The game has defied my expectations, to say the least. Not so the spots – with only a couple of standouts (from the usual suspects) the Super ads have been anything but. Here’s my spin on the second part of the festivities…

Halftime/Second Half

The GOOD:

NBC: LMAO. Normally, network spots promoting their lineup of shows are pretty lame, or just embarrassing (like the NBC “I’m feelin’ allright” spot earlier). This one was funny, and somewhat reminiscent of the eTrade “Money Coming Out of His Wazoo” spot from the 2000 Super Bowl. Wouldn’t make me watch their shows – but a nice effort, nonetheless.

Monster: Moose Trophy. When the spot started, the first thing I thought of was that bit in the movie Arthur, where Dudley Moore looks at a Moose trophy on a wall and slurs the immortal line, “Thish mush be very embarashing for you.”  My second thought was “where’s the rest of him?” I was gratified to see this line of reasoning pay off. A good spot that made a point that will resonate with those that have to deal with the south end of the north-bound corporate animal daily.

CareerBuilder.com: It’s Time. Just when I thought that Monster.com wouldn’t have any competition in this year’s Bowl ads, along comes Career builder with an ad that started slow, and built to something that got me laughing. The repetition was brilliant. And just like a good jazz improviser, changing the rhythm of the spot at the appropriate time, then bringing it home again with a recapitulation of the leitmotif was brilliant.

Coke: Bugs. Coca-Cola redeemed themselves with a second effort (see below) that was clever and charming. I particularly liked the butterflies masquerading as a Coke bottle, and the beetle as bottle opener. Smart. Although I wonder if the bugs wouldn’t enjoy a Coke made with cane sugar more than the domestic stuff made with high-fructose corn syrup.

Coke Zero: Rip-Off. The Mean Joe Greene Coke spot from the 70′s is one of the most famous commercials ever. Given Coke’s spotty record as of late with their creative, I almost expected a direct rip-off under the banner of ‘homage’ (read: plaigiarism is the sincerest form of flattery). I was wrong. They put a pretty neat twist on this, even down to the trophy shirt at the end. Not too bad.

Cash4Gold: Has-Beens. I wouldn’t have expected to see a cash for old gold service produce a watchable spot, much less a good one. At first blush, I thought this was gonna be “All Ed McMahon, all the time,” which would have put it in the “you wasted money on THIS?” category. But no. The juxtaposition between McMahon and MC Hammer was good – the gold stuff they were willing to part with was better. Especially Ed’s gold throne at the end.

The BAD:

Nextel Direct: Roadies. I thought the first spot in this series (What if Overnight Delivery Guys Ran the World) was lame. This one is worse. Roadies running the world? What? We’re gonna have to “just say no to crack” for our leaders? No thanks.

Coke: Avatar. Coca-Cola used to do the absolute best spots for the Super Bowl. This wasn’t one of them. Looks like they’ve chosen to pander to the video game-obsessed Gen-X crowd. Pepsi owns that market. Bad move. And not an execution that recalls all the warm fuzzies of previous Coke spots.

Bridgestone: Space Buggy. Aside from the fact that I got burned by the Bridgestone-owned Firestone/Ford Explorer debacle back in the late 90′s and will never buy a Bridgestone product – EVER – this spot was pretty lame by ANY standard. The too-hip-for-the-galaxy space explorers get their ride’s tires jacked by some interplanetary gang bangers? What’s the message here…that if I’m stupid enough to buy Bridgestone tires, that the bad guys will steal them off my car? Pu-leaze.

GoDaddy.com: Enhanced. I’ve got no problem with doing something that employs a little double entendre, and sex, obviously, sells. Stupidity and obviousness is a real turn-off, however. This spot wasn’t clever. It wasn’t really sexy, except in a really obvious and crude way. And it did nothing to make me want to see the rest of it at GoDaddy.com.

The STUPID:

Toyota Tundra: Ramp. This is so stupid as to be Brain-Dead On Arrival. I don’t know what kind of idiot you’d have to be to make a buying decision based on a spot where a truck hauls a loaded trailer up a spiral ramp of death, but if you’re that stupid, you deserve a Toyota.

Miller: Beer Distributor. Um…guys…a 5 second (maybe) ad where some mook shouts “High Life!” doth not a Super Bowl ad make.

Pepsi: MacGruber. If you didn’t watch Saturday Night Live every now and then (a fate I try to avoid like shingles or hives) you wouldn’t “get” this spot at all, as it’s based on a recurring sketch on the NBC show. That’s fine, if you’re a Gen-Xer. If not, Pepsi just wasted mountains o’ moolah on a spot nobody else will appreciate. Even if you’re a boomer and spotted the Richard Dean Anderson cameo, you’d still be in the dark. Dumb.

AWOL or So Bad They Were Invisible:

FedEx, Michelob, Miller Lite, Mountain Dew, Dodge, AT&T, all the mortgage guys (no, duh!), Buy.com.

The Bottom Line:

THIS was worth $206,000,000? Nice work if you can get it, NBC. The delusional President of NBC Universal, Jeff “I wouldn’t know ‘quality’ if it bit me in the A’” Zucker said “These advertising milestones show the power of the NFL brand and the strength of the Super Bowl as a TV property in this economic climate.” Well…he’s HALF right. The NFL brand is powerful. NBC? Not so much.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 9:22 pm and is filed under advertising, design, marketing, media.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.