The fall-out over last year’s sexually-fueled, pre-game and half-time shows was readily apparent during the much-anticipated Super Bowl commercials.
Only GoDaddy.com and Tobacco used blatant sexuality as part of their ad campaigns. And they were both relatively mild at that.
NOTE: Most of the ads running during the Super Bowl can be viewed here.
The Hits
- Anheuser Busch — The Thanking the Troops ad was the night’s biggest winner. It was poignant, well-timed, and nicely tied into the patriotic opening ceremonies of the game (watch it here).
Michelle Malkin posted this email from one of her readers in regards to this ad:
I work for American Airlines at DFW airport and have seen this scene repeated every time we have a military flight arrive here (they all arrive either here or BWI) and the soldiers disperse to take their connecting flights home. Just four days ago I had 37 soldiers returning from Iraq on R and R on our flight. As I made the boarding announcements, I told the other passengers that we had young men and women who were really anxious to get home and we were going to allow them to board first and get settled in before beginning general boarding. As the soldiers stepped up to walk down the jetbridge, everyone in the waiting area clapped. Passengers hurrying to their next flight, airport employees and crew members all stopped and joined in.
One young girl whistled really loud and long. The soldiers loved it. They were grinning and waving to everyone. One of the last ones to board asked if he could hug me. As he did he said, “We came from Mosul two days ago. We were getting shot at up until the time we left there. You have no idea what your kindness and this recognition means to all of us.” I replied, “No, thank you. You have no idea what your service and sacrifice means to all of us here!”
As I looked around, I saw tears in many eyes. It was a brief, great moment. We love honoring these young men and women in this small way.
- Careerbuilder — The Working with Monkeys campaign wins the funniest ad series of the night. Who would have guessed that a bunch of monkeys would out-funny Cedric the Entertainer (the Bud Light commercials were all mildly disappointing)? Actually, my wife would have told you so before the commercials aired.
- Ameriquest — The Don’t Judge Too Quickly dead cat commercial was the single funniest commercial of the night. The guy getting tasered in the convenience store was funny too. The only downside of this campaign? Much like the Degree For Men commercial, I couldn’t remember what or whom these commercials were advertising.
- Cadillac — The XLR commercial, with the cars being shot out of the tunnel, while not great, was the only commercial that left me wanting to buy that product. Now.
I don’t need a Ford truck to make me tough (and, for the record, if I did want a truck, it would be a Chevy or Ford, and not a Honda). I don’t want to freeze to death in a Mustang. I do want to go from zero-60 in under 5 seconds with the top down in an XLR.
- Also good — The MC Hammer Frito Lays spot was only so-so. Until the kids threw the Hammer back over the fence.
The Misses
- Degree for Men — In-action hero dolls. First of all, the morning after the ads, I couldn’t remember what the In-action commercial was advertising. I had to go back and look it up. What I did remember was the “mom†doll pushing her son around in a grocery cart…while her hands were eerily placed in the “mama’s boy†doll’s lap. My wife even asked,†What is she doing with her hands?â€
Even worse were the magnets that rendered the dolls inseparable…by joining them at the crotch. The last thing I want to see is a mom and son doll ad with more Freudian innuendos than the GoDaddy.com ad.
- Napster — The Napster Do the Math campaign was horrible. The chart? Looked like Ross Perot did the ads for them.
- Quiznos — using a baby in any type of sexual context just weirds me out.
UPDATE: Timothy Goddard and I apparantly have the same taste in commercials. He live-blogged the Super Bowl ads, and here are his winners:
Best Serious Commercial: Anheuser Busch’s salute to the military
Best Funny Commercial Series: CareerBuilder.com’s monkeys
Best Funny Single Commercial: Ameriquest’s “Don’t Judge Too Quickly†dead cat commercial
I find it more than a little eerie that we both had the same “Ross Perot” thought about the Napster ads.
Left by Timothy Goddard on February 7th, 2005 at 12:36 pm