January 19, 2013
Watch the Top Five Super Bowl Commercials from the past fifteen years (yes, Feb. 3 marks the 16th anniversary of our coverage of your favorite Super Bowl Commercials – SuperBowl-ads.com)
January 23, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6859306/
Advertisers say they’ll tone it down, but few offer any specifics
The Associated Press
NEW YORK – As in years past, many Super Bowl advertisers are guarding the secrecy of their 30-second spots with the zeal of a Kremlin intelligence operative. Even so, one thing seems certain: Gas-passing horses, crotch-biting animals and accidental bikini wax treatments will be nowhere in sight.
Just ask advertising executive Jeff Goodby, whose firm created the Budweiser spot last year in which a draft horse spoiled a romantic evening for a young couple riding in a hansom cab. “This year, I think most advertisers are going to be incredibly well-behaved,” he said.
That ad and others aired during last year’s game caused concern in some quarters that advertisers had gone too far in using ribald humor to grab the attention of the young, male audiences that marketers try so desperately hard to reach.
Goodby said advertisers are much more cautious this year.
“Everybody knows where the line is, and I don’t think it will be crossed,” he said. “It’s implicit in the process that you’re not going to get your client in trouble this year.”
Goodby’s San Francisco-based firm, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is producing a spot for Emerald snack nuts that will be a far cry from the horse ad.
Unicorns and nuts
In it, a father tries to deflect a request from his daughter to share his Emerald nuts by saying that if he does, unicorns will disappear forever. A moment later, a unicorn strides into the living room and chides the nut-hoarding parent: “Ah, that’s not true, Jack.” Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny also chime in before Dad hands over the nuts.
Fox, which is broadcasting the Feb. 6 game, is asking $2.4 million for each half-minute ad this year, up slightly from last year’s $2.3 million rate. Fox said it has sold about 95 percent of the ad space this year.
Most advertisers are keeping their spots under lock and key, hoping to create a sense of anticipation and mystery. That tactic worked wonders a generation ago for Apple Computer Inc., when it introduced the Macintosh computer during the 1984 Super Bowl with an iconic ad featuring a runner hurling a sledge hammer against a giant image of Big Brother.
Bud, Volvo keep mum
Anheuser-Busch, which again will be a top Super Bowl advertiser, purchased 10 of the 30-second commercial spots, but isn’t saying what it plans to do. It also will have what’s known as “category exclusivity,” meaning that competing ads from Coors, Miller and other beer makers will be shut out.
Volvo, a first-time Super Bowl advertiser, will only say it put together a spot for its new V-8 sports utility vehicle.
“Right now, the (ad) is secret, so stay tuned,” said John Maloney, who handles advertising and marketing for Volvo Cars of North America. “First, part of being on the Super Bowl is the anticipation of what you’re going to see. Two, we have a particularly unique execution that, quite frankly, we don’t want anyone else to know what it is.”
Visa spokesman Michael Rolnick was equally tightlipped about his company’s spot, which will extoll the security features of Visa’s check card. Is the ad funny? “It is, and that’s all I can tell you right now,” Rolnick said.
Will ‘Net companies show up?
It’s also unclear whether there will be many ads from Internet companies, as in 1999 when a slew of upstart dot-coms merrily spent their IPO money on Super Bowl ads, only to go down the drain later.
Go Daddy Group Inc., a leading vendor of Internet domain names, will be making its Super Bowl debut. Founder Bob Parsons said his company expects to rake in $200 million this year, ensuring that if the ad for www.GoDaddy.com is “a complete whiff, we’re still fine.”
That still doesn’t mean he would let the cat out of the bag. "The ad will be different, something beyond what anyone has seen before, and beyond that I’m sworn to secrecy,” Parsons said.
February 3, 2008
You Just Can’t Count On Being Entertained During The Commercial Breaks Anymore
Godaddy.com’s commercial was rejected by Fox, but the ad they will run shows you where you can see the ad online that can’t be shown on TV. Are either of them worth watching?
(CBS) Super Bowl commercials are supposed to be the best. The very best!
Every year, we expect miracles — and every year, to be honest, many of them disappoint. This year is no different, though the culprit might surprise you – that vast new advertising frontier we call “the Internet.” Yes, the great equalizer has leveled the playing field; now bad is the new good.
Let’s start with a Web mainstay, the requisite cleavage shot.
Back in 1999, Victoria’s Secret was the first sponsor to use its TV ad time to send viewers to a naughty fashion show at a special Web address. Needless to say, computers crashed the world over.
This year, Victoria’s Secret is back and all of the advertisers have gone interactive.
So have the viewers.
Everyone’s a critic, we not only watch the spots, we get to rate them in cyberspace.
Now with so much more riding on their commercials, wouldn’t advertisers want creative genius?
Not so much. Take GoDaddy.com. Its spots first showed up three years ago with an ad that was supposed to mock Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction.
It’s not easy to create something corny and porny. But you can’t argue with the numbers: the company has doubled its market share. This year, GoDaddy has already earned millions in free publicity for its latest stunt, a spot FOX has refused to run.
What will they air instead? An ad that shows you where you can see the one that was banned.
But there’s worse. In fact, what may be the worst commercial ever. Last year’s ad for Salesgenie.com. It was so deadpan bad, it seemed like a spoof. It wasn’t.
The founder of the company wrote it himself and proudly does the honors again this year. He says he got a big enough response to go for broke again.
So he’s spent millions in the hopes of making this year’s spot even worse than last year’s.
It won’t be easy.
If the Internet is advertising’s bright future, it’s looking more like television’s dim-witted past.
February 1, 2008
Ali Landry’s 1999 Doritos spot had just the right crunch.
The 1973 Super Bowl has become a frequent point of reference this year because Super Bowl VII, played Jan. 14 at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, was the game in which the Miami Dolphins became the first team in modern pro football history to finish a season undefeated.
Their 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins, despite placekicker Garo Yepremian throwing the worst pass in Super Bowl History, gave them a 17-0 record – the record being challenged Sunday by the New England Patriots, who would with a victory over the Giants finish 19-0.
But the 1973 Super Bowl also marked another historic milestone: the commercial that many feel planted the seed for what Super Bowl ads have become today.
Today, with ad time tagged at $2.7 million for 30 seconds, the Super Bowl telecast has become the world’s premiere showcase for new television advertisements.
But that mystique didn’t come from nowhere. It came, at least in large part, from the 1973 Noxzema commercial in which Joe Namath, then still an NFL star, had his face lathered with shaving cream by Farrah Fawcett, then still a TV star.
Sounds simple enough. But then, simple is good in advertisements, when you have 30 seconds to establish your characters and your storyline and sell your product.
So over those ensuing XXXV years, what have been the best ads? That’s not quite as hard a call as it might sound because while many among those hundreds of ads have been good, only a handful have been great. (See some of the classics below.)
Before we get to our list, though, it’s worth explaining why a few well-remembered ads didn’t make our list.
The 1979 Mean Joe Greene spot, in which he throws a kid his jersey in return for a Coke, isn’t here only because it didn’t debut on the Super Bowl. By the time it was shown there, it was in reruns.
The multi-year series of “Bud Bowl” spots aren’t here because in the end, the idea was better than the execution.
And the 2002 Clydesdale “Tribute” spot, in which the famous team of Budweiser horses stops across from Lower Manhattan to genuflect, isn’t here because putting it on a list with spots that are built on jokes feels like trivializing it.
So here’s our list, in no particular order – and at the end, we’d love to hear yours.
1. “1984″ (Apple, 1984). It’s not only the ad biz that still talks about this ad, wherein a lone runner with a sledgehammer declared the era of the IBM computer monolith over and a new era of personal computer freedom about to begin. Perhaps ironically, Apple’s own Mac computer is still a niche product. But the rest of the message was prophetic.
2. Ali Landry, Doritos (1998). Every filmmaker should study this ad for a lesson in how to make maximum use of 30 seconds. Landry and her Doritos walk through a crowded room and radiate such heat the sprinkler system is set off. So, by the way, was Landry’s career.
3. “Monks” (Xerox, 1977). Brother Dominic, faced with a lifetime of painstaking hand transcription, slips over to a Xerox machine and gets his copies in minutes. His superior declares it a “miracle.” Note to the easily offended: This is how you made a religion joke without joking about religion.
4. The Bud Lizards. (Budweiser, 1997) The Bud Lizards grew out of the Bud Frogs, who first croaked “Bud . . . wei … ser” in 1995. Personally, I always thought the frogs were a little flat and that the storyline didn’t take off until Frankie and Louie the lizards joined the game a couple of years later.
5. “Hitchhiker” (Bud Light, 2007). Bud’s done a lot of clever spots, and others that try too hard. This one gets funnier every time – the guy who picks up a hitchhiker with an ax and a demented gleam in his eye because the guy has Bud Light. A little way down the road, he stops for another guy with a chain saw because he also has Bud Light. What clinches the ad’s greatness is that when he stops for chain saw guy, even ax guy is worried.
6. “The Showdown” (McDonald’s, 1993). This is the one where Larry Bird and Michael Jordan play a game of H-O-R-S-E, trading increasingly preposterous shots that all end with “nothing but net.” No ad, and not a lot of other stories in any medium, have captured so vividly the joy, beauty and subtext of sports. I’d personally argue this is the best ad ever.
7. “Clydesdales Play Ball” (Budweiser, 1996). The horses break into two football teams and one kicks an extra point. A guy standing at the fence watching asks the guy next to him if he’s surprised. Sure, says the second guy. “They usually go for two.”
8. “When I Grow Up” (Monster.com, 1999). A bunch of kids saying that when they grow up, they want to be, like, a mindless corporate tool. Sarcasm is risky in ads, but in this one it makes the point. It makes a lot of points.
9. “Bad Cheetah” (Mountain Dew, 2000). Guy on a bicycle runs down a cheetah that has swallowed his Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has a whole strong series with this theme, and this one may be the best.
