Top 10 Super Bowl XLV Commercials

The commercials this year were a good bunch.

My prognostication for the best ad was far off though, Lipton's Eminem commercial was a disappointment. My top 10 favorites were as follows (with links for you to watch):

10. Doritos--Finger Licking Why you should wear your nice underwear to work.
9. Audi--Release the Hounds Prison doesn't seem so bad.
8. Coca-Cola--Border Crossing Crosses the line.
7. CarMax--I Feel Like Acrobat in a mattress store.
6. Bridgestone--Beaver He's got your back.
5. Doritos--House Sitting Never kill your friend's fish while he's gone.
3. CareerBuilder--Chimps Stuck between a bad job and a hard place?
2. Bridgestone--Reply all Every emailer's nightmare.
1. Doritos--Pug Don't taunt your girlfriend's dog.


USA Today's Ad Meter agreed with my top choice. Doritos had an excellent line up again in 2011. 3 of theirs were in my top 10. GoDaddy's were characteristically bad as usual, but worse were Pepsi's ads. They were violent and morally questionable, although I think they were catered to the male audience watching the football game.

The game was quite disappointing for us Steeler's fan, but at least the commercials could cheer us up at least a little.

Add up the Ads

Who's getting excited about the Super Bowl on Sunday? And by Super Bowl I mean Super Bowl commercials of course.

You know you can always expect good ads during the Super Bowl. Generally speaking it's a good bet, a company wouldn't spend 3 million dollars on 30 seconds of bad advertising. At $100,000 a second; that's no chump change. They are likely going to do something inventive, creative, eye-catching, funny, weird, or unpredictable. I'm giddy just at the thought. This is the one time of the year you don't want to run to the bathroom during commercial breaks. Go during the game.

Plus, I think this year's prospects show that our economy is bouncing back. As NESN reports, "This year's Super Bowl ad slot sales have seen a dramatic boost from last year, as Fox sold all 68 spots in October. Last season, there were still ad slots available six days before kickoff in Miami."

Any bets on who is going to have the best, worst, and most ads? I'm going for Lipton, GoDaddy, and Bud Weiser respectively. Check back for my post-game commercial analysis next week.

P.S. Go Steelers!

Super Bowl 09

The game was good.
Pittsburgh gave me a scare, but they pulled it out at the end!

The ads on the other hand did not meet my expectations. They sucked (bunch of crap Washington Post to suggest otherwise). I half expected a snuggie commercial to find it's way into the mix with the interest level of this year's bunch.


I still can't believe how largely disappointing they were. The economy must've killed the commercials. I mean even the Coca-Cola advertisements weren't amusing. Must be because PepsiCo wins as this year biggest advertiser

For the first time in a long time, PepsiCo, not Anheuser-Busch, this year will be the Super Bowl's biggest advertiser. Including spots for its Gatorade, SoBe Lifewater and Cheetos products, PepsiCo will have 5 to 6 minutes.

And note that only 30 seconds of airtime costs about $3 million. Pepsi must have bought out NBC. Geez.

Despite the disparaging lack of showmanship this year, I did have a few favorites that stood out among their competitors. My top 6 are as follows:

6. Budweiser Meeting Commercial
5. GE Wind Energy Commercial
4. Bridgestone Potato Head Commercial
3. Budweiser Fetch Commercial
2. Doritos Bus Commercial
1. Pedigree Exotic Pet Commercial


Bruno come back here. Bruno, you bad bad bird.

Would you agree? Any good ones that I missed?

A Note on the Super Bowl

Seriously? People aren't excited about the Super Bowl this weekend?

Well, I am. I can't wait see the advertisements Steelers play.


Really though. I am ready to see both. I live in that sort of world. (The one were TV commercials and TV programming rate about equal on my interest gauge)

Advertising Age reports

Blog mentions of the phrase "Super Bowl ads" appear to be running at least 20% below the rate they were at the same time last year

I think that they are just counting their hits too soon. Give the blogosphere some time. We are excited about those Super Bowl ads this Sunday. So there. Take that.

I'll have a full post on my faves after the broadcast. I know you'll wait in anticipation. I want to hear your favorites too, so make sure you tune in.

And if you have to go to the bathroom, for goodness sakes, don't go during a commercial!

Super Bowl Ads

Who saw the super bowl ads yesterday? I don't think they lived up to my expectations, but I did pick a few winners.

My Favorite Five
1. Diet Pepsi Max Head Nodding
2. Fed Ex Carrier Pigeons
3. Doritos Mouse Trap
4. Tide Stain Does the Talking
5. Bridgestone Screaming Creatures

USA Today's Ad Meter tracks the second by second response of viewers watching the ads and groups the information according to age, gender, and income. I think it's interesting to look at their research data.

The USA Today test group favorited the Budweiser dog and pony one which didn't even make it on my top 10 list. Hello, been there done that, couldn't they gone for something bigger?

Some of my running commentary:
The Bridgestone Richard Simmons one, you knew everyone was screaming, hit him, hit him. And the Toyota badger one--gross, brinking on inappropriate. Garmin GPS Napoleon navagating to Paris too hard to follow, although very funny once understood. The worst ad was by far the Career Builder follow your heart one. Ugh.

Best Super Bowl Commercials

The greatest display of American advertising (and football) did not disappoint. I had two favorite Super Bowl Commercials this year.

1. The Chevy car wash commercial.

Synopsis: girls in car, man approaches car, begins to wash car, they give him money, bam, guys start stripping and dancing beside car, Nelly's "It's Getting Hot in Here" plays, female screaming, flocks of men start pouring in to wash the car, most dirty old men, girl covers eyes pleading, "Tell me when it's over", naked cowboy shows up, Quote: "Guys can't keep their hand off it"

2. The Bud Light Classroom commercial

Synopsis: a bunch of foreigners in a classroom, teacher teaches class to say "give me a Bud Light" in 3 typical American accents, from the south, New York, and East LA, teacher ask class, "what do you say when someone ask you for a Bud Light?," class responds in unison while waving hands, "No Speak English!."

Watch them here.

Runner ups:
1. Blockbuster's real mouse for a computer mouse (cute)
2. Nationwide's K-Fed rapper turned fast food employee
3. Budweiser's dalmation, be what you want to be message (nice connection with last year's)
4. Doritos' your personality is a type of chip

5. Fed-Ex: Ground's significance of a name, Hairy, Ilene, Joy, Bob, Mr. Turkeyneck.