Calling Madison Avenue, put me on speed dial.
After just watching the Giants beat the 18-1 Patriots 17-14 (Sorry, I just love that 18-1 figure)This years Super Bowl saw companies paying out 3 million dollars for a 30 second ad. Each and every year, Super Bowl advertising just keeps getting higher and higher. Of course that might have nothing to do with the fact our dollar is becoming worth less and less. It boggles my mind how major corporations can roll out so much money for advertisements which simply suck.
Tomorrow, if history repeats itself, the USA Today newspaper will give thier report card on which ads were successful and which weren't. Madison Avenue spends alot of corporate advertising dollars by telling representatives of companies that they have their finger on the pulse of America. After watching today's Big Game, I don't think so much. Finally, atleast I watched a complete football game this year and Peyton Manning wasn't in every other commercial during the breaks, now that Eli has won the Super Bowl and MVP, I fear during regular season games next season, NFL fans will see nothing but the Mannings, perhaps with all the money they have, they could create the Manning Network on cable, along with Oprah.
Biggest Losers-
Budweiser- What is wrong with you? 6 spots, 18 million dollars? Are you not reading my blog? You got rid of the, Dude.... ads but you come to the big game with the fire breather, yet another horse advertisement in Hank the draft horse, another rendition of the language class ads from years gone past, cavemen (CAVEMEN, wasn't that a GEICO concept?) then there is a flying beer drinker sucked up by a jet engine and you round out your 20 million dollars by have Will Ferrell advertise his upcoming movie through a commercial. You've lost your edge, dude. While millions of dollars worth of your product was consumed during the game, there was not one of your ads which was innovative, cute, or memorable as they have been in the past. This was money wasted. Your grade is a D.
Cars.com- Yeah, all of us who are on the computer, and use the computer on a regular basis, which was your obvious target audience, already know you exist. Your pop-up ads are annoying, and your tv ads are even worse. In the current climate of this really bad economy, glad to see you could lay down 6 million to increase marketshare with ads which really stunk. Your grade is a F.
GMC/Chevy- see the above post. You want the world to go green and tell all of us how wonderful your alternative fuel vehicles are. But, unfortunately alot of us in the working force are finding out during this election all these alternative fuels your vehicles are running on are causing our food prices to skyrocket. I used to enjoy corn in the summer a few years ago when it was 10 ears for a dollar, now it's a dollar an ear, 4.00 a gallon for milk, 3.00 a pound for butter, so take your feel good eco-green message someplace else, you aren't connecting with those of us in the workforce. Grade-F
Salesgenie.com- WHY? Why did you invest 6 million in 2 spots and I know you spent way more than that since you had placement in the pregame backdrops. I'm not a racist but how you agreed to running ads during this campaign season with a arab/east indian voiceover for your ads is beyond me. You are the Sales Genie, how about an ad campaign with I dream of genie? You'll get alot more people paying attention to your company if you have a beautiful woman coming out of a genie's lamp than animated Pandas sounding like they just came out of the hills of Tora Bora. Grade F
Gatorade- I understand you only had one ad during the game, and you spend an outrageous amount of money throught the college and pro sports seasons. But where was the thought process here? A black lab, slobbering at the dish for 20 plus seconds, and then the tagline, Gatorade, man's best friend. Really? Before the pitch was made for this 3 million dollar ad, there must have been repeated viewings of What Women want in reverse. Grade D
Biggest Winners-
The New York Giants.
Sorry, I'm reviewing commercials 18-1 that just types so easily.
Sobe LifeWater-These folks must have been here reading my blog after the league championship games. Did I not say, Americans love animals in advertising? Did I not invite the Geico gecko over to entertain my cat for the afternoon? Yes, and yes. So what do I see from Sobe Life water today? Dozens of dancing lizards. They aren't only dancing, they are macked out with grills and dancing to retro Michael Jackson Thriller. I have to say, the Geico gecko is a bit more conservative. But, I believe this will be one of the biggest hits from todays commercials. I'm probably not going to go run out and buy any of this "life" water, but it was a great commercial, in the spirit of what Super Bowl commercials used to be. Sobe gets an A.
ETrade-If you can't use animals, use kids. And this was a great set of commercials which aired late in the 3rd quarter. Very funny. I wish I could use your service right now, but home values are plumetting, and I have no extra money, what extra I have goes to food and gasoline, but I plan to invest in the future, if there is one. Very funny commercials Grade A
Coca-Cola-They offered up two second half commercials which I thought were very fresh. The first was the Macy's day parade scenerio with Underdog and Stuey from the Family Guy going after the bottle of Coke with Charlie Brown's float getting the escaping bottle. As I watched the commercial, I was waiting for Lucy to take a blindside shot and grab the bottle out of his hand. The other was political, with Bill Frist and James Carvelle in sort of a can't we all just get along theme during the elections. Frist and Carvelle were shown traveling all over DC doing various things, but I think Coca Cola might be giving too much latitude to the vast majority of the viewers. McDonalds did a Super Bowl commercial years back with Jordan and Bird, you know the one, a competetion between known figures. I think Coke missed the mark here. Overall grade B-
One shot Ads-For those companies which executed financial restraint and only purchased one spot, here's where we review their ads.
Audi R8 Loved this ad, you've got the Godfather overtones here, instead of waking up with a horsehead in bed, you have the grill from your old sportscar and are covered in engine oil. I think this might have been the best commercial overall in my opinion. A
FedEx- FedEx used to be a HUGE player in SuperBowl advertising, not so much anymore with the price of doing business. I did enjoy the 1st quarter advertisement with the carrier pigeons though. B+
Talkingstain.com Please explain to me why Tide felt it necessary to create an ad for 3 million dollars to advertise a product that was so lousy? Talkingstain.com, yeah, I'm going to go login there right now. D
Garmin. I know this company because they make navigational electronics. REAL electronics, not a company like ronron, tomtom dondon or whatever you get duped into purchasing at the electronics meglomart. I enjoyed their offering today with Napolean. B-
Alright, there are a few I've left out. Planters peanuts, Charles Barkley and T Mobile, Pepsi and Justin Timberlake, the Doritos rat trap commercial and the Shaq vitamin water horse racing commercial. So here is my prediction as to the top 5 commercials which will be reported in USA in the morning-#
1 E Trade- either version
#2Sobe Water Life
#3the other etrade commercial which wasn't #1
#4 T Mobile with Barkley calling D-Wade
#5 Shaq riding the horses as a jockey for vitamin water
I guess we'll see in the am. I think I'm going to be pretty close. Hey Madison Avenue, put me on speed dial and on the payroll.
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