Spring Break
Super Bowl ads miss their mark this year
Justin Pacheco
Issue date: 2/3/09 Section: Entertainment
02/03/09 - The overhyped, overanalyzed players. The inane storylines that go with them. Fans put up with all this to finally get to the Super Bowl, which is usually a boring blowout, only to be interrupted by what most people are really watching the Super Bowl for: the commercials.
While this year's game was a classic that included a 100-yard defensive touchdown, a safety and two fourth quarter comebacks, the commercials were the real disappointment … unless anyone was still holding out hoping that the halftime show would be entertaining.
And in that case, Bruce Springsteen's lame banter with his guitarist and a fake referee was the real letdown.
The commercials this year were largely bland with only a few standouts. One of the best commercials came from Miller Lite, who also had the shortest and simplest ad. The ad consisted of a Miller Lite delivery guy just looking and the camera and yelling "High Life!" It lasted about a second and made everyone in the room crack up.
The most annoying set of commercials came from fellow beer company Budweiser, which dominated the commercial breaks with its series of ads focusing on the signature Budweiser Clydesdale horses.
One ad showed a Clydesdale fall in love with a circus pony and then travel far and wide to be reunited with her.
These ads weren't funny or really very interesting. By the time the third one came on - this time about a horse's grandfather's jobs before becoming a Budweiser Clydesdale - I was thinking to myself, "Not another stupid horse commercial."
Mostly these ads are kind of cute if you really like horses and dogs. Apparently Bud is trying to gain a bigger share of the 11 year-old girl market.
Another funny moment came from a company I had never heard of before. Telaflora's spot featured flowers that insult their recipient. The flowers spewed nasty barbs like "Dianne, go home to your romance novels and your fat smelly cat" and "No one wants to see you naked."
The point being that "You never know what flowers will say."
GoDaddy.com had its annual ad, this time featuring racecar driver Danica Patrick and other women in mock hearings about "enhancement."
Usually GoDaddy has decent commercials, but this year's spot was so disappointing my friend declared it "the worst GoDaddy commercial I've ever seen." I think they overestimated how much anyone cares about Patrick.
Sobe's commercial was a triumph of corporate synergy, even though it failed at entertaining. Dancing lizards plus dancing NFL players plus dancing characters from the movie "Aliens vs. Monsters" equals a commercial so cheesy it's uncomfortable to watch.
While this year's game was a classic that included a 100-yard defensive touchdown, a safety and two fourth quarter comebacks, the commercials were the real disappointment … unless anyone was still holding out hoping that the halftime show would be entertaining.
And in that case, Bruce Springsteen's lame banter with his guitarist and a fake referee was the real letdown.
The commercials this year were largely bland with only a few standouts. One of the best commercials came from Miller Lite, who also had the shortest and simplest ad. The ad consisted of a Miller Lite delivery guy just looking and the camera and yelling "High Life!" It lasted about a second and made everyone in the room crack up.
The most annoying set of commercials came from fellow beer company Budweiser, which dominated the commercial breaks with its series of ads focusing on the signature Budweiser Clydesdale horses.
One ad showed a Clydesdale fall in love with a circus pony and then travel far and wide to be reunited with her.
These ads weren't funny or really very interesting. By the time the third one came on - this time about a horse's grandfather's jobs before becoming a Budweiser Clydesdale - I was thinking to myself, "Not another stupid horse commercial."
Mostly these ads are kind of cute if you really like horses and dogs. Apparently Bud is trying to gain a bigger share of the 11 year-old girl market.
Another funny moment came from a company I had never heard of before. Telaflora's spot featured flowers that insult their recipient. The flowers spewed nasty barbs like "Dianne, go home to your romance novels and your fat smelly cat" and "No one wants to see you naked."
The point being that "You never know what flowers will say."
GoDaddy.com had its annual ad, this time featuring racecar driver Danica Patrick and other women in mock hearings about "enhancement."
Usually GoDaddy has decent commercials, but this year's spot was so disappointing my friend declared it "the worst GoDaddy commercial I've ever seen." I think they overestimated how much anyone cares about Patrick.
Sobe's commercial was a triumph of corporate synergy, even though it failed at entertaining. Dancing lizards plus dancing NFL players plus dancing characters from the movie "Aliens vs. Monsters" equals a commercial so cheesy it's uncomfortable to watch.
