Special Blog: SUPER BOWL XLIV

To me, the Super Bowl is far more than just more a game. In fact, it has played a major role in shaping my life's path. Sounds silly, huh? Ever since I was young, I would never actually watch the "whole-football-part" of the Super Bowl. I would have my Dad call me into the living room under two possible conditions: 1. When the hilariously creative & catchy commercials came on and 2. When the musical half time performance came on. Well, look at me now. I'm an Advertising major at SMU AND a singer-songwriter with an album out on iTunes. I guess the Super Bowl showed me where my interests were and still are.

Many people, 7% of the people who watch the Super Bowl to be exact, watch the Super Bowl ONLY for the advertisements so when bad advertisements decide to grace our presence at the Super Bowl, it causes an uproar....well, at least in my household.

I am going to show the 3 BEST advertisements done by major ad agencies shown today during SUPER BOWL XLIV (along with a few other great ones done by In-house agencies) and the 3 WORST (because unfortunately, there will be some...sigh).

Best:

Coke-Sleepwalker Commercial:

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Oregon.

Comment: Wieden + Kennedy definitely took a risk in making this commercial because sometimes corny doesn't work, however, I think it definitely worked for this ad. This ad combines humor, danger, stupidity and a good looking guy, which are keys to success for a good TV spot. My favorite part is when he runs right into an elephant...my mother and I both spontanelously broke out in laughter. I can see why people might say "This advertisement has nothing to do with coke", but I believe the point is that coke is always on your mind and you'll do what it takes to get one. Very funny. Loved it.

Dodge Charger Advertisement

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Oregon

Comments: HAHAHA! Wow, this advertisement is brilliantly hilarious and one of my favorites because both woman and men relate to it. These are all the things woman complain about to their boyfriends or husbands. As a woman, now I realize that since we ask all these silly things from the men in our lives like for them to watch our vampire TV shows with us, hold our lip balm, and for them to be quiet so that we don't have to hear them say "no". After seeing this commercial, I'd totally let my man buy one of these Dodge Chargers to reward him for all of his compromises. From a man's point of view, this advertisement REALLY is effective and the tag line "and because I do this, I will drive the car I want to drive" was perfectly written because now the car is symbolic for "MAN" and "FREEDOM FROM THE ORDERS OF GIRLFRIENDS & WIVES".

Google Advertisement-Parisian Love

Agency: In-House

Comments: AWWWWW! Alright, admit it. You've definitely got tears in your eyes. Google totally knocked it out of the park with it's first ever Super Bowl ad. The ad begins with a man searching "study abroad paris france" through "how to impress a french girl" and "what are truffles" to "long-distance relationship advice" and finally "how to assemble a crib." With the recent rise of competing search engines such as Bing, this ad, which strikes an emotion chord with the audience, definitely helps Google maintain its place amongst one of the top search engines. When most people think of Google, they usually think it's mainly for looking up factual information, they probably never realized how much they use it for everyday issues and for advice about falling in love.

Snickers Commerical- Celebrity Sack

Agency: BBDO, New York

Comment: This Snickers commercial just works. BBDO was brilliant to use Betty White as the celebrity in this commercial. Her most recent movie, The Proposal, Betty plays an old cooky grandma and most of the super bowl viewers are going to remember her just as that. This really gets the point across that you're playing like an old lady when you're hungry (and not eating a snickers). Snickers used some funny current pop culture jokes that caused the younger generations to laugh such as when Betty says "That's not what your girlfriend said" in response to one of the players saying "You're playing like Betty White out there". I loved the tag line "You're not you when you're hungry" because as an athlete, I know that's 100% true. When you're hungry, you're grumpy, you don't have energy, and your mind is focused on your stomach and not what you should be focusing on in that moment.

WORST:

Go Daddy

Agency: In-House

Comment: If this commercial was a restaurant, it would be Hooters. The whole "women giving each other sexual massages" thing is completely tacky and the acting is horrible. Seems like Go Daddy didn't have any ideas so they just took the low route and went for something that would grab the attention of creepy old men.

Emerald Nuts and Popsecret -"Awesomer"

Agency: Concept Cafe, Miami.

Comment: Wow. This. Commercial. Sucks. Why would anyone want to eat that after seeing that commercial? First of all, the aquarium setting looked completely tacky and unsanitary. Secondly, the creepy red headed clown man feeding the snacks to the unattractive mermaids in one piece swim suits was definitely a turn off. I feel kind of nauseated after watching that. Bad idea Emerald Nuts and Popsecret...try again next year...if you can ever recover from that.

Dr. Pepper

Agency: Interpublic Group of Cos.' Deutsch, Los Angeles

Comment: This commercial in no way makes me want to drink Dr. Pepper. I don't really understand how Kiss has anything to do with Dr. Pepper...I feel that by signing Gene Simmons onto the campaign is just a cheap and lazy way of trying to attract the audience. Also, I find it extremely cheesy when Gene Simmons says "it's got a little 'kiss' of cherry flavor". Dr. Pepper makes enough money to come up with something WAY better than this...especially for the SUPER BOWL!