10. “Security Camera” (Pepsi, 1996). A lot of people remember other Pepsi spots, like the 1987 “Apartment 10G” spot where Michael J. Fox goes into battle to get a cute girl her Pepsi. But I like this one, where the Coke deliveryman tries to surreptitiously grab himself a Pepsi from the Pepsi case and a hundred cans spill out on the floor. I like it because, among other things, no other ad has ever used music better, or more reverently. The only audio here is 30 seconds of Hank Williams‘ “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”
via nydailynews.comvia nydailynews.com
January 29, 2008
A farting horse, money out the wazoo, and — of course — GoDaddy.com
Anheiser-Busch By Peter Hartlaub
msnbc.com contributorWhen it comes to Super Bowl advertisements, sleaze sells. This Sunday will likely feature sexual innuendos, bodily functions, crotch injuries, erectile dysfunction talk and various combinations of the four.
Tawdry commercials have been around from the beginning — the first memorable Super Bowl ad featured Farrah Fawcett making love to Joe Namath’s face with Noxzema shaving cream
— but the risk-taking definitely increased beginning in the mid-1990s. The sleaziest Super Bowl by far was in 2004, which was also the year that Janet Jackson’s right breast made an unfortunate halftime appearance.
Below are the Top 10 sleaziest advertisements in Super Bowl history. We’re taking the broadest definition of the word, including all forms of vulgarity, from splattering bird poop to mud-wrestling bimbos.
You can decide whether sleaziness in Super Bowl commercials is a good or bad thing. It’s worth noting that most of these ads drew the ire of critics — but were very well-received by the public.
E*Trade “Money out the Wazoo” (2000): The ad consists of a man being wheeled through a busy emergency room, in obvious pain, as various physicians and nurses stare up his rectal cavity and say thing like “Doctor, I think you should see this … he has money coming out of the wazoo!”
Was it funny? Actually, it was pretty hilarious. Imagine if the “South Park” guys directed an episode of “ER.”
Norwegian “There is No Law” (1994): This humorless cruise line ad may have been shot in classy black and white, but the content looked like a “Sex and the City” episode. “There is no law that says you can’t make love at 4 in the afternoon on a Tuesday,” the commercial begins. From there, a naked dude climbs in a hammock. A second ad features people in the shower making out.
Was it funny? Your employer’s sexual harassment training video was funnier than this spot.
Noxzema “Joe Namath” (1973): The New York Jets quarterback looks at the camera and exclaims, “I’m so excited, I’m going to get creamed,” before Farrah Fawcett spreads Noxzema shaving lotion across his face with near-pornographic passion. The word “creamed” is repeated twice more for effect.
Was it funny? No, but this was filmed in 1973, when people still thought Jerry Lewis was amusing.
Nissan “Pigeons” (1997): A squadron of pigeons sets its sights on a Nissan sedan, hoping to pelt it with bird droppings. As “Danger Zone” from the “Top Gun” soundtrack plays, they defecate on everything in sight, but miss their intended target.
Bonus sleaze points: For having the birds ruin a wedding, with a very clear shot of white poop landing in a punch bowl.
Was it funny? Bird feces or no bird feces, this was still one of the more amusing ads of the year — if not the decade.
Victoria’s Secret “Fashion Show” (1999): Advertising for a web-only lingerie fashion show, scores of scantily-clad models traipse in front of the camera. “The Broncos won’t be there. The Falcons won’t be there,” the text scrolling by says. “You won’t care.” Victoria’s Secret
Was it funny? Not even remotely, although to be fair it wasn’t trying to be.
GoDaddy.com “Proceedings” (2005): One year after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, “Go Daddy Girl” Nikki Cappelli appears before a shocked Congress, as her tank top strap keeps breaking. One politician has to reach for his oxygen.
Bonus sleaze points: For the pandering GoDaddy executives, who are probably mad that this entry didn’t rank higher on the list.
Was it funny? Not very. The whole GoDaddy “look at us, we’re controversial!” shtick was tired from the beginning.
Cialis “Will You Be Ready?” (2004): The visuals in this advertisement for erectile dysfunction medicine weren’t especially racy, but it featured the 10 most shocking words in the history of the Super Bowl: “Erections lasting longer than four hours may require medical help.”
Bonus sleaze points: The ad was followed by a spot from competitor Levitra, which featured the not-so-subtle sexually-charged image of Mike Ditka throwing a football through a tire.
Was it funny? It probably wasn’t intentional, but these were the funniest ads of the year.
Budweiser “Upside Down Clown” (2003): A man in an inverted clown suit walks in a bar, orders a beer and drinks it through a hole in the costume’s crotch. To the bar patrons (and viewers at home) he appears to be pouring the beverage into his rectum.
Bonus sleaze points: For letting the guy order a hot dog after the beer is gone.
Was it funny? Yes. Did it make people want to drink Budweiser, or much of anything for the next few days? Doubtful.
Bud Light “Sleigh” (2004): A man and woman are riding in a Hansom cab. When the man lights a candle for mood, the horse lifts its tail and farts, torching the girlfriend. In a year where sleazy ads were scrutinized by critics, this was one was almost always mentioned first.
Bonus sleaze points: For giving the boyfriend the one-liner, “Do you smell barbecue?”
Was it funny? It depends if you saw the “Seinfeld” episode where the idea was borrowed from.
via msnbc.msn.com
January 22, 2008
The best years for spots are ones where economy, country is thriving
Strong economic times can result in a bounty of good Super Bowl ads. Janet Jackson’s exposed breast is a Super Bowl commercial killer. And venture capitalist money equals offbeat and funny — at least when it comes to the memorable dot-com advertisements of the late 1990s and 2000.
That was arguably the best era for Super Bowl ads, but there were other boom times as well — which, coincidence or not, often seem to come when confidence in the economy is rising. The landmark Apple “1984” commercial highlighted one of the best Super Bowls for ad-watchers, and the Reaganomics-fueled years that followed were stocked with plenty of clever spots as well.
There’s no formula to determine for sure whether this year’s Super Bowl ads will be hilarious or horrible. But if you look at what’s going on in the country right now, you might get at least part of your answer.
“Every year it really does mirror the biggest trends that year — what’s happening in the economy and what’s happening in the culture,” said Barbara Lippert, an Adweek advertising critic. “(During) one of the years that seemed to be a recession year in the 1990s, there were suddenly lots of commercials about home offices. Staples and others joined the pack, because suddenly everyone was a consultant from home.”
In terms of quality, history shows that morally and socially cautious times seem to be bad for viewers. Arguably the worst ads in recent years came during Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, the year following Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction.” Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, the year after the Sept. 11 attacks, was also forgettable — except for a spot where the Budweiser Clydesdales knelt down facing the empty space where the Twin Towers stood.
The first dotcom boom was anything but cautious, and the results were creative, often self-deprecating (the E*Trade “Well we just wasted $2 million bucks. What are you doing with your money” ad) and occasionally very funny.
“There were a couple of years there — 1998, 1999 and 2000 — where the landscape of ads were unlike any we have ever seen before, or have seen since,” said Steve Hall, an advertising and marketing veteran who founded Adrants.com. “You had advertisers like Cisco and other high technology companies that you would never imagine would spend that kind of money. You had advertisers on there who no longer exist.”
Below are arguably the five best years for Super Bowl ads — based on popularity of the advertisements with audiences, not the success of the companies that paid for them.
5. The year: 1984
Highlights include: Apple “1984”; McDonalds “Meat N’ Potatoes”
The breakdown: Employment numbers were finally on the rise again, and so was the quality of these ads. Viewers remember the Ridley Scott-directed “1984” ad for the Apple MacIntosh, but there were other fun entries — including a couple of clever McDonald’s ads plus an always reliable Master Lock bullet spot. Celebrity appearances were particularly interesting this year, with Bill Bixby shilling for Radio Shack and Alan Alda selling game consoles for Atari.
Discuss: What’s your favorite Super Bowl ad?
4. The year 1999
Highlights include: Monster.com “When I Grow Up”; Budweiser “Dalmatians Separated at Birth”
The breakdown: As the dotcom money started pouring in, Monster.com’s hilarious kid-themed spot (“When I grow up, I want to be forced into early retirement …”) made everyone forget bad entries by HotJobs and Buy.com. Anheuser Busch also had one of its best years, featuring a doomed lobster that holds a bottle of Bud Light hostage and a simple-yet-effective checkout aisle spot featuring two slackers who have to choose between toilet paper and a six-pack. The Victoria Secret Web-only fashion show was a success of sorts — the site crashed because of too much traffic.
3. The year: 1995
Highlights include: Budweiser “Frogs”; Pepsi “Diner”; Pepsi “Sucked In”
The breakdown: The “Bud … wise … errrrr” frog ads were the audience favorite in this solid lineup from the heart of the Clinton era. But there were other successes as well, including a clever Doritos spot playing off Texas Gov. Ann Richards and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s political differences (“Mmmm. These are so good, I think I’ll eat them liberally”). Pepsi had a great lineup, with a Pepsi and Coke distributor who try to find peace in a diner, a boy who gets sucked into a Pepsi bottle and a clever spot with a frustrating vending machine bill changer.
2. The year: 2003
Highlights include: Reebok “Terry Tate Office Linebacker”; FedEx “Castaway”; Budweiser “Horse Football Instant Replay.”
The breakdown: A year and a half removed from the Sept. 11 attacks and a year before the “Nipplegate” fiasco, advertisers were having fun again. “Terry Tate Office Linebacker” and the FedEx lampoon of the Tom Hanks film “Castaway” got the biggest laughs, and there were many effective celebrity ads – including Willie Nelson for H&R Block, a surprisingly humorous Yao Ming for Visa and several increasingly funny Pepsi Twist spots with Ozzy Osbourne and his family – who move in next to the Osmonds.
