confidence), Bud Light (LMFAO), Bud Light Platinum (Teaser), Avengers (Movie), VW (Exercise Dog), David Beckham Underwear, GoDaddy (Body Painting), Doritos (Baby Sling Shot), E-Trade (Speed Dating), Bridgestone (Testable Products), Doritos (Dog), The Dictator (movie), Audi (Vampire Party), CareerBuilder (Chimps), and M&Ms (Sexy and I know It)
These were all the commercials that I remember the exact brands for and the message. Now these ads all accomplished something. That somethings is that I remembered them and their message (hopefully in a positive manner).
Now, the next list are commercials of ads I remember but not necessarily the brand, product or message. These commercials I had to cheat on and look up:
Hyundai (Cheetah v Turbo), Budweiser (Prohibition), GE (Turbines), Chevy (Stunt Cars), Dannon Greek Yogurt (John Stamos), Acura (Jerry Seinfeld), and Kia Optima (Dream Car)
*Notes on these:
I saw the Jerry Seinfeld commercial and Dannon Greek Yogurt commercials before the Super Bowl online and I still forgot what brand they were by. So in my opinion these commercials failed for me #biglosers. Now remember I am 22 and can’t afford or care to purchase a luxury Acura anytime soon. I also don’t have any care to go shopping for Greek yogurt anytime soon…. BUT SPENCER! Yes? You aren’t the demographic for Greek Yogurt and John Stamos sex appeal. Right you are! So maybe this ad was successful? I guess we will all have to go look into our mother’s, wive’s, and girl friend’s fridges and see if there is any Dannon Greek yogurt sitting on the shelves anytime soon. Now there was a contender in this group as well. The Kia Optima Dream Car, I found this ad very entertaining but at the end of the day I really forgot the brand and the car itself. I was reminded on Facebook after seeing it again but unlike the Chevy Camero gift commercial (mentioned later) I couldn’t remember the car type I could only remember Adriana Lima and lumberjacks sawing a big sandwich in half.
Lastly I will not present a list for the rest of the ads simply because I didn’t remember them really at all or they didn’t catch my attention. So if you are not on either of the two lists: YOU FAILED…. BUT SPENCER! Yes, yes I could not have been targeted by them for the ads. Let us continue.
So now is the fun part. I will talk about the overall experience I had during Super Bowl Sunday, and why I think some brands won and others lost. So I was watching commercials with my family and a loser was Coca-Cola, it breaks my heart because I love Coca-Cola and have a strong bias towards Coca-Cola over Pepsi (sorry Pepsi but I do). But my family who isn’t on Twitter and Facebook or online for the most part didn’t get the whole Polar bear thing. They do know that Coca-Cola loves their polar bears but didn’t see why these ads were so good or at least entertaining to watch. They were boring. I thought they were dull and I was totally aware of the whole campaign Coke has for restoring the North Pole or something like that. I even knew about the Twitter take over but cared less to follow it. Although Coke lost in my eyes I will still buy Coca-Cola original over any Pepsi products but I do think to the rest of America Coca-Cola should try to figure out how to execute this campaign a little better (also see polar bear themed coke can fail). Besides the Coca-Cola ads, Jerry Seinfeld Acura Ad, Dannon Greek Yogurt, and ones not mentioned I don’t think anybody else lost badly.
Hopefully I am not boring you too much by now so I am going to talk about the really big winners and why they won. E-Trade, every year the E-Trade baby and friends come through. Why? E-Trade wins because the baby is pretty much as recognizable as the Geico Gecko so automatically you will remember the brand and hopefully pay attention to the type of service or new featured being offered, while being hilarious unexpectedly at the same time. Everyone in America should thank E-Trade for doing an overall great commercial. Now the next two I am about to talk about did good jobs but I think had some lose ends as a creative whole. “The Sketchers Dog with sneakers.” It was a great ad! It was funny short, and I remembered the product and them. But then it had a pointless cameo with Mark Cuban at the end. I don’t hate Mark Cuban, but I just think the commercial was complete and the creatives and or client said, “This is the Super Bowl, we need to go big or go home!’ So what did they do? They spent an unnecessary amount of money for a pointless cameo that was not funny and a little classless. Sorry sketchers I have a sour-patch kids taste in my mouth from your ad. The second commercial that had an unnecessary ending was the “Work Out Dog Chasing the VW Bug.” I thought as a creative piece the dog part was exceptional except I really couldn’t fully remember what car it (the ad) was actually for. Then we all think the ad is over and the camera zooms out to be a bar TV at the Star Wars cantina. One of the characters reminds you that the dog is better than the Mini-Vader and then becomes choked out by Darth Vader himself. My family’s initial reaction quote, “that was stupid.” I do agree that part was dumb. It wasn’t that funny since Darth Vader didn’t smite the poor cantina customer, and the humor just didn’t come around. Then it hit me, the only reason I knew it was a VW Bug commercial was because of the exact comparison to the pervious years commercial of the kid playing with his Vader costume. So I think this commercial was a great piece for half of it and then made me shake my head at the other half none the less, it is a winner.
