Obligatory Super Bowl Ad Discussion

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In my mind, the best ads were Alec Baldwin’s Hulu ad, the Denny’s ads for serious breakfasts, and the Monster.com ad where the guy has a moose’s rear end in his office. More importantly, none of these ads were particularly good, and the bad ones really stunk (awful standouts: Overstock.com, Heroes, H&R Block). Many ads were either sequels (see the dancing Sobe Lizards, Budwieser human telestrator, the E-trade talking baby), recycled ads that have already been shown on non-special-sporting-event TV (see the Sprint ad with the roadies launching the plane), or—awful sin—just generic car commercials that don’t seem to take into account that this is a special event. The truly worst offense, however, was the Pepsi ad somehow suggesting that Will.i.Am is the new Bob Dylan. Someone will burn in hell for that one, and I would call for a national Pepsi boycott except I am pretty sure no one drinks that crap anyway. Zing!

(I’ve included Hulu links to all the ads, except the Denny’s ad above, which somehow didn’t make it. Here is the landing page to find all of them. Take a moment to think how absurd it is that you are watching an ad to view an ad. A few YouTube versions—which will probably be removed shortly because companies are incredibly stupid—are below)

Maybe it’s youthful idealism, but I remember really being blown away by Super Bowl ads in the past (though, to be fair, I can’t actually remember any). These days, for all the money that they are spending—$206 million just to buy the time, and Lord knows how much more to produce the ads—they are not blowing anyone away. It’s amazing that the advertising industry has created so much buzz around their products that people watching a sporting event don’t get up during the ads, and even shush people. (There was certainly more talking during the game than during the ads where I was.) But the buzz is such that no one seems to be trying anymore, and certainly it is the rare corporate giant with enough money to buy one of these spots who also employs people with the balls to actually make a fun or interesting ad. GoDaddy.com is the obvious exception on the balls front, but their ads are neither fun nor interesting; I can see the tops—and, indeed, all the rest—of enormous fake breasts really easily myself, guys. But thanks.

Regardless, the fact that we are seeing sequels to commercials is a sad state of affairs, indicating that the industry is totally bereft of new ideas, which is sad because in a time when the television ad is becoming outmoded, it would be nice if our corporate overlords were letting loose a little and having some fun. I don’t have a TiVo or a DVR, so maybe I care about commercials more than people who are living in the technological now, but in my mind, if we’re going to keep making 30-second ad spots, they are a place where real genius can and should be occurring. It’s a fascinating medium; it takes a lot to do something both hilarious and memorable in 30 seconds, especially when it also has to sell something

So, what were your favorite ads? Does anyone even care anymore, or are we just buying into manufactured corporate hype about something that really isn’t important? Oh, the game was pretty good, too, huh?

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