1. The year: 2000
Highlights include: EDS “Cat Herders”; E*Trade “Wasted $2 Million”; Mountain Dew “Bad Cheetah”
The breakdown: Irrational exuberance has its advantages. Emboldened by the success of Monster.com’s 1999 ad, more than 15 dot-commers participated – and they were willing to go places that traditional Super Bowl ad powerhouses such as Budweiser and Pepsi would never venture. E*Trade’s famous “We just wasted $2 million bucks …” ad was a keeper, but even the bad ones this year were pretty interesting. (Remember that trippy Pets.com hand puppet-themed “If You Leave Me Now” spot?) “Cat Herders” from EDS was another classic.
via msnbc.msn.com
January 15, 2008
By SUZANNE VRANICA and STEPHANIE KANG
Super Bowl viewers will be on the lookout for rookie mistakes — and not just on the field.
Advertising at the big game is a gamble for newcomers not just because of the rising cost of buying the ads — advertisers are paying up to $2.7 million for a 30-second spot this year, up from $2.6 million in 2007 — but also the risk to their reputations if the commercials fall flat or offend.
![[Under Armour's Super Bowl spot may feature Nascar driver Carl Edwards.]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-AN713A_ROOKI_20080114175647.jpg)
Under Armour’s Super Bowl spot may feature Nascar driver Carl Edwards.
As of yesterday, all but one of the 63 spots for the Feb. 3 Super Bowl XLII had been sold. In recent years, the lineup has typically included between six and 10 new advertisers, and News Corp.‘s Fox is expecting around 10 this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Among the first-timers joining perennial Super Bowl marketers like PepsiCo Inc. and FedEx Corp. this year are athletic-apparel maker Under Armour Inc., online car sales site Cars.com and Unilever‘s hair-care brand Sunsilk, Procter & Gamble Co.’s Tide and Bridgestone Corp.’s Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire unit.
This year’s newbies, three of whom are using the event to launch campaigns, say they have a few tricks up their sleeves. Cars.com, for example, is using an ad team from Omnicom Group Inc.’s DDB Chicago that was behind many of the wildly popular Bud Light commercials. Under Armour’s 60-second spot, meanwhile, will feature sports personalities in extreme-training conditions, the company says. While the ad isn’t completed yet, images may include National Football League player Vernon Davis dragging a tractor tire, figure skater Kimmie Meissner leaping over exhaust pipes, or Nascar driver Carl Edwards doing lunges holding a cement block.
While the Super Bowl ads are inevitably rated on their creativity and cool factor, some marketers say those elements are less important to them than getting out their message clearly.However, over the years, plenty of companies have fumbled their Super Bowl advertising debuts. A 1999 spot for Just for Feet, a now-defunct athletic shoe and sportswear retailer, featured a band of mostly white commandos in a Humvee chasing a barefoot African man in the jungle and forcing him to wear Nike sneakers. The ad was labeled racist, and Just for Feet later sued the agency that created the spot, Saatchi & Saatchi. The next year, financial-services company John Nuveen ran a spot that, with the help of digital photography, showed paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve walking — an ad many viewers found unsettling.
![[Graphic]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-AN730A_ROOKI_20080114193517.gif)
Those ads came during the dot-com boom, when advertisers hungering to take their companies public were desperate to get Wall Street’s attention. One of the biggest years for new marketers in the Super Bowl was 2000, known in ad circles as the “dot-com bowl.” Among the rookies that year were AutoTrader, OnMoney.com, OurBeginning.com, Computer.com and Kforce.com. While many first-time Super Bowl advertisers return, many of the companies in the class of 2000 eventually went bust.
Today, fallout from an ill-conceived ad can be magnified by the growing number of polls that survey the public about ads and Web sites that critique commercials. That heightened scrutiny causes some advertisers to think twice about taking the Super Bowl plunge. “There are a lot of polls out there now, and advertisers don’t want bad press,” says Andy Donchin, director for national broadcast at Carat USA, a media-buying firm owned by Aegis Group PLC.
Another hazard for first-timers: being outshone by the veterans. Only a fraction of the dozens of ads that will air during the game will get any significant buzz the next day, and companies like Cars.com and Under Armour are competing against regulars like Anheuser-Busch Cos., who have Super Bowl ads down to a science. The brewer features 10 different spots during the game, all of which it tests via focus groups.
“It’s hard to outdo Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi,” says Bruce Vanden Bergh, an advertising professor at Michigan State University.
Still the big game is tempting to advertisers looking to launch products, kick off ad campaigns or introduce a new company name. It is the single biggest television event of the year, with 90 million viewers in the U.S., plus large numbers of people in 230 other countries and territories. In an age of audience fragmentation, companies have few such opportunities to reach large numbers of viewers in a single venue.
Some companies decide to advertise in the Super Bowl for the first time because they’re overshadowed by bigger players in their industry and want to address that imbalance. Others are diversifying and want to draw attention to that foray. Baltimore-based Under Armour made a name for itself in 1996 with its line of sweat-wicking performance apparel. Now it’s taking another shot at established companies like Nike and Adidas with its ad campaign announcing its entry into the cross-training shoe market.
Under Armour’s spot this year, which will air in the first quarter of the game, represents a sizable chunk of the company’s advertising budget, which was $16 million last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
“There is no bigger opportunity” than the Super Bowl, says Under Armour’s Chief Executive Kevin Plank. “This is a defining time for our brand,” he adds. “We are now ready to compete in footwear.”
Cars.com will use the Super Bowl to kick off an ad campaign that introduces the tagline “Confidence comes standard.” Its spot shows consumers going to a car dealership armed with research from Cars.com. The ads have a humorous surprise ending showing what the consumer would have done if he hadn’t had the Cars.com research.
Bridgestone, which is also sponsoring the game’s halftime show, had its agency come up with concepts for 140 different commercials, which Bridgestone narrowed down to three now being produced. The tire maker will select two spots to air during the game. The company says it is using ad formulas that have worked for other companies in the past: animals, humor and celebrities — in this case, Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons.
Tide is considering airing an old ad for its Tide to Go pen that shows a man interviewing for a job who is repeatedly interrupted by a talking stain on his shirt, according to people familiar with the matter. The spot won a Silver Lion Award last year at the annual International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France.
Meanwhile, Sunsilk is betting on Madonna, Shakira and Marilyn Monroe, showing images of the women while their music plays. The screen reads: “Some girls can’t wait to make life happen. Their hair tells their story.” After the Super Bowl, the company’s high-energy spot will be rolled out in 14 countries.
Some Super Bowl first timers have scored big. Monster.com debuted in 1999 with a hit ad featuring kids talking about what they wanted to be when they grow up. In 2006 Unilever ran an ad for Dove showing young girls talking about their looks that was widely praised for its emotional depth.
One of last year’s newcomers, Garmin Ltd., the maker of GPS devices, is coming back this year despite coming in low on some ad poll lists with an ad featuring a map that turned into a Godzilla-inspired monster. Reaction “was a mixed bag but it was still a success,” says Ted Gartner, media relations manager at Garmin. “As long as people are spelling our name right and still purchasing the Garmin units, it’s all good.”
via online.wsj.com
February 1, 2007
Article updated for 2008 msnbc.msn.com
Thirty-four years ago this month, Farrah Fawcett sensuously applied Noxzema to Joe Namath’s manly chin — touching off an escalating arms race of expensive Super Bowl commercials that have frequently been more entertaining than the games.
Last year, advertisers weren’t shy about spending $2.5 million on a 30-second commercial, but only the Budweiser “Magic Fridge” commercial came within striking distance of our Top 10 list.
Below are the best Super Bowl commercials of all time, the keys to their success and the prospects of the company after the spot aired. As you can see, just because people are still talking about an ad more than 20 years later doesn’t mean the product changed the world:
10. Budweiser “Frogs” (1995):
Three frogs, perched on a log outside a bar, croaking, “Bud … Weis … Errrrrr.”
What worked: The fact that Budweiser milks every commercial concept to death – does anyone doubt there will be a “Magic Fridge 2” this year? — makes it easy to forget how cool this ad was when you first heard it. The buildup was great, with an oddly infectious catchphrase.
The results: For better or worse, the frog ads and the spin-off lizard commercials made Budweiser — which was starting to become an old-guy drink — cool again for younger partiers.
9. Xerox “Monks” (1977): Faced with a hopelessly mundane copying job, Brother Dominic puts down his quill pen and turns to a Xerox 9200 duplicating system.
What worked: “Monks” seems a bit dated now, like watching NBA video from the early 1950s. But this was the George Mikan of early Super Bowl commercials, with a narrative style and series of punch lines that set the pioneering tone for hundreds of ads that followed.
The results: The promise to reproduce documents “at an incredible two pages per second” may not seem impressive now, but Xerox is now used as both a noun and a verb – the definition of a successful brand.
8. Tabasco “Mosquito” (1998): A mosquito tries to draw blood from a Tabasco-loving yokel — with explosive results.
What worked: The commercial was simple, funny and violent. With no dialogue, no music and only two characters (including the exploding insect), Tabasco memorably promoted its brand.
The results: Tabasco still hasn’t replaced ketchup in the condiment market, and probably never will. With its huge loyal following, does Tabasco even need commercials?
7. Electronic Data Systems “Herding Cats” (2000): A “Bonanza”-like family of cat herders talk about life on the range.
What worked: Kitties and cowboys made this a favorite for both kids and adults, but the near-seamless special effects were the real MVP. Advertiser EDS came back a year later with a similar formula, featuring the “Running of the Squirrels.”
The results: We still don’t know what EDS does, but it has 117,000 employees and just signed a $1.27 billion contract extension with the British Ministry of Defense — so the ad certainly didn’t hurt the company.
6. McDonald’s “The Showdown” (1993): Michael Jordan and Larry Bird engage in a physics-defying hoops-shooting contest for a Big Mac and fries.
What worked: Every basketball fan knows that Bird would win this contest 10 out of 10 times, but it was still a clever idea with a catchphrase that continues to pop up in “Horse” games. (“Over the second rafter, off the floor … nothing but net.”)
The results: This commercial seems to have blessed everyone involved. Jordan won three more championships and Bird transitioned into a solid career as a coach. And while salads and chicken products have been killing off the rest of the menu, the cholesterol-heavy Big Mac value meal remains an untouchable fast-food staple.
