The other Super Bowl spots.

Those would be the regional spots that ran wherever you happened to live. In my case, South Carolina threw up my personal choice for wtf? YellaWood.com had been running outdoor down here prior to the game, with their bold Yella Fella cowboy hero and no other clues. (The brand makes pressure treated Souther pine.) The spot above called “The Lady from Silver Gulch” though ran several times and continued its Western saga theme, which qualifies it for a Wtf? in my book. There’s wood everywhere and a Blazing Saddles approach that makes you wonder.

The only Super Bowl recap you’ll ever need.

Or not. It was awesome, wasn’t it? Borrowed interest and crassness working overtime. (Teleflora, Cars.com and GoDaddy were truly the most embarrassing.) Everything that everyone ever said about it is in one of the links here. My vote for best spot? The Fox promos weren’t too bad, like the one above swiping some lineage from the classic Coke spot with Mean Joe Green. Overall though, a more inconsistent Super Bowl Ad Class of 2011, owing more to the placement of spots and the duration of the halftime show. To that end, NASCAR and Fox promos seems to break up the brand flow of everyone else.

Yes the event has moved beyond halftime to include ads running throughout all quarters as well as the week before, but the *wonder* of the ads as this main event at halftime seems to have been abandoned. I kept waiting for that big block of badass, but it never came. That’s not a problem when you have a halftime act able to pick up the slack either, but Black Eyed Peas were simply overwrought with wth?

Guns N’ Roses covers and shrieking, party of five, your stage is ready.

Super Bowl 45 TV commercial madness.

(MOST) ALL THE SUPER BOWL ADS & COVERAGE THERE IS:

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Tags: super bowl ads, super bowl 45

Super Bowl lockout hype time!

 

Aka, my way of saying that once again this year, if you want Super Bowl XLV commercial hype? Look elsewhere. I’m not running any of it. Links after the game of course, but until then, enjoy your Big Game™ hype-free stay here. The bigger thing for brands to think about though isn’t their amazing lack of social media integration this year or the return of Pepsi, but the 2011 season where lockout talk is heating up. Basically, the players want (X) and the owners will only pay (X). With the salary cap gone this year (meaning teams are free to spend like drunken bloggers and Donovan can McNabb his), and with no collective bargaining agreement in place for next year, the only brand to make out in case of a lockout would be the NFL.

What you sell in Vegas...

FF >> seven years and the NFL is still unhappy, again. Seems Kia’s Super Bowl spot touches on a few things the league rather not have associated with the fan-friendly festive family sport of football. Like... gambling and showgirls in Vegas. According to the league:

“Ads may NOT contain any gambling references—audio or video—or any gambling imagery. So by way of example, an ad for Las Vegas tourism with pictures of slot machines, dice, cards, or a wide shot of Vegas strip and casinos would NOT be OK.”

Gray area much?

Even though the two casino names were visible in the spot, it wasn’t an ad *exclusively* for Vegas tourism. Context matters because that spot on any other day is fine. The rule is archaic though, and any connection of b-roll with the NFL, let alone players, is tangential at best. These were costume characters. People aren’t going to Vegas for just The Neon Museum. The league for its part says it didn’t see the ad ahead of time. For real? Ad blogs saw the damn thing a week before.

While NFL players can’t publicly promote anything to do with gambling, they’re not barred from casinos for recreational purposes:

“The League has a longstanding policy against any advertising or promotional activities by players, clubs, coaches or other management personnel that can reasonably be perceived as constituting affiliation with or endorsement of gambling or gambling-related activities. All club employees, including coaches and players, are prohibited from being associated with such activities through endorsements, commercials, ads, or public appearances. . . . Promotional appearances by players, coaches, or other club personnel involving casinos, sports books, gambling cruises, or similar activities are not permitted.”

Guess the league’s recent lottery promotion is okay though.

Look, if they’re concerned with appearances in the least, then the league either bans all its players and coaches from any type of gambling—or it updates to a more realistic policy that reflects how the game is marketed now.

(Via Miamiadschool.)

Old Spice Kills. Owns. Rules.

Another Super Bowl spot that wasn’t? Attacking the genre of mens’ healthcare products yet again, Old Spice would’ve cleaned up if they had actually run this during the game. Next to Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man, there’s no better Real Man™ spoof campaign running. (Doritos giving the *pros* a run for their money? HA! Yeah. Whatever.)

(Via.)

Before the Super Bowl, under the radar, over the hype.

