Super Bowl Ad Ratings
Category: Advertising...
Posted Monday, February 04, 2008 at 06:31 AM [GMT-6]

Here are my picks for the best (and worst) ads from yesterday's Super Bowl broadcast (ads are in no particular order within ratings):

Ant Rating:

• Garmin - Napoleon uses a talking GPS to navigate his car, as he can't see over the dashboard. Bonus points to Garmin for assuming that the audience actually knows who Napoleon is.


• SoBe Life Water - A flock (herd? gaggle?) of lizards re-create the dance moves from Michael Jackson's Thriller. The jewel-encrusted grillz on some of the lizards is great detail.


• Fed Ex - Mutant carrier pigeons do a less than adequate job of moving freight in this spot that finds its strength in its special effects.


• Pixar - Ad for upcoming move, WALL•E, pulls in some of the well-known characters from previous Pixar movies. Nobody makes animation more appealing.

Ant Rating:

• Audi RB - Re-creates the famous "horse head in bed" scene from The Godfather, using the bumper and grille of an Audi competitor in place of the head. Figured Audi was too refined for this approach...which is why it was so effective.


• Bridgestone - Screaming animals (and humans) used to highlight the maneuverability of the tires in emergencies.


• Cars.com - Plan B for car buyer is to pit salesman against buyer's "representative" in a Circle of Death ultimate fighting match.


• Tide Laundry Detergent - Talking stain on man's shirt manages to completely dominate a job interview. Funny and insightful on multiple levels.


• Toyota - Man is locked inside car with badger nursing little ones, in order to test the soundproofing of the vehicle. Another edgy commercial from an unlikely source.


• Doritos - Man sets a mousetrap using cheesy Doritos as bait, and succeeds beyond his wildest nightmares. Very odd ad.


• Cars.com - Sequel to previous commercial has plan B being a witch doctor to shrink the car salesman's head (a schtick that worked well in Beetlejuice, by the way).


• Bridgestone - Tire company gets a second thumbs-up with yet another tongue-in-cheek demonstration of handling skills. Seems serious up to the point where the driver spots Richard Simmons in the middle of the road and has some angst about whether or not to swerve.


• e-Trade - Two ads featuring the same baby lip-synced to a man talking about his investing success. First ad plays up (throws up?) real baby stuff; the second one features a background clown. A lot of companies have tried this baby-as-spokesperson approach, but none have done it as well.


• National Football League - The spot about the oboe-playing Houston Texan was downright fascinating (and this blog's visitor stats are through the roof for "NFL oboe player," so many others were equally smitten).


• Coca-Cola - Parade balloons fight over a Coke balloon. Punch line comes when a Charlie Brown balloon comes out of nowhere to steal the prize.

Ant Rating:

• GoDaddy.com - As always, in a class[less] by itself, GoDaddy continues to play up it's "we're too sexy for Fox" reputation. This year's version features Indy-car driver Danica Patrick unzipping her jacket, then cutting away to a web address where you can view the supposedly uncensored ad. I have no idea what that ad consists of, nor am I the least bit interested. I would feel badly for Patrick, other than the fact that she's surely taking a bunch of GoDaddy's money.

Overall, no "We Are The World"-class ads emerged from this year's Super Bowl, and not many of them will bear repeat views (but that won't stop advertisers from trying to get their money's worth via endless repetition. The trend continued toward edgy, obscure, non-product-trait-specific spots. But, you know, that's fine. After all, it's really hard to get excited about a laundry detergent. But a talking stain? That's another whole story. Just ask Bill Clinton.

And thus endeth another Super Bowl ad round-up. Catch you next year?