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)
March 24, 2011
The kerfuffle over collaborative coupon service Groupon’s decidedly foolish Super Bowl ads just won’t die.
In a recent company profile in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Groupon’s 30-year-old CEO Andrew Mason placed the blame for the commercials — one of which seemed to many to equate the plight of Tibet with saving money on dinner — pointedly on the shoulders of the advertising firm that created the spot, CP&B.
According to Mason, his company put too much faith in the agency’s ability “to be edgy, informative and entertaining, and we turned off the part of our brain where we should have made our own decisions. We learned that you can’t rely on anyone else to control and maintain your own brand.”
While the statement doesn’t contradict Groupon’s earlier explanation, it seems to pass the buck for the highly public debacle from Groupon to CP&B.
Immediately following the Super Bowl ad uproar, Marshall wrote on the Groupon blog that the ads were not meant to offend, but instead to poke fun at the other Super Bowl ads “that glorify antisocial behavior – like the scores of Super Bowl ads that are built around the crass objectification of women.” In short, the Group on ads were just a big misunderstanding — one that has led Groupon to cut ties with CP&B as its advertising firm.
“The situation illustrates a classic tension in marketer-agency relationships,” says Ad Age‘s Rupal Parekh. “Clients say they want to take risks, but later realize they weren’t ready or can’t stomach the criticism associated with them.”
As Parekh points out, CP&B is known for taking risks, having produced such recent notable spots as Burger King’s “Whopper Virgins” campaign, which had people around the world who’d never had a Whopper try one; and Domino’s controversial ad in which it admitted it made crappy pizza. (Burger King has also since stopped doing business with CP&B, so perhaps that one didn’t go over so well either.)
Groupon is in a prime position to do exactly as it pleases. The company is planning to launch a new service that connects customers with restaurants and other venues that are offering deals in their close proximity. This has helped the company earned a reported valuation of $25 billion, despite whatever bad press it may have received for a couple of tacky ads.
February 12, 2011
Read more at: AdAge
and Kantar’s press release
The verdict is in, and Volkswagen’s “The Force,” starring 6-year-old “Little Darth Vader” Max Page, won the online battle of the Super Bowl ads by a long shot, with more than 20 million views on the web, according to analytics firm Kantar Video.
No surprise here; the video had racked up 10 million views before the game began, due to some aggressive promotion by VW. Now, days after the game, VW is in another league than any other Super Bowl spot: The No. 2 campaign, Doritos’ and Pepsi Max’s “Pug Attack,” has accumulated 3.5 million views so far online and the No. 3 spot, Chrysler’s “Imported From Detroit” anthem starring Eminem, has 3.3 million views.
So what’s that worth to VW? About $538,470 in free media when benchmarked against the $3 million cost for 30 seconds of time during the Super Bowl, according to Kantar. That’s just what the impressions would cost to reach those additional people and doesn’t include the PR value from the exposure and press coverage. But it’s one way an advertiser can offset the media cost of the Super Bowl with free impressions on the web.
One could argue that those web impressions are more valuable because they represent a choice to watch, rather than a passive TV experience. “The Super Bowl laid the foundation; now they’re getting additional impressions and conversation with the audience they are targeting,” said Andrew Latzman, senior VP of research at Kantar Video.
Kantar measured 195 placements of “The Force” around the web. Combined with Volkswagen’s other Super Bowl ad, “Black Beetle,” the carmaker has earned more than $600,000 in free media so far. Viewing of the VW ad hasn’t slowed down much. YouTube is counting 26 million views on the ad as of Friday; Kantar’s tally, which included YouTube, stopped Wednesday, meaning the video has accrued at least another 6 million views since then.
But just like the views dropped off after Volkswagen’s mega-hit, so does the value of the free media. “Pug Attack” generated a little less than $100,000 in media value and “Imported From Detroit” $90,000. Overall, the top-10 Super Bowl ads on the web have generated more than $1 million in media value since the game.