Of course these guys won:
Doritos. Do I really need to explain why? Doritos and E-Trade are becoming David Beckham and Tim Tebow but with less underwear spots, all they do is win. They like last year have a contest where regular Joes and Joe-ettes can go and submit an ad for them to “Crash the Super Bowl” with. I viewed all the ads before the Super Bowl and enjoyed all of them. I thought the “Three Hot Wild Girls” was the funniest but had a feeling it would not win the air time award by Doritos. Doritos has stuck to a common theme with simple easy spots with good humor, and nobody licked anyone else’s finger this year.
The next “Of course” is…. Chevy. Chevy had many spots making Budweiser and Chevy all my family was thinking about before the 2nd half started. The two winners for Chevy were the “Yellow Camero Graduation Gift” and the “Longest Lasting Pick-Up Truck” ones. There was one more with the Car doing stunts and falling out of a plane and this ad made me a little mad for being so pointless… but let us celebrate the good instead of the ugly for Chevy. The Yellow Camero Gift spot was actually done by a fan I read somewhere (sorry no source), which is a good story. I found the acting to be cheesy (on purpose) yet very entertaining as well in this contest piece. The second spot the Longest Lasting truck is great because my family and I chuckled. Then as an added bonus I woke up the next day to find Ford attempting sue GM or have the ad pulled from air. I love that Chevy got under Ford’s skin in a very fair and appropriate way (on the biggest TV stage ever). Chevy kicked butt and Ford should suffer for not bringing their A game (or even showing up) on Super Bowl Sunday.
2 More Bigger Winners?
I’m gonna call this next section “2 More Big Winners?” because one was viewed as a public “BIG WINNER” and the other was viewed as a public “BIG LOSER.” So the next winner is, Chrysler halftime spot with Clint Eastwood. But I am not ready to hand the Lombardi Trophy (that shiny thing won by Eli and the Giants) over to them for this ad! Why? Well last year Chrysler had a very beautifully done spot with Eminem about the strength and resurrection of the Detroit City. This same style was applied to this years spot as well. From an art perspective I loved it. So this ad is a winner and so is America (almost).
So my Champion is… Bud Light Platinum (2 spots). WAIT! Spencer are you on drugs? No, but I could be on some Bud Light Platinum in the near future. If you remember reading my short bio you will recall that I primarily drink Coors Light. With that being said this was the only commercial to make me pull out my phone and text someone exactly, “What the hell is Bud Light Platinum?” I was intrigued. Yes, the ad was very bland and not funny (very unlike Bud Light), but I think this introduction of a new product was great spotlight (vague) on the greatest stage. I will probably buy some Bud Light Platinum in the future to see how it is. I assume many people like me when out will see this and remember the Super Bowl spot and say, “What the heck is it?” Because you know what Bud Light is, but not the new version of it? Unlike Bud Light Lime I actually feel that the trial of Bud Light Platinum will be a new experience compared to drinking a Bud Light designed to taste like a poor sour Corona. There were two spots but the factory one was enough for me. I was curious as to what is this new premium beer from a brand roughly known for having a lighter quality to it at an affordable price. So for all the reasons I tried to explain, you Bud Light Platinum are my BIG unexpected winner and Super Bowl Champ. I am pretty sure I might be on an island on this one. However, I do think it was a very good way of introducing a new product and I will be looking for it in my next bar visit or grocery store venture. Please if you have read the article and revisited some of the ads let me know what you think and I would love to hear what you thought!
*One final note I can’t remember if there was a movie trailer for the Denzel Washington movie or not but I will see that regardless because he is one of my favorite actors… another winner. Lastly, I suffer from run-on sentences be easy on me.
Similar to your bias for Coors, I have a bias for independent breweries. With my mindset, I always have a tendency to look past the 85% of InBev and Miller/Coors shelf real-estate at retailers; yet, I have to admit, the advertising of InBev to push competitors below the “eye-level is buy-level” shelf space has always been successful with commercials like the platinum. It was almost like a breath of fresh air from the start. Every commercial before hand was screaming at you, then the game came on to scream at you, then, suddenly, a quiet, single octave piano key set the tone for something different, and simple. The setting you observed the commercial in compared to the setting I observed the commercial in were very different: I had been drinking, I had people over, it was loud, and my mom was not invited. Yet, somehow, when that commercial came on, people payed attention and asked the same question at it’s conclusion: “What the hell is Bud Light Platinum?” I imagine most Superbowl parties in America were similar to the one I was at. I also imagine that your opinion and observation is much more sophisticated those who drank and glanced at the television now and again during commercials. YET, the Bud Light Platinum received attention at my party and effectively expressed awareness about the upcoming product without the cheap tricks of a dog doing the moonwalk in sneakers, or what have you. I do not believe that my party was the only one who responded to this commercial in this manner. Make some room on that island for me because I could not agree more with your deeming of BLP as the Superbowl commercial champ. (It’s not even out yet, and I’m already abbreviating and imagining the future “I’ll get the cups, you get the platinum, see you in 5.)
The music was a Kanye West song, another reason it (the spot) caught my attention. I left that out due to the fact I already wrote a ton on this post.
Thanks,
AJ