Another ad that *technically* could pass for a Super Bowl spot even though it ran just before the game. Paying homage to the classic Jordan v. Byrd battles of years past, McDonald’s updated the campaign with LeBron James and Dwight Howard. Did it hold up? Not sure. The banter between them felt more real than the old stuff, but the cgi... er, jams felt a little too anything but. If you watch enough dunk competitions, there are only so many dunks you can try. Not that Jordan’s “Over the river...” scenario was believable, but in that context, the absurdity works. Here, focusing only on dunks eventually means cgi happens and you end up looking for the fake parts vs. clever edits. So did MD’s waste the effort here? Not sure. It’s getting views, just not insanely so. When not attacking Starbucks head on, they’ve been busy going hipster/urban for some time now, and this felt like a disconnect from that.

Super Bowl 44 leftovers anyone?

Don’t worry, there’s enough here for a few meals. Look at the linkaganza post to see who has what ad or how crazed Twitter got. Bottom line as it usually is when it comes to the ads: I’m right—you’re right. Neither view better than the other.

Skipping a review of every spot, here are the main things that jumped out at me:

– Overall trend? Yea sexism! Yea end of metrosexual 1.0! It’s been yanked off the shelves apparently in a massive advertising industry recall. Budweiser Book Club now comes equipped with dick jokes. (Autotune only available with white hipsters.)

– Best spot? Google imo, hands down. Here’s my full review from last December, but briefly, this series of search stories in the Google world are about as perfect a realization of the brand promise and function brought to life that I can think of.

– Overhyped spot? Tim Tebow’s Focus on Family ad. Much ado over nothing. The Mark Sanchez PSA for women and heart attack risk had the tone I thought the Tebow spot should’ve had. Instead, they managed to turn it into a Bud stunt ad. Way to advance the cause. A pro life cause that nobody I watched it with could tell was there.

– Best transgender switch? Doritos is now officially Bud Light and vices reversa. An ass shot.

– Most embarassing spot? Skechers Powerpoint. Joe Montana went from cool NFL Network diner guy to this?

– Online integration? Oh, was there some? For the most part, a big non-existent fucking joke. I think one Doritos spot actually held on the url at the end for, a second?

– Best missed opportunity? Toyota. Hands down. Generic voiceover with running shot? Do I have to do everything here? Much as I hate PR, this shit is Damage Control 101: Ceo. Front & Center. Contrite. Instead, people got a half-hearted 2010 Mea Culpa with low miles and priced to move. Twice.

– Best missed opportunity runner-up? Pepsi. Not necessarily during the game, but why not buy up time before and after Super Bowl week to at least appear as if you’re in the discussion, then drive people to the Pepsi Refresh Project off that.

– Improved diversity? Advertising’s answer: More black and Hispanic people in beer spots, apparently.

– Biggest disappointment? Hyundai’s Body Pass. Perceived value in terms of more cupholders and extended warranties have people crazy now. Having owned both, I loved what they were doing a few years ago with Think about it. But when I saw the literal execution that had all hands lifting a car, and it was cue groan.

– Biggest Surprise? Snickers. I wanted to not like it going in, but... I liked it a lot more than I expected, in no small part due to Betty White’s performance.

— Biggest joke? USA Today Ad Meter. Aka, the agency killer. You only have to compare its top results with any other ad site’s (Hulu, Spike or Yahoo), to see how different they all are. 250 people in San Diego, CA and McLean, VA can scale, let alone reconcile with the millions of views and results other sites get? Any brand which puts stock in this (or any single metric), is doing themselves and their agency a huge disservice.

Runner-up: KGB. For what they charge to how they get their info, if there’s another brand the FTC should look at, I can’t think of one.

– Tagjob? #sb44 was the official tag, but look at how many tags were used by how many blogs, each trying to make a name for themselves, with no one tag that could be agreed upon.

— CBS’ hypocritiphobia. Longer breakdown of Mancrunch here, but how does CBS still let the Ghost of Nipple Slips Past dictate how geriatric the halftime show is? Hurry, before they’re booked for a cruise ship, better sign Fleetwood Mac for next year while you still can.

More than that though, with scientists in near-miss orgies, violence and innuendo working overtime, how does the network even claim with a straight face that two guys kissing is inappropriate compared to what made it past censors?

Oh, and CBS needed more promos of its own shows. Way to piggy back on the NFL.

– Fans decide? Speaking of, let fans pick the network for the Super Bowl and which band plays next year.

Until Super Bowl XLV mah friends.

Super Bowl 44 TV commercial madness.

SUPER BOWL ADS & COVERAGE:







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OPINIONS & BREAKDOWNS OF THE ADS:






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Tags: Super Bowl 44