5. Monster.com “When I Grow Up …” (1999): A group of kids stare at the camera and declare their desire to “have a brown nose,” “be a yes man” and “claw my way up to middle management.”
What worked: Kids are cute, and even cuter when reciting lines such as, “When I grow up … I want to be forced into early retirement.” It was great brand recognition for the new company.
The results: Monster survived the dot-com implosion and despite a stock controversy in 2006 has become a prosperous company that employs close to 5,000 people worldwide.
4. Reebok “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker” (2003): To boost productivity, a CEO recruits a linebacker from Reebok to slam into a series of “Office Space”-style cubicle drones.
What worked: A series of brutal hits, punctuated by lines such as, “Break was over 15 minutes ago, Mitch!” made this the best Super Bowl ad of the last five years.
The results: Terry Tate got people talking about Reebok for something other than sweatshop controversies. The company provides shoes for all the major sports and hosts clothing lines for rappers Jay-Z and 50 Cent.
3. E*Trade “Monkey” (2000): Two dim-witted guys and a monkey clap to some cha-cha music in a garage, followed by the punch line: “Well we just wasted 2 million bucks. What are you doing with your money?”
What worked: Easily the cheapest ad of the year to produce, it was an instant classic —remaining self-deprecating about dot-com excess while lampooning the well-publicized cost of Super Bowl ad time.
The results: The marketing Gods have a way of punishing tech companies that blow too much money on flashy ads. (See: Pets.com. Or don’t. They haven’t been around since 2000.) E*Trade lost hundreds of millions of dollars in 2001 and 2002, and the company’s shares — once trading at more than $60 — dropped below $3 in 2002. The company has since bounced back to profitability.
2. Coke “Mean Joe Greene” (1979): A kid offers his Coca-Cola to a battle-weary “Mean Joe” Greene — who softens up enough to toss his jersey as a reward.
What worked: A cute kid with a soft drink was the perfect foil for the surly Greene. Grown men still burst into tears when thinking about “Mean Joe” throwing that jersey.
The results: The ad became an instant pop culture classic, boosting Greene’s career. Among the offshoots was the inspiring “The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid” — perhaps the first hourlong TV movie in history to be based on a one-minute commercial.
1. Apple “1984” (1984): A jogger representing Apple throws a sledgehammer into a giant Big Brother image representing IBM — promising a populist shift in the future of personal computers.
What worked: With “Blade Runner” director Ridley Scott in charge, the ad generated more hype — and post-game water cooler talk — than any television commercial in history. Do you even remember who played in the Super Bowl in 1984? (L.A. Raiders and Washington.) You almost certainly remember the biggest Super Bowl ad of the year.
The results: The most storied Super Bowl ad of all time might have boosted sales of George Orwell books, hot red running shorts and sledgehammers. But it didn’t do much for the Macintosh — Apple continues to be the Reform Party of computer manufacturers. Maybe there was a storage locker filled with iPhones behind that huge video screen?
Honorable mentions: Pepsi “Apartment 10G” (1987); Pepsi “Diner” (1995); Pepsi “Sucked in” (1995); Mountain Dew “Bad Cheetah” (2000); Budweiser “Magic Fridge” (2006).
via msnbc.msn.com
January 31, 2007
“The Super Bowl ads are better than the game.”
No doubt you’ve heard at least one friend or relative make that statement, usually after a few drinks, a large gambling loss or a horrible set of Super Bowl events that mock the sports gods — such as Washington quarterback Mark Rypien being named MVP.
But have we really reached the point where commercials have become more entertaining than the sporting event that surrounds them?
Football purists will say they hate the ads, but they still seem to talk about them as much as the game itself. A good Super Bowl might get lost in your memory, but a good Super Bowl ad will be embedded in your brain for years to come. Chances are you remember every line and camera angle from Coke’s famous “Mean Joe Greene” commercial from 1979. But can you name the two teams that played the same year?
The rise in publicity for Super Bowl ads, big halftime shows and other off-field stunts are no accident. Although the Nielsen ratings for the Super Bowl have fallen over the decades, the game-watching demographic has widened to include more women and men who don’t like the sport.
“Originally it was just a football game, and guys who liked football were the ones who watched it,” says Don Bruzzone of Alameda’s Bruzzone Research Co., which has been measuring the effectiveness of Super Bowl commercials since 1992. “And then all of a sudden it grew into an extravaganza that would appeal to almost everybody.”
Super Bowl advertisements will cost about $2.6 million for a 30-second spot this year. (They cost a “mere” $324,000 when the San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals in 1982.)
Bruzzone’s Paul Shellenberg says in terms of who’s advertising, 2007 is looking a lot like 2006 — with regulars such as Budweiser and Pepsi returning with several spots. As of Monday afternoon, there were fewer movie spots scheduled than usual, although Shellenberg said the studios often wait until the last minute.
The ads are a huge gamble for advertisers. Bruzzone’s research shows that a successful commercial gives a buyer eight times the impact of an ad that doesn’t resonate.
The price for an ad has become a punch line, which has even been used in the commercials themselves. When all the figures are added up, though, Bruzzone says research shows that advertisers aren’t throwing away their money.
“There are a lot of intelligent people making decisions about this sort of thing,” Bruzzone says. “They’re priced at just about what they’re worth.”
Bruzzone doesn’t keep track of which are “good years” and “bad years” for Super Bowl advertisers. Fortunately, we do. What surrounds this article is a sincere and enthusiastic — while not especially objective — attempt to determine whether the ads are, in fact, more entertaining than the game.
My methodology was simple, if not scientific: I’ve already watched every game for the past 10 years, and I spent several afternoons last week watching Super Bowl ads archived on YouTube and the very helpful Superbowl-ads.com Web site.
You can decide whether it’s worth your time to add up my winners and losers to find out who’s ahead — but I will reveal that it’s close. Look for a Monday morning SFGate.com Culture Blog entry that determines whether Sunday’s Super Bowl commercials were better than the game.
XXXI (1997)
The game: Green Bay 35, New England 21
The ads: Fred Astaire dances with a Dirt Devil vacuum and Holiday Inn promotes their renovations by joking about a guy who has undergone a sex change.
Final score: Neither side wanted to win. The game was predictably one-sided — Brett Favre (left) and the Packers were favored by 14 points and won by 14 points — but the ads were worse, including a digitally enhanced Astaire corpse and Holiday Inn’s big “screw you” to the gay, lesbian and transgender community. Football 9, commercials 2
The ads: Louie the Lizard tries killing off the Budweiser frogs, while a guy eating a lot of Tabasco spells doom for a mosquito that tries to suck his blood.
Final score: Terrell Davis running over the heavily favored Packers was cool, as was the sight of John Elway receiving his first Super Bowl ring. But it’s hard to beat an exploding bug. Commercials 31, football 24
The ads: The Monster.com “When I Grow Up” ads spoof corporate culture, Budweiser has a firehouse dalmatian puppy spot and Victoria’s Secret’s sexy ad proves that horny men are still the primary Super Bowl demographic.
Final score: Not sure what was more annoying — Just for Feet’s semi-racist ad that appeared to feature white guys tranquilizing a black runner from Kenya or the Atlanta Falcons’ stupid “dirty bird” dance. The ads gain the edge when Falcons safety Eugene Robinson gets arrested for solicitation of prostitution the night before the game. Commercials 14, football 10
The ads: E-Trade unveils its classic dancing monkey/”We just wasted 2 million bucks” commercial and EDS features its memorable spot about cat herders.
Final score: This is why TiVo was invented. The 2000 Super Bowl and commercial-fest were both so entertaining that there was literally no time to urinate. With arguably the most entertaining Super Bowl of all time and the best commercials falling on the same year, there can be no losers. Commercials 42, football 42 (tie)
The ads: Cedric the Entertainer shills for Budweiser, Bob Dole shills for Pepsi and EDS features the “running of the squirrels.”
Final score: Not a great year for commercials — does anyone even know what EDS sells? But the ads were still way better than this defense-oriented game, which featured the coma-inducing combination of Trent Dilfer and Kerry Collins as starting quarterbacks. Commercials 15, football 6
The ads: Charles Schwab features Barry Bonds, the Coen brothers direct an H&R Block commercial and several ads feature 9/11 tributes.
Final score: The post-9/11 commercials were classy, but became repetitive — and in retrospect, the Barry Bonds/Hank Aaron home run goof looks like something that should be turned over to the grand jury. The football game was a lot better, with Adam Vinatieri (above) kicking a last-minute field goal to seal the win. Football 28, commercials 17
The ads: Reebok’s Terry Tate: Office Linebacker, the “Cast Away” movie spoof and a Clydesdale football instant replay commercial all generate big laughs.
Final score: The only thing uglier than Budweiser’s crude “Upside Down Clown” ad was the Raiders’ game plan, which gave up 34 unanswered points to former Oakland coach Jon Gruden’s Buccaneers. The refs almost had to invoke the mercy rule in this contest. Commercials 72, football 0
The ads: A Sierra Mist commercial featuring a bagpiper getting cold air blown up his kilt looks like a Jane Austen film next to Budweiser’s flatulent horse. The 78 other ads seem to be focused on erectile dysfunction.
Final score: Everything went right during the game — a great contest between the Panthers and Patriots — and everything went wrong between plays. Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” (above) highlighted the crude and unoriginal commercials, which led to audience outrage and FCC action. Football 41, commercials minus 212
The ads: Diddy arrives at the red carpet in a Pepsi truck, Budweiser introduces a trash-talking cockatiel, and Ameriquest has a couple of decent-but-forgettable mistaken-identity ads.
Final score: Even though we didn’t have to see Mickey Rooney’s bare bottom (it was banned by the fun police), this was definitely a rebuilding year for the ad industry. Meanwhile, Tom Brady, linebacker Mike Vrabel (left) and the Patriots held off the Eagles and Terrell Owens, who stopped acting crazy for a few hours and added some drama by playing hurt. Football 35, commercials 3
The ads: A caveman gets chided for not using FedEx (it hasn’t been invented yet), Jim Henson’s Muppets are everywhere and the “magic fridge” gets Budweiser back on track.