February 10, 2011
Read more at: LATimes
A question popped into my mind sometime during the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday night. Around the time Usher descended from the heavens as a lip-syncing deus ex machina to save us from Fergie’s howling screech, I tried to imagine if anthropologists in the future got their hands on a tape of last night’s game.
What would they think of us?
What would they think of those spots that cost $3 million per 30 seconds? If anything, those market-researched masterpieces reflected quite a bit about our culture: We love a laugh; we love innuendo; we love it when we are in on the joke. We are addicted to technology. We love car commercials that make us proud of America. We love chimps in suits. We either cannot have fun or are testy and violent until we have alcohol. And a Pepsi Max crotch shot to a grown-up frat boy — it doesn’t get any better than that.
Some of us are postmodern and ironic, and are snobs about it. Others embrace the uncomplicated and unsophisticated, and are snobs about it too. The Super Bowl forces the two to come together. Some laugh at the joke, others are laughing at the ones laughing at the joke.
Last night’s commercials aimed both high and low. Many missed the mark or stirred the pot. Reading the Show Tracker comments on the ads, a bevy of them were racist, sexist, too violent, too stupid. But, hey, that’s what makes us buy things.
February 9, 2011
Read more at: Yahoo Sports
Fans whose Super Bowl plans were altered by seating problems at Super Bowl XLV have filed a lawsuit against the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones. The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, fraud and deceptive sales practices.
The Dallas News reports that the plantiffs are seeking $5 million from the NFL. Up to 1,000 fans may join the suit.
Some of the complaints are legitimate (the 400 fans who didn’t end up having a seat to the game, for instance) while others come off as a bit forced (some season-ticket holders weren’t aware they’d be in temporary seats).
“Unfortunately, not all of the ticket-holders to Super Bowl XLV got what they bargained for or what was promised to them,” the lawsuit states.
The league screwed up twice: first by not having Cowboys Stadium ready, and second by its inadequate offer of repentance which would give fans $2,400 and was later amended to include a ticket to next year’s Super Bowl or an option to take a ticket to a future Super Bowl, airfare and hotel included. This wasn’t a negotiation. The NFL should have made the fans an offer they couldn’t refuse up front. Now it’ll end up having to pay more than they would have originally needed.
February 9, 2011
Read more at: USA Today
Super Bowl ads are designed to sell things such as chips, cars, beer and online trading accounts. But these multimillion-dollar spots — which air in the most-watched TV show each year — also expose the brands to the court of public opinion.
Most creative use of an animal
Bridgestone won praise for its ad with a beaver saving a driver’s life after the quick-braking driver earlier spared the critter.
Biggest belly laugh
A Doritos ad with an office geek who sucks nacho-cheese residue off one colleague’s finger and smells the crumbs on another’s pants made folks laugh out loud.
Worst use of a celebrity
Timothy Hutton took heat for an ad for online coupon site Groupon that used political struggles in Tibet. Sharing the scorn was Adrien Brody as a sappy crooner for Stella Artois beer.
Most selling power for the product
Perhaps it was because they were watching a football game, but panelists say the National Football League ad with a montage of classic TV clips made them bigger fans of the NFL. The clips were given modern football twists — such as superimposing Jets jerseys on The Sopranos stars. The ad ended with the NFL logo and: “Best. Fans. Ever.”
Most politically incorrect
In addition to booing Hutton’s acting, panelists were dismayed at Groupon’s theme: taking an ad that looked like an advocacy spot for Tibetan people, then playing up the discounts that Groupon can get for Tibetan restaurants.
Biggest waste of production money
An over-the-top Kia Motors America ad featured Poseidon, aliens and a group of chanting Mayans all vying for the all-new Optima. But it underwhelmed reviewers.
Most likely to set women back 100 years
A slew of panelists deemed tasteless a GoDaddy spot with race driver Danica Patrick and fitness trainer Jillian Michaels as GoDaddy Girls.
Best one-liners
•”This is the Motor City, and this is what we do.” A reference to Detroit in a Chrysler 200 ad featuring rapper and Detroiter Eminem.
