Favorites
- Volkswagen Beetle - This is my #1 pick. Fun, engaging, and uniquely tied to the product. Really well done, I think. I especially like the slow-motion shots of the beetle skidding - great tie-in to the product.
- Bud Light product placement - I enjoyed the creative ways that Bud Light was worked into the fake movie, as well as the truck that drove into the set at the end. Appropriately over the top.
- Volkswagen Darth Vader kid - The soundtrack makes this commercial. Nice incongruity between the music and the tiny Vader. I also love the cape flourish at the end.
- CareerBuilder.com - can't go wrong with monkeys in human clothes! I especially enjoyed the sideswiping monkey exiting his car through the sunroof.
- CarMax service station - normal guy freaked out by unexpected activity. Classic theme well executed.
- Bridgestone beaver - anthropomorphic beavers = always a winner. I'm not sure it effectively advertised tires, but it made me smile.
Almost great
- Audi - I like the concept of escaping old luxury, and it had some funny moments (release the hounds!), but I think it was too complex to be effective. This one did not live up to Audi's Godfather parody from last year.
- Teleflora - simple, enjoyable, but predictable.
- Best Buy - This is the ad with Ozzy and Justin Bieber. I didn't even know what it was advertising until I looked it up just now. It's only in this spot because the last two seconds with Ozzy in the background were hilarious.
Hurts my eyes
- Doritos pug - Pugs are my favorite dogs, and that was a cute little guy, but the 15 seconds or so of some idiot making faces and yelling at the camera was 15 seconds too much.
- Brisk ad with Eminem - WTF? Animated puppet white rapper advertising a product I had to look up to see what it was.
- Budweiser Tiny Dancer - made no sense, even as a commercial that was supposed to be ridiculous.
- Chatter.com - I have no desire to visit your site. Your commercial annoys me. Kind-of like chatter, I suppose.
Other thoughts
- I'm done with the E-Trade baby. Let's see something new next year.
- I left out movie commercials from the lists above, but there were some interesting ones. I don't feel like those ads are on the same platform as the traditional Super Bowl ads.
- Two ads with Eminem? I didn't realize he was still relevant. Perhaps we could say the same about Detroit, which makes him an apt choice for that Chrysler commercial.
- Pepsi's two ads both featured people being physically assaulted by their product. I understand that for, say, Mountain Dew, but Pepsi? Odd.
- Thanks to Kia, we know that Mayan magic is more powerful than aliens or Greek gods. (Good observation, Dave)
love the commentary - although my tops was little Darth Vader and I'm also over the career builder monkeys. Maybe that means I'm too far removed now from my office cubby to really appreciate them. i also loved the Beetle and read a run-down, i think on NPR, that totally left it out. so sad - i have to assume it was mistake.
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