Yaffe Tidbits

10 Good Super Bowl 2012 Ads & An Ugly One

The 2012 Super Bowl and accompanying Brand Bowl has come and gone. There were some good ads and some really bad ads, but none stood out to me as truly great ads. In the last few years, picking a number one ad was either easy because it was a standout or hard because, like last year, there were two standouts (VW Vader spot and Chrysler's Imported from Detroit spot). This year it was hard because I really didn't have strong feelings about any one spot. But be that as it may, here's my top 10 spots and my worst of the year pick.

10. Honda - "Matthew's Day Off"

So many people loved this ad, that I had to make it a top 10. But truthfully, I'm not a big fan. I think part of it was that Honda used VW's Vader kid "leak the spot online" strategy and it backfired. Instead of endearing the spot to me with all the coverage it got before the Super Bowl, I was already tired of it. I think if I saw it and it was a surprise, I might have felt - oh wow, look what they did. Instead, I felt, meh... they took an iconic movie character and reinacted some movie stuff and it didn't tie in to the car at all. If I hadn't looked up the spot, I wouldn't have been able to tell you which car it was.

 

9. Oikos Greek Yogurt - "The Tease"

This one made the list simply because it's got a woman head butting John Stamos to the floor. And who doesn't want to see that again?

 

8. The Voice - "Vocal Kombat"

Props to NBC's The Voice for creating something far more engaging than a montage of clips for a show promo. This was entertaining, had high action, cool graphics and still got across the premise of the show, which is the judges fighting to get the best voice to choose them. Love the "Kill Bill" sequences and graphics, down to Cee-Lo's outfit. And the twist at the end made me laugh.

 

7. Doritos - "Man's Best Friend"

What's the Super Bowl without dog spots. Here's the first one to make my list. One of the winners of Doritos annual Super Bowl ad contest. Clever concept, the dog gives his master Doritos as "hush money" after "offing" the cat. Nice.

 

6. Sex Sells for H&M and Teleflora

We always see examples of good and bad use of the time honored tradition of sex sells. Here's two good examples - one for the men and one for the ladies. First, there was Teleflora. I would actually call this a great product benefit spot. Guys may think giving flowers is stupid. But, with Valentine's Day coming up, Teleflora reminds us dumb guys the real product benefit of buying flowers, mixing metaphors with Christmas, using the line, "give, and you shall receive."

 

On the other hand, we have David Beckham for men's underwear for H&M. Now, you may think they're targeting the wrong market - getting the ladies attention for a men's underwear product. But, I'm sure their research shows that most of the men's underwear is actually bought by the women in their lives. Let's face it, most of us guys will keep wearing shabby, holey underwear rather than go buy new stuff. Also, judging by a lot of the tweets I read, a lot of women are buying this stuff just because they're buying whatever he's selling.

 

5. Chrysler - "Halftime in America"

I have mixed feelings about this one. For one thing, it must have run during the one time I got up and left the set - so I didn't see it in context, just later on the web. It suffers by comparison. Last year's imported from Detroit spot featuring Eminem was so powerful and poignant. Trying to recapture the magic of a special spot is very hard to do. I think they did a valiant job here, but it pales in comparison. For one thing, as someone living in Detroit, I don't remember that "we almost lost it all" - sure time have been tough and we were hit harder than most, but I don't remember ever thinking we were going to lose everything. It's a well written, well produced spot with an icon to lead the charge. But, it's not last year's spot. Not even close.

 

4. Budweiser - Eternal Optimism

Don't love the beer, but I love this ad. And I wish my clients had this kind of budgets! It's a lot of fun, with a great soundtrack featuring a mash-up The Cult's "She Sells Sanctuary" and Flo Rida's "Good Feelin'." It basically shows that over time, people have always gathered together with their buds for a good time gathering - and often it's involved their favorite beer. It's a spot that works well with Budweiser's tagline "Grab some Buds."

 

3. Volkswagen - "The Dog Strikes Back"

This is really two spots in one. One spot about a dog that sees the new VW Beetle and really wants to chase it, but needs to get in shape to do so. And another that takes place in a galaxy far, far away. I think VW did a much better job of trying to top last year's special ad, than Chrysler. They didn't succeed either, but I like what they did better. Instead of the new and improved version, they went with a new spot that gives a nod to the old classic. I didn't see the twist at the end coming and I loved it. I know some think they should have just ended it with the dog's story. Personally, I think it could have come off as schmaltzy by itself. With the commercial shifting to the Star Wars bar and a blatant reference to last year's spot - I thought it was great. I also like that the pre-Super Bowl spot released on the web (dogs barking out the Darth Vader theme) was a nice hint to the eventual spot without actually being the spot.