Final score: The Seahawks didn’t come to play and neither did many of the advertisers, but at least we got to see a prehistoric dude get stomped on by a brontosaurus. Commercials 10, football 9
via sfgate.com
January 31, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6882052/
At $4.8 million a minute, obscure advertisers hope to score big
By Martin Wolk MSNBC
Tune in to the Super Bowl Sunday and you can be certain of seeing the usual quota of slick and humorous ads from mainstays of the game including Budweiser, Pepsi-Cola, Subway and Frito-Lay.
But you might be surprised by little-known newcomers who hope to make a big first impression, including makers of snack nuts, contact lenses and kitchen countertops.
Countertops at the Super Bowl? It’s a natural fit, said Gina Covell, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Cosentino USA, a distributor of quartz countertops that ranks among this year’s crop of lesser-known Super Bowl sponsors.
“Home remodeling has been the rage for the past few years, and kitchens are probably the No. 1 room that is remodeled in the house,” said Covell. “What bigger way to break out than in the Super Bowl?”
With about $1 billion in revenue last year, Cosentino is no startup, but the Super Bowl plunge still represents a big risk. The company, which has never produced a television ad before, is paying top dollar for its debut: $2.4 million for 30 seconds of air time, plus $1 million in production costs for a spot featuring sports celebrities Dennis Rodman and Mike Ditka. The one-day spending spree is more than double last year’s entire advertising budget, which mainly was spent on print spots in publications like Better Homes and Gardens, Covell said.
Cosentino might strike paydirt with its humorous ad, which portrays macho athletes arguing over who is “Diana Pearl,” one of the company’s whimsically named countertop colors. But inexperienced advertisers need to make the Super Bowl part of a complete marketing campaign or risk fading quickly into obscurity as so many one-timers have done, experts say.
Just think back to the “dot-com bowl” of 2000, which featured 17 dot-com advertisers, many of them obscure names that quickly disappeared from view, like OurBeginning.com, LifeMinders.com and Epidemic.com.
“You really need to have a strong company, have a strong product and be a really good marketer before you consider the Super Bowl,” said Chuck Tomkovick, a professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire.
What were they thinking? Stories are legion of one-time wonders who botched their only Super Bowl appearance and never returned. One memorable failure was a 1999 Just For Feet spot that was so bad that the now-defunct shoe store chain actually sued its ad agency. The ad depicted a squad of white militiamen tracking down a barefoot black African runner, knocking him out with a drug-laced beverage and forcing him into Nikes.
Even well-established companies have fumbled their only Super Bowl appearance. A series of 2001 spots from Accenture, a business consulting company, was widely panned as incomprehensible.
“It was absolutely horrible,” said John Antil, a business professor at the University of Delaware who studies Super Bowl advertising.
Of course some companies have hidden motives for wanting to be part of the advertising industry’s biggest event of the year, even if they don’t fit the typical Super Bowl mold of food, drink and entertainment.
In Accenture’s case, Antil said, the company formerly known as Andersen Consulting was desperate to gets its new name in front of a large audience that included CEOs and other high-ranking executives.
Advertisers frequently have a secondary target beyond the estimated 130 million U.S. consumers who tune in for at least part of the game.
For example MasterLock, which famously has blown much of its annual advertising budget on past Super Bowl commercials, uses the big game appearance as leverage to entertain buyers and distributors who are crucial to its fortunes. Similarly, car company commercials in the Super Bowl are rarely memorable but may go a long way toward boosting manufacturer relations with key dealers.
130 million armchair reviewers Super Bowl commercials offer some unique fringe benefit, including a few tickets to the game that advertisers can use to entertain clients or partners. A Super Bowl also stokes employee morale, and advertisers generate an unusual amount of free media attention, like this article.
But by far the biggest attraction for advertisers is that Super Bowl Sunday is just about the only day of the year when the advertising commands as much attention as the programming. At a typical Super Bowl party, everyone becomes an armchair ad reviewer, and a substantial minority say the ads are the main reason they tune in.
“There are very few venues where the advertisements are as much of an ingrained experience as the content of the event itself,” said Richard Castellini, vice president, consumer marketing at CareerBuilder.com, a job postings Web site that is rolling out a major national ad push with two Super Bowl spots.
Castellini took great pains to distance his company from the dot-com failures of a few years back, as did Bob Parsons, founder and president of GoDaddy.com, which will kick off a $19 million national marketing campaign in the first quarter of Sunday’s game.
“It’s not a gamble,” said Parsons, who is the sole stockholder in GoDaddy, an Internet domain registrar.
“We have been the leader in our market for three years,” he said. “If this year’s marketing budget does not produce one dollar in additional sales, we’ll still throw off $14 million in cash. I’ll still be supersizing it at McDonald’s.”
Ingredients for success Conventional wisdom – and some market research – holds that Super Bowl advertisers need humor, animals, celebrities or some combination to be well-liked and effective. Categories that fit in well with the day’s partying mood do well, experts say. Sober subjects like financial services and pharmaceuticals typically get the thumbs-down.
So CIBA Vision will be bucking the odds when it makes its Super Bowl debut — an atmospheric spot promoting the benefits of its new O2 contact lenses.
Karen Gough, CIBA Vision’s president for the Americas, makes no apologies for the straightforward approach. The ad is chiefly targeted at women, who constitute about half the Super Bowl audience but two-thirds of contact lens wearers, she said.
“I think it’s important to note that we didn’t develop the campaign with the Super Bowl in mind,” Gough said. “We developed the campaign to communicate to our core audience. We just picked the Super Bowl as a way to get that campaign across to a broad range of viewers.”
While the Super Bowl is a great place to reach a lot of eyeballs, including those that need corrective lenses, it only works in the context of an integrated marketing campaign, she and others agreed.
“If you’re going to spend the money, you need to leverage it beyond the 30 seconds,” said Sandy McBride, marketing vice president of Emerald Nuts, another first-timer.
The snack-nut maker, a new brand developed by a 93-year-old walnut farmers’ cooperative, will promote its Super Bowl spot with a full-page newspaper ad before the game. And viewers will be encouraged to log on to a clever Web site after the game to continue the story begun in its commercial, which features Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and a unicorn.
With humor, mythical animals, a mythical celebrity and snack food, the ad has all the ingredients of a potential Super Bowl classic.
GoDaddy.com, on the other hand, is courting controversy with an ad that appears to portray an attractive young woman losing her blouse at a hearing on broadcast censorship. Parsons, the GoDaddy founder, promised that the spot would be “in extremely good taste.”
“It’s fun and it’s not tawdry,” he said.
And how will we know whether the ad succeeded?
“Watch the 2006 Super Bowl,” he said. “If I’m back in it, it worked.”
February 6, 2004
http://galvnews.com/story.lasso’ewcd=60bb0b1454508713
The Galveston County Daily News
By Daniel Huron
A lock taking a bullet and surviving. Larry Bird and Michael Jordan playing a superhuman game of horse. A herd of Clydesdales playing a fierce game of football.
To the millions of people who have watched the Super Bowl through the years, these words may conjure familiar images.
The commercials that air during the National Football League’s championship game are, to some people, just as popular as the game itself. Some take on a life of their own.
Carl Boudoin of Texas City isn’t even a football fan, but he watches the big game for the commercials.
‘I sit there and watch the whole game, but if it wasn’t for the ads, I’d probably flip back and forth,’ he said. ‘I hate to change channels because you could miss one of the commercials.’
Greg Clausen, the executive director of the Cramer-Kasselt ad agency in Chicago, says the Super Bowl is ‘really the last remaining mass media event and probably the only TV event were people look forward to the ads.’
Winning Formula
On a dusty plain, under a blistering sun, a group of cowboys herds a pack of cats towards an unknown destination.
When Stuart Larson, an assistant professor of graphics design at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, thinks of Super Bowl advertisements, this commercial for Electronic Data Systems that aired during the 2000 game immediately comes to mind. He finds the wittiness and creativity of the spot appealing.
The Budweiser commercials ‘ which often contain edgy, if not borderline offensive humor ‘ are also among viewers’ favorites.
Boudoin remembers the ‘Bud-weis-er’ frogs and loves commercials that feature animals and cartoons. Ads that feature celebrities are fine, he said, but usually not the best ones.
This is no surprise to Rama Yelkur, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin.
‘Humor and animals make a winning combination,’ she said. ‘People want to laugh when they’re seeing the Super Bowl. It’s a party atmosphere. They don’t want to see a serious commercial.’
Yelkur and her colleague, Chuck Tomkovick, have published two major studies on Super Bowl advertising.
Analyzing more than 450 Super Bowl commercials aired between 1990 and 1999, the researchers discovered that, besides humor and animals, other factors influence ad likability scores.
Their findings indicate the length of the ad (30 to 60 seconds is the ideal length), the type of products advertised (food, beverages and entertainment work best) and the presence of celebrities are instrumental in the success of a Super Bowl commercial.
Although Chris John Mallios of League City doesn’t eat at the fast food restaurant, the McDonald’s showdown between Michael Jordan and Larry Bird during the 1993 Super Bowl is one ad that’s hard for him to forget.
A little sentimentality never hurts, though.
One of Mallios’ favorite ads was the 1979 spot with Pittsburgh Steelers legend ‘Mean’ Joe Green and a generous boy who gave him his Coke.
The ad actually made its debut a few months earlier but, like Mallios, many people still remember this classic as a Super Bowl ad.
‘(Green) had a reputation for being mean,’ Mallios said. ‘Here was this larger than life character that nobody would approach and here was this kid.’
1984
Clausen, of the Cramer-Kasselt ad agency, which produced three commercials for CareerBuilder.com for this year’s Super Bowl, said one of the commercials that has stuck in his mind throughout the years is the famous Master Lock spot.