•”I told you to get a flu shot,” says the E-Trade baby to sneezing cat Peppers in a post-game ad.
•”If you wanna look like me, it’s a shake for breakfast a shake for lunch and extensive surgery for dinner,” Joan Rivers in the online added material for her GoDaddy ad.
February 9, 2011
Read more and see the ad in question at: FOX News
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) took to the House floor Tuesday night to criticize what she called a “demeaning” Pepsi ad that aired during the Super Bowl.
In the ad for Pepsi Max, a black woman sitting on a park bench gets angry with her husband after an attractive, white female jogger sits down next to the couple and smiles and waves at the man.
February 8, 2011
Curious how “Welcome” — our very first Super Bowl ad — was made? Go behind the scenes and see how we brought 125 years of innovation to the small screen in this Hollywood-scale production.
February 8, 2011
This fascinating, behind-the-scenes video, gives you an up-close and personal look at the making of the entomological, CGI wonderland of the Black Beetle.
February 8, 2011
Read more at: FXGuide
Leave it to the Beaver: Bridgestone
In Bridgestone Tires’ ‘Carma’ spot, a driver’s close encounter with a very thankful beaver is repaid when the animal saves his life from a raging river torrent. Method Studios in Los Angeles helped realise the beaver as a digital creature.
Directed by Kinka Usher for agency The Richards Group, the spot reunited Method CG supervisor Andy Boyd with the same team behind the popular Bridgestone ‘Scream’ Super Bowl commercial that featured a digital squirrel. “When I first found out about the spot,” says Boyd, “there were already some rough storyboards that had been done and that was pretty exciting seeing that, especially when we found out it was the same creative and director, who we got on really well with.”
The spot was filmed with the aid of a real beaver and a stuffie beaver on location as reference, and some early enthusiasm towards achieving a number of the shots practically. Ultimately, since the animal had to perform very specific actions – not least of which were a salute to the driver and a later fist pump – Method created an entirely digital beaver for use in the commercial.
The raging river torrent and collapsing bridge from which the driver is saved were achieved mostly as CG elements. “The foreground is real and in the distance is a matte painting,” says Boyd. The whole river is all CG, and that was a collaboration with Scanline VFX in Germany. When we saw that shot, we thought we’d straight away call the pro’s and they came on board to collaborate with us.”
“We built the bridge in CG using photogrammetry from the location,” adds Wigart, “we animated the bridge as a Houdini simulation while Scanline was creating the water torrent. It was interesting trying to get those elements working together when they were being done in separate places, but it turned out great. Kinka set up the shot nicely for the effect — having the river snake into the background gives it depth and makes it feel very real.”
Read more about special effects used in the Cars.com commercial at FXGuide
February 8, 2011
Roseanne’s logging mishap top TiVo Super Bowl ad
Read more at: KansasCity.com
Apparently we all loved watching Roseanne getting knocked down by a huge log in that Snickers commercial Sunday, because the spot topped TiVo’s list of “most engaging” Super Bowl moments.
TiVo declared it the most popular ad based on the number of its users who rewound it and watched it again and again. (Confession time: I was one of those people. Hysterical.)
Aside from the commercials, the most-TiVo’d moment of all Sunday night — not surpringly — was Ben Roethlisberger’s fail of a pass to Mike Wallace that handed the Packers the win.
