Best Ads of the Super Bowl 2009

OK, it's time to get the Super Bowl out of my system, so this will hopefully be the last of it for a year. Of course the Women's Super Bowl is closing fast.... the Academy Awards. But we'll be seeing a different set of ads then. So this is my Super Bowl XLIII list. The first three in the Best area are my favorites. If I had to pick one "best" my nod would go to Pepsi Anthem.

And what a game. The advertisers take a big chance in the second half and for a while there it looked like Pittsburgh was going to run away with the game and nobody would be watching the second half. How wrong I was. Jennifer Hudson belted out a great Star Spangled Banner... really great. The other highlight for me was the half time show. Bruce Springsteen rocked. I wonder if Hudson and Springsteen's singing was all live? OK, watch the videos and then get some rest tonight.

BEST

Pepsi Refresh Anthem: Bob Dylan & will.i.am: This commercial ROCKS. Great images, music, artists.  It makes it's point and it's a winner.  You also might even be willing to play it again.

Conan Bud Light Super Bowl  (CLICK ON ALL Highlighted Titles to watch - sorry some copies of commercials not so good)-- Very Funny, very Conan.... can you say SNL? Good for Conan for being wiling to poke some fun at himself.

ETrade Babies: They kept it fresh, reprising an old act. Funny stuff because the babies are a little irreverent and they are talking about the economy. Funny stuff.

Audi Car Chase -- Great Car chases of the generations.... mighty expensive (bad copy of the comml on YT)

Miller High Life 1-second commercials: Simple concept. Grabs your attention b/c you think something's wrong if you are not paying attentino. Funny concept, not expensive. They are also reprising the character from a past commercial.

Budweiser Generations Clydesdale: Funny, clever, a bit trite, but overall it's in the best column. How can you not love the Scotsman narrating.

ALSO RAN

Doritos Crash The Super Bowl: Snow Globe:  Not too crazy about the crotch shot commercial even though it looks like it's going to win USA Today's most popular commercial.  Lowest common denominator.  But it is a guy skewed audience.  I wrote about the overall campaign in a prior blog entry.  It's smart stuff.  To read that blog entry about the contest and the 1961 entries, click here - Doritos Crash the Super Bowl - Customers Make the Commercials Campaign

WEIRD

Castrol Grease Monkeys: Almost thought we had a winner here, albeit odd, and then the guy kisses the monkey on the lips at the end which is all WRONG, no matter how cute the monkey.

Huluwood: Big money production. Took me a while to get the alien thing. It's mighty subtle, and I don't think it works.  That being said, I LOVE Hulu.  NBC and Fox programming all in one place.

Cheetos Spoiled Girl: We have all seen it. Funny concept, but the payoff with the Cheetah does not work.

Career Builder: This should really be labeled weird and annoying. Incredibly annoying. Too much repitition. Way too much.

SPENT TOO MUCH $$$$$ -- When production gets in the way of a good story

Coke Heist Cute animation, but overkill

Bridgestone Tires: On the Moon?  Music pretty good, but....

Bud Light: Sphere of Summer -- Seen this concept before.

DUMB

Cash for Gold: MC Hammer and Ed McMahon, what were you thinking. Just plain dumb.  Ok, so our country is hurting.  We still don't need to feel stupid and poor.

Go Daddy. A long tradition of dumb ads continues. Who advised Danica Patrick on this one (actually two commercials)? Hope she was paid a LOT!!!!

PS:  Great hour long episode of THE OFFICE after the game.  If you didn't see it, head on over to... can you guess?    HULU.  The Senior love stuff is a little creepy (read Harold & Maude), but hey, with comedy it's hard to bat 100%.

Super Bowl Promos Abound this Year + Funny Ads

So now, on Super Bowl eve, the all the promotional fury of the Super Bowl XLIII adverters has been released upon us. They have taken their best shots. If the advertiser strategy is to release their ad early, it's out there. If they are looking for 'surprise' you probably haven't seen it. Here's a scorecard to tabulate your favorites... MSNBC's Super Bowl Ad scorecard.

Look for the promotions, creating contests and tie-ins that build on the big $3m buy, but sustain that buy with ongoing efforts. Monster will feature one for the ultimate NFL fan, with a contest to be held to select the winner. Look for more info on the Monster Site after the big game. It will be a dream contest for football lovers.

Note the abundance of Pizza commercials as well. Super Bowl evening is the mother lode for Pizza shops and chains around the country. Domino's, which will roll out new menu items, expects to sell 1.1M pizzas Sunday.... that's 40% more than normal. Pizza Hut expects to get 2.5M orders, 55% more than a normal Sunday. (See Ad Age Article: Super Bowl Sunday's Other Contest: Pizza Delivery)  Papa John's will sell you a 25 cent pizza if the opening kickoff is run for a touchdown. Here's the rough cut on YouTube.

Sex Sells? Jim Beam - The Girlfriend

Jim Beam lays it all on the line with this commercial.  What the spokeskitten has to do with the liquor is undetermined.  Have been in a room when this one airs, and the whole room goes silent.  The girls laughed.  The men looked at one another.  It is what it is.  Sex.  The dream girlfriend for the average man?   So that mean Jim Beam's the dream whiskey?  I don't even like whiskey.  But it's hard not to like this young lady, who likes a guy who has a hirsute back and a little paunch.

Smart Web Video: Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Promotion

Here's another twist on  'previewing' your Super Bowl commercials.  This is meant for the teen set so don't beat yourself up if you haven't heard about this one.

Doritos has evolved their annual campaign of airing an ad submitted by fans during the Super Bowl to an even higher level.  Last year they had to introduce the idea of the campaign itself, as well as the submissions.  This year there's less need to stess the contest allowing more room to focus on the ads. 

There's some great stuff here and some cheesy stuff. I find the first ad you have to sit through on the site one of their weaker submissions. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to jump around it. I think you have to watch it to move on to the next ones. The video player is great - crystal clear video. Some of the ads are also posted on YouTube as well.  Almost 2000 submissions.  Some great stuff here targetting the youth audience. Would love to see the stats on how much kids are watching.   Something odd about the most watched video on the site.... but maybe it appeals to the target group?  You can have a lot of fun on this site.  CRASH THE SUPERBOWL PROMOTION

The commercial below is just one of the spots you can see on YouTube.  Just a fraction of those that you'll find on the site link above.

Super Bowl 2009 Ad time

Super Bowl XLIII is closing fast...  5 days and counting to Show Time.  ABC is asking $3m per 30-second commercial and it's not clear they are going to get it for all the ads.  Without most of the car companies (except TOYOTAO) and other classic big advertisers, there are fewer multi-commercial buys.  But many of the old standards will return to the ring.  From Pepsi and Coke, to ETRADE and MONSTER, ANHEUSER BUSCH and GO DADDY. 

Have not found a site that is offering all the new commercials being offered this year, but here's a site containing many of the classics: SPIKE TV SUPER BOWL ADS OF THE PAST.

Each advertiser uses a different strategy when it comes to releasing their upcoming Super Bowl 2009 ads.  Some like Career Builder feature them on their site: CAREER BUILDER COMMERCIAL/SITE .

Go Daddy's ads were 'leaked.'  Despite the fact that they center on race car femme fatale Danica Patrick, they are puerile and sexist.  Leaking these ads was probably one of their only remaining strategies to get the ads out there. 

Just not feeling that Super Bowl excitement this year.  Maybe it'll start kicking in later in the week.

Here's an ad for TOYOTA's new 2009 COROLLA