In that ad, one of the company’s products is shot with a rifle and stays latched together.
He said he admired the advertisement for many years, even before he started working at the Chicago-based Cramer-Kasselt, the firm that created it.
The Master Lock ad ‘ which aired on 21 Super Sundays beginning in 1974 ‘ was a dramatic demonstration of a product’s durability.
Its strength, Clausen said, derived from the advertiser’s ability to present a clear message.
All the rules of advertising apply when creating an ad for the Super Bowl, Clausen said. The customers and viewers, however, expect more.
It is widely believed in the advertising industry that one commercial is responsible for raising the creative bar during the Super Bowl.
The commercial, called ’1984,’ was an Orwellian vision of a bleak future that was aired during the 1984 Super Bowl and not shown again.
The ad introduced Apple Computer’s Macintosh computer to the world, cost $1 million to produce and was directed by Ridley Scott, who has also directed such movies as ‘Aliens’ and ‘Gladiator.’
‘Apple took a whole year’s budget on that one spot, on one show, and no one had ever done that before,’ said Louis Sawyer, a partner in the Sawyer Riley Compton ad firm. ‘That made it newsworthy.’
‘All advertising needs to have some entertainment value,’ Sawyer said. ‘What people are looking for is a talk factor. The ads that break through have some newsworthy, entertainment aspect to them.’
Marc Havican of Space City Films in the Clear Lake area describes ’1984′ as ‘a watershed event in the way advertisers looked at the Super Bowl.’
The success of ’1984′ showed the industry the reach advertising during the Super Bowl could have.
It’s not by chance that the following year the cost of 60 seconds of advertising time went past the $1 million mark.
This year, Fox is reportedly charging a record $2.4 million for 30 seconds of ad time.
Getting It Right
Some advertisers get so bogged down in being creative and clever that they forget to get a message across to the viewers, industry insiders say.
Clausen remembers a commercial that aired a few years ago that involved a gerbil being shot out of a cannon. He still doesn’t know what it was promoting.
Allan Steinmetz, CEO of Inward Strategic Consulting in Newton, Mass., stresses clients and their agencies need to find a balance between relevance and resonance.
‘All too often, the ad agencies and their clients get caught up in the hoopla of making an impact alone and overproduce a spot to the point where the production value of the spot is more important than the message,’ he said. ‘On the other hand, too much emphasis on the message, without the benefit of a creative idea, is also a big mistake.’
In The Year 2005
Following last year’s infamous wardrobe malfunction, many advertisers are expected to shy away from risqu’e ads.
The Cialis commercial promoting the erectile dysfunction drug could raise some objections because of its subject matter. But otherwise, advertisers are not expected to cross the line of good taste.
This year’s commercials will feature a lot of familiar faces. Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and other Muppets will promote Pizza Hut in one spot, while the Pillsbury Doughboy, Count Chocula and Mr. Clean endorse MasterCard in another.
A commercial featuring a priest who covets a Lincoln Mark LT truck was pulled earlier this week after a group supporting the victims of sex abuse by priests complained the advertisement was inappropriate.
The popularity of the commercials is such that online polls and online betting will draw viewers from their TV sets to their computer screens.
America Online and USA Today will offer Super Bowl enthusiasts a chance to vote for their favorite commercials.
Bud’s ‘Donkey’ spot won first place last year among 3.5 million people who cast their votes on the AOL site.
BETonSports.com, an online and telephone sports book and casino operator, also scored a touchdown with consumers. The site received more than 450,000 wagers in 2004.
The company estimates this number will increase more than 15 percent in 2005, with about 75 percent of those who bet on the outcome of the Super Bowl game also betting on ‘special propositions.’ Such propositions include picking the highest rated Super Bowl TV commercials.
Monday
When the post-game show ends, the bowls of chips are empty and the trashcans are left overflowing with beer cans, the excitement generated by the Super Bowl will, as it does every year, carry over to the next day.
Bob Senter, a football fan from Texas City, said he always looks forward to the discussion after the Super Bowl.
‘The creativity that comes out is what makes the ads great,’ he said. ‘The fact that on Monday morning there’s people talking about which ads they like the best is something unique to the Super Bowl.’
Lifestyle Editor Carolina Amengual, reporter Nathan Smith and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
January 30, 2004
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040130/daf026_1.html
Press Release
Source: 7 UP
PLANO, Texas, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — 7 UP has purchased one 30- second television commercial scheduled to air during the fourth quarter of the NFL’s Super Bowl XXXVIII on CBS Sunday. It is the second appearance for 7 UP in a Super Bowl game since 2000.
“This is a terrific opportunity for 7 UP to showcase our popular and very funny ‘Make 7 UP Yours’ advertising campaign,” stated Jim Trebilcock, 7 UP senior vice president-marketing. “The game draws a huge number of viewers, which makes it a great venue to reach millions of consumers with our refreshment beverage message presented in a humorous way.”
7 UP will air Slam Dunk, which leads into the brand’s sponsorship of college basketball and is one of the campaign’s new 2004 commercials featuring comedian Godfrey. The “Make 7 UP Yours” campaign first aired in late 1999 and featured actor/comedian Orlando Jones. After two years of successful commercials produced by Young & Rubicam New York, Jones moved on and was replaced by Godfrey, who continues to increase the popularity of the 7 UP campaign.
7 UP aired one 30-second commercial in the 2000 Super Bowl telecast, and had multiple commercials air in the 2001 pre-game telecast. “We are thrilled to be part of the Super Bowl XXXVIII telecast,” concluded Trebilcock.
7 UP is a leading brand in the soft drink portfolio of Plano, Texas-based Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., which is owned by London-based Cadbury Schweppes plc (NYSE: CSG -News ). For more information about 7 UP, visit www.7up.com . For information about Dr Pepper/Seven Up, visit www.dpsu.com .
January 25, 2004
| Super Bowl Ad Rates | ||
| Super Bowl XXXVIII XXXVII XXXVI XXXV XXXIV XXXIII XXXII XXXI XXX XXIX XXVIII XXVII XXVI XXV XXIV XXIII XXII XXI XX XIX XVIII XVII XVI XV XIV XIII XII XI X IX VIII VII VI V IV III II I |
Year
2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 |
Ad Rate (for 30 seconds)
$2,400,000 $2,100,000 $2,000,000 $2,300,000 $2,100,000 $1,600,000 $1,300,000 $1,200,000 $1,085,000 $1,150,000 $900,000 $850,000 $850,000 $800,000 $700,000 $675,000 $645,000 $600,000 $550,000 $525,000 $368,000 $400,000 $324,000 $275,000 $222,000 $185,000 $162,000 $125,000 $110,000 $107,000 $103,000 $88,000 $86,000 $72,000 $78,000 $55,000 $54,000 $42,000 |
November 28, 2003
http://www.sportsbusinessnews.com/index.asp?story_id=31470
The week leading up to Turkey Day marks the traditional halfway point of the NFL season — the Super Bowl is only a little more than 10 weeks away. Just over 10 weeks ago, the NFL held its “Kickoff Live 2003″ on the Washington National Mall, attracting 125,000 fans and institutionalizing an annual event for Corporate America — 100,000 cans of Pepsi Vanilla were distributed; sponsors such as AOL, Coors Light, Reebok and Verizon Wireless spent lustily for the event. That and this report from SportsLine.com’s Rick Harrow.
The league celebrates its halfway point as it usually does — setting the gold standard for the sports business. A $4.8 billion revenue business, ticket sales grew 44 percent in the last four years up to $1.5 billion. Attendance has risen 4.7 percent since 1999, and the NFL has sold out over 90 percent of its games during the last two years.
Importantly, the $75 million salary cap represents unprecedented stability for both players and owners. The cap has grown from $34 million per club in 1994, and represents a unique revenue-sharing/salary cap partnership that will continue league stability well into the next decade.
The league continues to face three major business issues through the remainder of the season: (1) capture and expand newfangled revenue sources; (2) solidify the league’s image through short-term media turbulence; and (3) expand and diversify young and growing fan demographics.
The league continues to maximize revenue, primarily through the stability of its $18 billion multi-year television agreement. The short-term tension involves the latitude given to each team to capture its own revenue. The league is strongly considering allowing its teams to expand the geographical areas that they can market in, well beyond the 75-mile rule.
League owners may look at larger “designated market areas” which television has used since 1955 to define geographic regions. There always has been a tension between the “haves” and the “have-nots”, especially in the stadium context. Remember that 21 NFL stadiums have been modernized or built since 1993 at a total cost of $7.1 billion.
As teams can keep all stadium revenues for themselves, this has been the source traditionally separating the top quartile teams from the rest. Average local revenues for teams in the first quartile appear between $90 million and $100 million, compared to a $50 million to $60 million for the bottom quartile.
This is in addition to national revenues, which were $75 million per club during last season, according to the Green Bay Packers Annual Report. The NFL is mostly over the hump on stadiums — the Vikings, Cowboys, Chargers, and Jets are all pursuing new stadiums. The remaining $150 million available from the NFL G-3 stadium loan program is a valuable commodity, as these teams are effectively vying for that amount of public support.
Clubs are also looking at additional revenue sources individually as well. The Rams have unveiled a FastBreak Concession Card program at Edward Jones Dome, allowing the customer to spend $50 on a card bought in advance in order to purchase concessions in a “fast lane.” Additional revenue ideas are generated by teams as well.
Sponsorships continue to be the foundation for long-term growth as well. The league has enjoyed a 30 percent increase in sponsor revenue over the last four years, an unprecedented growth in the post-Sept. 11 recessionary economy. The league seems relentless in highlighting its brand. A SportsBusiness Journal 2003 League Report Card indicates that the NFL is highest in sponsor satisfaction, with a 10 percent increase in approval rating. That and this report from SportsLine.com’s Rick Harrow.
It is not surprising, therefore, that companies like MBNA have recently renewed their national credit card sponsorship through a six-year deal guaranteeing a minimum of $16 million on an annual basis.