February 8, 2011
Overall Most Liked Ads
1. Volkswagen: The Force
2. Bridgestone: Carma
3. Volkswagen: Black Beetle
Most Viewed Ads
1. Doritos: Pug Attack
2. Volkswagen: The Force
3. Bud Light: Hack Job
Overall Most Liked Ads by Women
1. Volkswagen: The Force
2. Bridgestone: Carma
3. NFL: Super Bowl Celebration
Overall Most Liked Ads by Men
1. Bridgestone: Carma
2. Volkswagen: The Force
3. Paramount: Captain America: The First Avenger
Most Polarizing by Gender
Women Strongly Favor
1. Chevrolet: GMME
2. Play60: Who’s Next?
3. Twentieth Century Fox: Rio
4. Chevrolet: Cruze Status
5. Living Social: It’ll Change Your Life
Men Strongly Favor
1. Columbia Pictures: Battle: Los Angeles
2. Universal: Cowboys and Aliens
3. Skechers: Kim Kardashian: Hello Skechers
4. Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY: Surgeon – Extended
5. Paramount: Thor
Overall Most Disliked Ads
1. Salesforce: Chatter.com Launch: Still Doing Impossible Things
2. Salesforce: Chatter.com Launch: Do Impossible Things
3. Go Daddy: The Contract
Most Active States (Most Votes)
1. California
2. Texas
3. New York
4. Washington
5. Florida
Most Liked, by Region
West
1. Volkswagen: The Force
2. Bridgestone: Carma
3. Volkswagen: Black Beetle
4. NFL: Super Bowl Celebration
5. Doritos: House Sitting
Midwest
1. Volkswagen: The Force
2. Bridgestone: Carma
3. Chrysler: Imported From Detroit
4. Volkswagen: Black Beetle
5. NFL: Super Bowl Celebration
South
1. Bridgestone: Carma
2. Volkswagen: The Force
3. Volkswagen: Black Beetle
4. NFL: Super Bowl Celebration
5. Doritos: House Sitting
East
1. Bridgestone: Carma
2. Volkswagen: The Force
3. NFL: Super Bowl Celebration
4. Volkswagen: Black Beetle
5. Coca-Cola: Border
February 8, 2011
Read more at: SocialTimes
The Super Bowl has come and gone, but today all anyone can talk about is the ads. Which commercial was the worst? Which was the best? And did you see that hilarious dog party? Well now you cannot only watch all the Super Bowl commercials online, but you can also see how they rank against one other. Hulu opened up their AdZone to viewers during the Super Bowl and asked them to rank the commercials live during last night’s game. Now the polls are closed, the results are announced and the top ten Super Bowl 2011 commercials can bask in advertising glory. Did your favorite Super Bowl ads make the cut?
Volkswagen: The Force 95% of Hulu viewers gave this spot thumbs up.
Bridgestone: Carma 95% of Hulu viewers gave this spot thumbs up.
Volkswagen: Black Beetle 85% of Hulu viewers gave this spot thumbs up.
Doritos: House Sitting 84% of Hulu viewers gave this thumbs up.
NFL: Super Bowl Celebration 84% of Hulu viewers gave this thumbs up.
Mars: Snickers 81% of Hulu viewers gave this thumbs up.
Paramount: Captain America 81% of Hulu viewers gave this thumbs up.
Coca-Cola: Border 79% of Hulu viewers gave this thumbs up.
Pepsi: Love Hurts 78% of Hulu viewers gave this thumbs up.
Chrysler: Imported From Detroit 78% of Hulu viewers gave this thumbs up.
February 8, 2011
Read more at: Adage
Had your fill of Super Bowl post-game ad analysis yet? Ad Age is making it all easier to digest by compiling all the big studies and reports out there, so you can compare and contrast the opinions of various ad scribes, seers and scrutinizers. Are we missing one? Tell us about it and we’ll include it if we think it has heft and punch.
Ken Wheaton added salt and pepper to the Super Bowl ad discussion, giving top marks to spots from Best Buy, Chrysler, Groupon and the NFL.
A pair of Bud Light and Doritos spots that got low marks from Mr. Wheaton are taking over the top of the USA Today Ad Meter.
Sentiment on Twitter, however, gave Super Bowl victories to Volkswagen, Chrysler and Groupon, according to the “Brand Bowl” conducted by Mullen and Radian6 for the Boston Globe.
Volkswagen also won a popularity contest, McKee Wallwork Cleveland’s annual AdBowl, and a brainier attempt at rating the ads, the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review.
According to Emily Steel at The Wall Street Journal. “Several star-studded ads flopped, at least among Madison Avenue peers,” she wrote.
Another arm-chair review of each spot is posted at: the Lint Screen.