 

2. Accura - "Transactions"

I originally had this as my number one ad, but upon further review, it turns out I like the Chevy ad better. I did really like this one though. Of all the ads, this one got the biggest laughs from me. Sure, it was a bit over the top. But, Leno in a flying squirrel jet back to steal the deal just as Jerry Seinfeld was about to seal it? Loved it. What can I say, you make me laugh, you're gonna get high marks from me. It's just how I roll.

 

1. Chevy Silverado - "2012 Mayan Calendar"

I love this ad. Talk about a brand promise - buy our product and survive the apocalypse. Sure, it's not realistic, but it's fun. And I don't mind at all that they took a poke at the competition. I come from a rural area where guys drive trucks and if you're a Chevy guy, you look at the Ford and Dodge guys with disdain and vise versa. It just taps into the target market mindset.

I like that they took something topical like the predicted end of the world and had fun with it. They didn't just stick with one reason either - you see alien spacecraft, volcanoes, meteors and even the more biblical rain of frogs. Loved the burning Big Boy statue and a play on the old joke (and recent Zombie movie) idea that one of the things that will last forever is twinkies. Nice co-branding opportunity, too, I'm sure. Added bonus for the counter intuitive Barry Manalow track.

 

And 1 Ugly One.

That's my take on the best spots. There were plenty of disappointments, too. I think the eTrade baby spots have lost their luster. Career Builder brought back the chimps and it wasn't bad, but it was just a rehash of previous spots. I thought the Cars.com one with the extra head singing was just creepy. But one advertiser was just ugly. I bet you know who it was. Go Daddy once again stunk up the place with horrible ads that just ticked off at least half of the possible customers right off the bat. As one woman tweeted, "what? Women don't buy domain names?" Where H&M and Teleflora (and even Fiat) used sex to sell in a good way, these people use it all wrong. Their spots are sexist. They play the bait and switch game - Oooo, come to our website and maybe you'll see these women naked (you won't). And to make matters worse, it's just bad, reheated creative. They've basically run the same idea for I don't know how many Super Bowls now. Time to banish them from the event, if you ask me.

So, what were your favorites? Did I miss some? Do you think I'm a moron for including one of these? I'd love to hear your take on the best and worst of 2012 Super Bowl ads.

Mike McClure, Ad Junkie

Ad of the Week: Santa Monica BMW - Checkmate

I don't think I've ever had an outdoor board as my Ad of the Week before, but this one really grabbed me. It's brilliant in it's message, it's positioning and size. This is a nod to the media people as much as the creative team. And to whoever was keeping aware of the local landscape.

Apparently there was an Audi outdoor board that showed their new answer to luxury cars and had the words "Your Move, BMW." Well, the local BMW dealer made their move and it was a good one. They bought a bigger board right across the street and put their answer on it. And their message was "Checkmate" - game over. I don't know if it was actually the local dealership or the brand made the move and tagged it with the local dealer. Either way, nicely played, BMW, nicely played.

Santa Monica BMW - "Checkmate"

Reminds us all to be careful when poking the giant with a stick. Sometimes they wake up and poke back. What good rebuttle ads have you seen?

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director

Ad of the Week: Google+ - Muppets Rock Out In a Hangout

There was no doubt this ad would become one of my ads of the week. When I first saw it at home, I kept backing it up on the DVR and replaying it. Made me smile every time. Of course, there's no way it could lose. First off, if you follow my Ad of the Week posts, you know I love the ads Google has been doing for the last few years. I think they produce some of the most consistently wonderful advertising out there. Every ad tells a story that connects well with it's audience.

But the ad for Google+ with the Muppets doing a hangout while playing along with the Queen/David Bowie classic "Under Pressure" seems like it's targeted specifically at me. For one thing, I'm a HUGE Muppets fan. I love almost everything they do. I'm also a huge David Bowie fan and Under Pressure is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Yet, I don't think Google was talking just to me. Seems a lot of people love this ad. Which is part of my initial point. Google just knows how to connect well with people. Maybe it's because they know so much about us, given all the data they're able to collect. But, in their advertising at least, they seem to be using the info for good, not evil. So, in my completely biased opinion, here's one of the best ads of the last year.

 Google+ - Muppets Rock Out in a Hangout

So, what did you think? Love it as much as I do? Or is there another ad out there you think is better? Let me know, maybe your favorite will end up as a future ad of the week.

Mike McClure - Self-admitted Muppet Maniac

Ad of the Week: Happy Honda Days

Having spent the first eight years of my career working on the retail side of automotive advertising, I can appreciate a well-done holiday/end of year clearance event. Every car company does them. You can't watch the local news without at least a couple car ads in every commercial break. That's why I especially appreciate the low-key clever campaign Honda is doing this year with their Happy Honda Days ads. Not only are they well written, they did a lot of them - so you're a lot less likely to get bored watching the same one or two holiday ads over and over again.