The NFL continues to lead the pack as far as ad revenue is concerned. The league enjoyed a 7-9 percent increase in upfront ad prices this year, leading all sports. Super Bowl ads are selling briskly as well (more on that in January). As we discussed three weeks ago, the November 4 launch of the NFL Network is viewed as leverage to create programming on basic cable, using the carrot of enhanced live programming as possible long-term leverage. Additionally, the DIRECTV Sunday Ticket has increased from 225,000 residential subscriptions in 1994 to over 1.6 million this last year.
Additional revenue is generated from the Internet as well. Local team sites such as Raiders.com have created at least $2 million in revenue between ad sales, E-commerce, and trading for services with suppliers. Revenues from 49ers.com have increased at least 50 percent over last year. Fantasy football plays a large part, with CBS SportsLine enjoying at least a 50 percent increase from the 850,000 consumers who paid to play fantasy football on the site last year. Obviously, the NFL continues to emphasize varied, diverse, and expansive revenue sources.
This has been a checkered autumn for the league. ESPN Playmakers finished its season last week generating nothing but controversy. Gatorade pulled its ad sales from the program. Sources note that the advertiser pays the NFL $20 million annually for sideline rights. Though the decision appears independent, the Playmakers drama has made many league and television executives uneasy over the past three months. Compounding this is the rapid resignation of Rush Limbaugh, with ESPN rebounding from that controversy after October.
As far as team performance is concerned, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Charles Kubicki threw out the lawsuit accusing the Bengals and the NFL of “conspiracy and breach” of the lease at Paul Brown Stadium. The plaintiffs argued that the team “failed to field a team that was good enough to maintain fan interest in a taxpayer-funded stadium.” The suit sought more than $200 million in damages, and officials promised an appeal. The way the Bengals are playing recently, bet that the lawsuit will run out of steam.
Another interesting legal matter involves a lawsuit filed in New Jersey in October on behalf of the Verni family, whose then two year-old daughter was paralyzed in a 1997 car accident in which the driver was drunk after attending a Giants game. Though some lawyers predict that a verdict “could force the NFL to change the way it does business, many predict that the lawsuit might generate some sympathy, if nothing more.
Strong, solid, and diverse demographics remain the watershed strength of the NFL. Women comprise 36 percent of the NFL fan base, including 23 percent of the “fanatics.” More women watched the Super Bowl (38.3 million) than the Academy Awards (25.8 million) last season.
The key remains the young demographic. The league continues to be the quintessential sports league appealing to the prized 18-34 year-old age group. Monday Night Football’s ratings last year among men 18-34 were the highest in five years at 9.5. Advertisers are paying high single-digit increases from last year to air the NFL, and recent commercials reflect that demographic.
As always, the league continues to focus on the “next generation.” A TNS Intersearch Poll suggests that more kids aged 7-11 own NFL merchandise than any other sport. From a broader perspective, a Harris Interactive Poll reveals that 29 percent of sports fans identify pro football as their favorite sport, a five percent increase since 1985 (the largest of any sport).
The rubber clearly hits the road when reviewing franchise values. League owners continue to ignore the Forbes magazine valuation study, arguing that figures are imprecise and incomplete. Nevertheless, values have increased 34.8 percent in the last two years, according to the study.
Team revenues have increased to $155 million, with average operating income increasing to $32.7 million, and a total debt-to-value ratio at over 24 percent. In all tangible and intangible contexts, NFL executives should have an economically productive Turkey Day as they survey the business of the NFL. That and this report from SportsLine.com’s Rick Harrow
January 27, 2003
monster.com – Their ad against trucking stinks.
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Response from a fan who has watched all televised super bowl games.
This is by far the worst and most ill conceived ad campaign ever. The
ads are more disappointing than the game.
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As a Professional truck driver for the past 7 1/2 years, I was appalled
at the ad for Monster.com about the unmanned truck careening carelessly
damaging property and almost killing people. I suppose you knew you would
be getting letters like mine and I sure hope you get many more. With the
safety record we hold, all this shows the non-truck driver is we shouldn’t
be on the road. But! We do deliver everything you eat, wear, drive and
live-in. Monster. com should ride with a trucker to find out it’s not
an easy job to drive with alot of idiots on the road. I know it’s only
an ad to promote jobs for truck drivers, but why couldn’t they go to a
trucking company and just look at the empty trucks they have sitting in
the yard without drivers. You don’t need the Hollywood touch to make it
more exciting. Why didn’t they have an unemployed worker robbing a bank
because the place he used to work for, took away his unemployment benefits
and his wife and kids are home starving and are freezing with no heat.
I liked the ad with the talking sock. That was cute and I still remember
Monster.com did that one. Tell Monster.com to stay out of Hollywood and
get with the real picture–people ARE out of jobs and they should concentrate
with a better commercial for them, not to ruin the image of truck drivers
who have a hard time keeping a good name. I also wrote to Monster.com,
but I’m so upset about the commercial, I’ll write to everyone about it.
What they should have done was show a truck driver going for a random
drug and alcohol test and passing because he is looked up to by young
adults.
Thanks for listening.
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Commercial re size of possible future mother-in-law, DISGUSTING.
Women should be checking out how the future father-in-law will look
later, after all it is mostly men drinking beer in commercials.
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I THINK THE BUDLIGHT AD WITH THE CLOWN IS THE BEST.
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more clydesdales, please, they are they best.
I can’t believe you don’t use them more.
I love the kick and the flip the coin, more of them please.
Thank you.
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Bud clown
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I vote Dexter Jackson for the MVP. Give up the Cadi’!!!
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Budweiser Clydesdales
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my choice af the super bowl ads is the Monster truck runnig wild
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Pepsi with the Osbournes!
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The best super bowl ad is the BUD one with the BIG BUTT
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this was the best commercial of all, most were very stupid especially
the osbourns and there were two which were gross the beefy jerky in the
truck and the super bowl ring regugertation.
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The best ad is BUd SUPER BUTT
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Bud commercial about the hair. Dog placed on head
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No doubt, hands down, the best commercial was the Bud Lite ad of the
guy dressed in the clown suit walking into the bar. A distant second,
but quite amusing was the guy who is about to meet his girlfriend’s mother.
Now there is a woman who when she has to haul ass, has to make two trips
…
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My favorite commerical was the Sierra Mist commercial where the dog
kicked the cap off the fire hydrant.
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The Levi ad with buffalo …..sucked. Please bring back the Whattssup
guys…. Or some more funny dogs. Budwesier Ads are always good.
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I think that you should have forwarded the Fed Ex box onto the Oakland
Raiders team so they could use the cell phone to call for HELP and the
GPS to find the end zone!!
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First Tn Bank Ads were the best over all
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( 1 ) Budweiser ” No Pets Allowed” ( 2 ) Osbornes ( 3 ) Budweiser “Zebra”
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Hey, I missed the survey, but I thought the Osbourne’s Pepsi Ad the
very best by far! Thanx for the ad list, as I checked them off as I watched
them.
Did the 3 armed beer drinker air? I didn’t see it.
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I want Ron Felcher to bring Terry to MY office…..Great ad!!!
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Miller Lite commercial is in BAD TASTE and I will rememebr not to buy
their product becuase of it.
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Sierra Mist with the dog and fire hydrant. FUNNY!!
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Hotjobs commercial might be one of the worst I have ever seen. Monster,
too. Why do they keep spending that much for crap?
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I vote for the Bud ad with Clydesdales and Zebra.
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I loved the Trident ad. It has to be the best one of the year, it was
“nuts”.
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Budweiser: and Bud Light
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First of all, let me confess that If I hadn’t been asked for a Minnesota
talk radio program to rate the superbowl ads, I probably wouldn’t even
have watched the game. But as long as I had to sit through it, and be
intelligent about it in the morning, I figured the least I could do was
to apply my scientific analysis skills to the exercise.
First thing I did was develop a proper, scientific metric based of course
on the ultimate objective of: would I want to buy anything from this company,
or have a relationship of any sort with the advertiser.
At the bottom of the scale was the Yuck factor. Ads that made me never
ever want to buy anything from the company again. Budweiser won this category
hands down. Their clown ad was not just dumb, but frankly revolting. But
that paled in comparison with the “Girlfriend and her mother” ad which
inspired me not to buy the product, but rather to call all my female friends
to join me in a nationwide boycott of Budweiser products. (Note to friends,
don’t even THINK of bringing Bud, Bud light, Michelob or any other Budweiser
product into my house.)
Only slightly higher up the food chain was the “Huh?” factor – otherwise
known as “You’re confusing creative with effective” These ads were more
confusing than memorable, and so clearly driven by agency creatives, rather
than anyone with a business sense. These ads may have been intended to
be humorous, but in so doing not only did they fail to promote their brands,
but more likely to have damaged the brand by mixing their messages.
Levis, the Busweiser Zebra ad,Gatorade/Jordan ad, Honda, Coors and Pepsi
all fell into this category. Monster.Com made the list because I really
couldn’t figure out why a truck blowing up a building would make you want
to go to a web site to look for a job. On a couple of them, I simply assumed
they must be targeted to an audience that might understand better than
I. But in that case, at $4 million a minute seemed a bit excessive just
to make the point that you were so hip that anyone over 18 doesn’t need
to understand your commercials.
One step up from the “What were they thinking” rating is the “So What”
category. Into this category were the ads that weren’t memorable or effective,
but at least they weren’t offensive.
Most of the trailers for upcoming movies and television shows went into
this category. My guess is that many of them wouldn’t be there if there
weren’t joint ownership between the television station and the movie studio
- regardless, after awhile they all blended together. Same thing for the
car ads. Nissan, Mercury, Chevy Trucks and Honda all failed to make a
lasting impression. Cadillac was borderline. Their ads were certainly
nothing that would make you sit up and take notice, but they were at least
frequent enough as to be memorable.
I figured you really couldn’t have more than five or six really great
ads, so the rest fell into a category that could best be called “also
rans.” They were memorable, and probably effective, but they just didn’t
earn the Superbowl ring.
