Unlike most people, I actually hate commercials. Well, actually that would make me 100 percent like most people, but I guess the big difference is that I also don’t like the commercials during the Super Bowl. Let me put it this way: when you fundamentally don’t like dog shit on your shoe, it doesn’t matter that it’s the best dog shit of the year. Still, it would be wrong not to at least pay attention to what most people will be talking about today, and it ain’t Tom Brady…
Trend 1. The Re-Emergence of Established Brands I’ve Forgotten About: Everything from Doritos to GM was back this year as apparently big companies are the only ones that could afford to spend the requisite million per ad, and young upstarts like Google probably just decided it wasn’t worth it. I enjoyed GM’s apocalypse ad that said you wouldn’t survive if you drove a Ford but the next five ads weren’t nearly as clever. And the same after the 15th Doritos commercial.
Trend 2. I Still Hate Pepsi: I’ve never liked Pepsi (the parent company of Doritos coincidentally) as a drink, and consider it vastly, vastly inferior to Coca-Cola (if you’re going to do something wrong, do it right and drink the BEST unhealthy beverage). I’ve also never been too impressed with their overly snarky commercials that just seem to dwell on how much they hate Coca-Cola more than that they’ve got a great product. You’ll notice that Coke’s ads barely seem aware of Pepsi, like they’re an annoying gnat that keeps buzzing around their face.
Trend 3. NBC’s last chance: Part of having the most watched television program of the year means the least-watched television network can get free publicity for their shows. And so NBC tried to make the most of it by advertising non-stop for The Voice and Smash. [They even threw Awake a bone by mentioning them in one ad.] My fingers are crossed for you NBC! [They ain’t got a chance.]
Trend 4. Babies Never Go Out of Style: I can’t think of any individual ads that had a baby in it, but I do remember there being at least one giggling white baby in every fifth or sixth ad, selling seemingly everything.
Trend 5. Emotional Ads Get Me Everytime: I’m a sucker for a heart tugger of an ad and tonight was no exception. Whereas Pepsi’s snark just put me off but Coca-Cola’s decision to pull their polar bears out of retirement put a smile on my face, so did Chrysler’s decision to do the same with Clint Eastwood. For me the best single ad was Clint Eastwood talking about how it’s “Halftime in America” for two minutes, but that’s probably just because I’m a big softie.
Which ads were best to you?