The spots feature celebrity spokesperson, Patrick Warburton, who delivers the lines in a tongue-in-cheek, low-key tone that draws you in. The ads have fairly simple premises, with most featuring a car on a simple blue set with maybe a Christmas tree and a few patches of "snow." Warburton looks almost Christmas Story-esque in his old-style hair cut, red striped tie and vee-neck sweaters.

Each ad kind of lampoons the traditional holiday car sale format. My favorite makes fun of the Lexus, giving a car with a big red bow on it ads. It starts with Warburton asking, "Are you a millionaire? If you're not, you probably don't give cars for Christmas." He pulls the bow off the car as he says this and goes on to talk about how you might, however, need a car for yourself and now's a good time to get one. But, never one to take themselves seriously, at the end he says you can't have the one he's standing by, because it's for his niece. While telling us this, he tries to put the bow back on it - because, after all, he IS a millionaire who can give cars as gifts.

 Happy Honda Days - "Car Gift"

Another one I really like is where they make fun of the fact that all of these nationally produced ads (their's included) usually leave room at the end for a 5-second tag with an offer. So they open with the offer and then he makes fun of the convention of the normal ad format they've been using. It ends playing with the "dramatic" cuts in closer each sentence until it's just his lips on camera saying "too close." Good stuff.

 Happy Honda Days - Giant Offer

And let's wrap it up with the ad where they say they're not going to use the holiday angle to sell you, then use a different (and still holiday) angle blatantly at the end.

 Happy Honda Days - The Holiday Angle

There are a lot more of them, if you want to watch them all. Most of them are suggested after you watch one of the ones above. It's my favorite holiday campaign. How about you? What holiday ad campaign has made you feel jolly all over? Or if you have a suggestion for another ad of the week, let me know that too.

Mike McClure - Looking more like Santa every year.

The D Show Winners Make Good Ads of the Week

Last night I attended The D Show, Detroit's annual award show for excellence in advertising and marketing. I saw some great work being done here in the D and thought I'd share some of them here in our regular Ad of the Week feature. The best of show went to Chrysler's moving Super Bowl spot, "Born of Choir" featuring the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" and the imported from Detroit theme. We've already featured this spot in our Super Bowl recap, where we named it our favorite ad of the event. You can go to that post to see it. There were several previous AOTW recipients who also won last night.

So, here are some of my favorites of the night. They are not necessarily the best in category winners, just winners that I found outstanding. One of my favorites also won last year and I kind of forgot about it until it won again this year. It's the Del Taco Super Special show. A series of weird and wacky skit webisodes designed to appeal to the off kilter, all night taco crowd. Here's a couple webisodes.

 Del Taco Super Special Show, When Tacos Ruled The Earth

 

 Del Taco Super Special Show, Bean There, Done That

The next D Show winner that I'd like to share is a spot for Carhartt. It's a bunch of guys camping, when one of them gets attacked by a pack of wolves. But once the attack ends, the guy is left unharmed and one of the wolves is left without a tooth.

 Carhartt - Wolves

I saw a lot of great work, interestingly one of the best storytelling videos is one that one in the music category. It's a non-broadcast video for the US Navy about how an Indian born Muslim who was a Kuwaiti refugee from Operation Desert Storm became a Navy Chaplin. It's a compelling human story told well.

 US Navy - Chaplain Balbale

And finally, I'd like to share another winner in the non-broadcast video, it's part of the Ford Explorer Live series, featuring Nelly talking about the awesome sound system. It's a funny video with a douche bag director who keeps trying to add a lot of bells and whistles to the video and Nelly, who is trying to just have the video be a simple one with him showing you what great sound you can get in the Explorer. It's a fun bit that pokes fun at our side of the business. Enjoy

 Ford Explorer - Nelly 2011 Video

Well, that's just a taste of the great work here in the D that was honored last night at The D Show. What do you think? And if you went to the show, what were your favorites that I left out? And as always, if you have a suggestion for ad of the week, just leave it here in the comment section, email it to info@yaffe.com, send us a tweet @TheYaffeGroup or drop us a note on Facebook.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director - feeling a little D envy today.

Ad of the Week: Google - Brian Kingrey Perfection

Google ads have been knocking it out of the park for some time now. But this one is about human drama and making sure no one knocks it out of the park. In this era of constant media bombardment, storytelling and engagement have become the key components in creating ads that get watched and that stick with you. Google has done it again with their latest, called "Brian Kingrey: Perfection"

It is a compelling story about amusic teacher who isn't into baseball but decides he's going to use statistics to win a million dollars playing a baseball video game, Major League Baseball 2K11. There was a contest where the first person to pitch a perfect game would win a million dollars. Kingrey, decided he was going to learn everything he needed to know to win. This, of course, involved a lot of Googling for facts.

The story is told in a multiple of ways. