Brought To You By …
A new column here at TV, where we talk about all of the things you’re missing when you hit fast forward on your DVRs.
I thought I’d kick off the very first Brought To You By…column by talking about yesterday’s Super Bowl ads (apparently there was also a game of some sort played…). USA Today did their annual ranking of the best and worst of the ads, having a bunch of viewers watch the ads with meters and give an opinion on the good and the bad, and for some reason Bud got the top spot, the way they do every single year. It must be that the people who vote on these things like horses, wacky comedy, or they’re all drunk (on Budweiser). The company got three of the top ten slots, and number one went to the spot where the dog trained the horse, accompanied by the Rocky theme. It’s bad enough that Bud seems to win over viewers every year, but this dog/horse ad wasn’t even the best of the Bud ads yesterday!
Anyway, I have my own thoughts on the best and worst, and I’ll list them after the jump.
Best
1. Coca-Cola/Dueling Balloons: Maybe I just have a soft spot for giant balloons based on cartoon characters, but I thought it was really funny to have Underdog and Stewie fight for a Coke in the skies over NY. And then Charlie Brown gets the bottle!
2. Pepsi/Justin Timberlake: Most of the time, commercials that feature celebs pushing soda just aren’t funny, but this one was actually clever and well done. Timberlake really has a second career making short films involving his penis.
3. Fed-Ex/Pigeons: I kinda knew where this one was going, but it didn’t make the images of giant pigeons creating havoc any less funny. This is what Cloverfield should have been like.
4. Bud Light/Wine and Cheese: This was the best beer ad of the night. The pacing and the editing are really well done, and the closing line of “Goin’ on a cheese run” is perfect.
5. Planters/Unibrow: I had no idea what was going on in this ad at first, but then it turned into one of those “wow, this is so creepy and odd it’s really funny” things. Good use of music too.
Worst
1. Anything by SalesGenie.com: They’ve been advertising in the game for the past couple of years, and no one knows, understands, or cares what they do. Something to do with sales leads? Gah.
2. SoBe Lizards: This one seemed to go on forever, and my roommate and I just looked at each other and said “what the f**k is going on?” Dancing to “Thriller?” There were a few ads this year from water companies, and all of them made me want to drink Coke.
3. Under Armour: I don’t get these commercials. They seem to want to empower athletes to want to be better (by wearing clothing), but to me they just reinforce what I hate about sports.
4. Lifesilk: What do you get when you put Marilyn Monroe, Shakira, and Madonna together? The most boring commercial in the world. What exactly are women supposed to get from this ad, that they can get hair like those stars by using Sunsilk? The text at the end that encourages viewers to visit their site and share their story just confuses me. Share my story about hair? (By the way, Madonna reportedly got $10 million for this, Shakira $2.5 million.)
5. Bridgestone/Richard Simmons: Come on, admit it, you would have liked this ad better if they actually ran Simmons down.
Budweiser: “Rocky”
Every year Budweiser puts together an uplifting commercial about some animal who strives to achieve his dreams and with hard work and perseverance, achieves it. This year’s installation involved a Clydesdale who didn’t make the cut to pull the Budweiser wagon. “Maybe next year, Hank.” This leads to a very fun montage of training clips set to the Rocky theme as a dalmation takes it upon himself to get the Clydesdale into tip-top shape. Shots of the horse starting off pulling a little wagon mixed with jogging in place in the rain, running around trees in a snow-covered obstacle, lifting bales of hay until finally he has grit to pull an entire train! Not funny like the Bud Light commercials, but these Bud spots are always feel-good fan favorites. And this one was just as good as any of them.
Oh, and of course Hank makes the hitch team the following year. The high five at the end between the dog and the horse was just perfect. I don’t know what it is, but Anheuser-Busch simply has one of the best advertising and marketing teams as they virtually never miss when it comes to their Super Bowl ads. Another banner year for them it looks like.
Coca-Cola: “Dueling Parade Balloons”
On a cool Thanksgiving morning old (Underdog) and new (Stewie from Family Guy) parade balloons battle it out for a inflatable bottle of Coca-Cola. As they cross the skyline of New York City fists fly and heads are butted. But, in the end, neither is the one who claims the prize. That honor goes to the honorable Charlie Brown, who seems to have finally won something in his life.
This was a cute and gentle commercial by Cola-Cola, which rarely disappoints when it comes to Super Bowl ads. I never realized that the Underdog and Stewie Thanksgiving Day balloons had such angry looks on their faces. That was an advantage in this commercial as we saw the two balloons battling it out. I enjoyed when Underdog slammed Stewie against the building. Nice job overall.
Super Bowl Ads: Wanted and Narnia: Prince Caspian
Check out the Super Bowl spots for Universal’s Wanted and Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian below.
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The Wanted advertisement is also available in High Definition on Yahoo! Movies.