The Sierra-Mist ads were a great example. Compelling ads, but I had
to go look up the sponsor – clearly lacking some branding. The Trident
ad was funny and memorable, just not stellar. Mastercard ads do a brilliant
job at building on their brand, but I didn’t think their debit card ad
was as effective as some of their others. W.B.Mason did a great job with
tying their brand to Perry Mason, but unless they couple the ad with some
other significant marketing effort, the one shot ad will not be remembered.
And the winner is – well actually, we’ll start with the runners up for
the Superbowl Trophy.
Honorable Mention goes to Visa for its ads that made fun of celebrities
and other who needed cash was brilliant, and also did an effective job
of getting its messages across.
Another Honorable Mention goes to the anti-drug ads, particularly the
one in the subway, It was so chilling and compelling and I can only keep
my fingers crossed that they had as much impact on everyone else as they
did on me.
In third place is H&R Block’s ad with Wilile Nelson was a terrific use
of humor plus celebrity plus strong tie in to brand and message – Second
place goes to Sony. My heart wants to Sony the first prize for the most
measurable ad. Viewers were asked to go to the web site to download the
song – a nice way to tie customer behavior with the ad. The ad itself
was terrific, great music and a way cool message, and in another year
would have won hands down. But this year the competition was just too
fierce.
And tied for first place (okay, I’m a Libra, I can’t make up my mind)
is Fed Ex and M-Life. Fed Ex effectively used humor to really get its
message across with its Fed Ex driver emerging from a desert island to
deliver a package. It clearly communicated the company’s positioning in
a highly memorable way and did a nice job of keeping the brand in front
of the viewer.
M-Life, that previewed its product line in a series of incomprehensible
ads last year wins both first place and “most improved.” Its Gilligan’s
Island and
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I thought Reebok’s “Office Linebacker” beat all these others but you
don’t have it listed here. Why?? Get with the program!
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reebock
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we vote for the Ozzie Osborn ad for Pepsi Twist
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Hanes Tagless TShirts with Jackie Chan! Hahahahahahhaha It was so funny!
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They should be ashamed! There are far too many people who mistreat
animals in this world, we shouldn’t use that fact for humor. Quizno’s
showed their chief chef so absent minded that his parakeet died. I for
one won’t be eating at a Quizno’s any time soon!
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I would like to vote for the FedEx commercial.
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um……. the bucs won
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My favorite ad was the ‘upside-down’ clown drinking a beer and being
refused a hot dog.
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THE ADVERTISEMENTS YOU HAD ON STUNK. THEY WERE NOT ENTERTAINING. THE
HORSES WERE ABOUT THE BEST. HALFTIME MORE THAN STUNK AND I LOVE SHANIA
LOOKED LIKE A HOOKER THE OTHER BROAD LOOKED LIKE A JERK WANNA BE MADONNA
OR MARYLIN. IVE HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A LOUSY SUPERBOWL. THE GAME WAS GREAT.
TELL THEM TO GET BETTER ADVERTISERS TRY A LITTLE MORE MATURE THEMES
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Why was the company in the Reebok ad called “Felcher and Felcher” I
mean, isn’t that unnecessarily disgusting???
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I really enjoyed the following: Reebok featuring Tery Tate and Tike
and Ronde Barber commercials.
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Monster.com’s ad with the truck was alright…but the whole super bowl
was RUINED with that HORRIBLE “don’t smoke pot” ad involving the pregnancy
test…. Who comes up with these ideas? George Bush himself??? What a
bunch of CRAP!
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I am so sick of hearing about the osbournes! Those animals are the scum
of the earth! They are totally sickening!! The media in this country want
to shove these creeps down our throats. I saw one TV news cast that referred
to them as ‘America’s Newest First Family’ America is NOT represented
by these foul-mouthed, burnt out drug addicted, no talent jerks!!!!!!
Put the osbournes where they belong – in the toilet, and flushed as
quickly as possible!
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Hanes is my choice for best ad.
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Clysdale football commercial was by far the best(Zebra,etc.)…..Almost
as good as last year re: World Trade Center with the horses bowing at
Liberty Island
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My favorite ad was the teen-age daughter getting pregnant due to drugs
impairing her judgement. Along the same lines, I also vote for the ad
that showed a little boy playing baseball with his dad and getting older
- it was a “Talk to your kids about smoking…they’ll listen.” I was so
glad to see that all of the commercials weren’t advocating beer and sex.
Full-time student, waitress, and mother
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The Terry Tate ad is a classic! Best Superbowl ad in years!
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Terry Tate-Office Linebacker commercial
WAS The BEST!!!
I WANT to SEE MORE!!!!
The PAIN TRAIN has ARRIVED!! Totally AWESOME!!
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It’s interesting how the superbowl advertising changed. 2-3 years ago,
the bowl was flooded with dot com hopefuls spending their last dime for
a spot. Thankfully all that crap is gone and the companies have returned
to advertising. Things were really bad in 1999 and 2000. THis year showed
some good old cleverness and humor across the board as well as some good
advertising. Use of music totally worked for some, like SOny’s remake
of CSN&Y’s “Carry On” for their Man in Space commercial and Cadillac’s
series of Led Zepplin’s “Been a long Time” spots. Lots of good animal
commercials including the king of ad animals, the Budweiser Clysdales
waiting for the Zebra replay. THe best animal of them all was no doubt
Terry Tate, Office Linebacker. Just when you thought commercials couldn’t
make you laugh anymore. “If it’s gametime, then it’s pain time! You know
what I’m talking about?!? Woooo!” Reebok definitely wins my vote this
year. My ranking:
1) Reebok “Terry Tate”
2) Budweiser “Replay”
3) Sony “Man into Space”
4) Sierra Mist “Fire Hydrant”
5) Sierra Mist “Monkey”
6) Hotjobs – “Rainbow Connection”
7) US Govt – “Subway Visit”
8) Universal “Hulk”
8) Mastercard – “Presidents”
10) Gatorade – “23 vs 39″
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chexchecking with the very tall basketball player
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Not as good as the usual fare….
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I vote for the Reebok Commercial with Terry Tate
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I Love Ozzy…and I Love Pepsi…Don’t like Football, but watched the
superbowl just for the commercials!!!
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super bowl ad w Jordan I beg to differ. While it could have been better
produced, it was a GREAT idea and a good ad.
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FedEx Castaway Spoof – Great concept, & hilarious!
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The Ozbournes – Ozzie’s dream.
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Hi, tried to vote on the Dogde commerical. Loved it during the Superbowl!
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1. Bud – Zebra
2. Bud – Clown
3. Pepsi – Ozzie Osborne
4. Fed-Ex – Man on deserted island
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I liked the Willie Nelson H & R Block Ad
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Budweiser & Bud Light never fail ( Third Arm, Motormouth, etec.)! Their
ads were great. I also loved Visa Checks Cars with Yeo Ming. How you fail
with an ad featuring the Osbournes! Loved this year’s commercial’s!!!!!!!
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IT WAS THE ZEBRA!!!!
the best ever…..
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where’s the voting box for “Office linebacker” and the “wb (perry) mason”
ads? they were both worth watching.
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i have many thoughts on the game and the commercials. i think that pitt
*my home team, may i add* should have been in the super bowl. we would
have killed either team. they both played horribly last night, with the
exception for tampa in the 2nd half. that was their come back. as far
as the commercials, THEY WERE GREAT! last year was a great dissappointment
for commercials, but this year they out did it. I personally liked the
one with the clown and the one with the ref. budwieser def. out did themselves
this year. the one commercial that i heard so much about *i was in the
darn bathroom!* was the one where a guy was set up on a blind date, and
they were like…’look at the mother, and thats what she will look like
in 20 years.’. well, if you saw it, you know the rest.
well, those are my thoughts, accept them or not, and im outta here.
peace
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I would like to vote for bud clydesdales “Replay”
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we liked the pepsi twist commercial with the osbournes and the osmonmds.
It really showed how far our society has changed in entertainment values.
Please bring back the good old days!
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I liked the Zebra Ad
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~From Tampa Bay, Florida – Home of the World-Champion BUCCANEERS!!~
The concensus at our Super Bowl party was that the BEST commercial is
one that is not even listed in your poll.
The Reebok “Terry Tate – Office Linebacker” ad got EVERYONE’S vote &
the biggest laughs of the game! We appreciated its creative depiction
of “Extreme Office Management.”
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The top 5 were: 1)The 2 guys working out in the gym 2) the Football
tackler- Reebok 3) the girlfriend’s mother with e huge butt. 4) The Clydedales
replay.
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The Quiznos ad has to be the worst ad I have ever seen. It has the bird
community in a up roar. People on hundreds of email list are planning
to boycott Quiznos for their showing of a dead bird that was starved to
death due to chef Jimmy. Why didn’t they use a dog or cat? Do they think
that people don’t care about birds? I for one will never again buy from
them.
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toss up between reeboks office linebacker and bud lights clown……….
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I thought the Sierra Mist commercials, specifically the one at the zoo
was brilliant as was the dog and the hydrant! Animals in any ad are always
a big plus for me. I would definitely try the product. Of course, the
Clydesdales were once again the #1 pick with me. Not only was it hysterical
but beautifully filmed. I hope to see it again during the Pro-Bowl.
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That Rebok commercial with the football player in the office was the
best.
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the fed x man is the one I pick
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The best ads were the JEEP ads.
The dot com ads were really strange!
The worst ad was the truck with the guy choking and throwing up on the
windshield.
The one probably most insulting to females is the one with the “mother-in-law
to be” with the fat butt.
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Sierra Mist!!!! So cool. I’m a mother and I socially drink, I thought
it was a beer commercial. The monkeys(?) turning into the seal thing and
being catapulted-too much. Congratulations to whoever thought that one
up.
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that was a pitiful, pitiful game yesterday….I think seeing No Doubt
and Santana play were the high points…I miss the Whazzzzup ads, too!
On the plus side, it was a good excuse for me to lie on the sofa with
my feeties elevated.
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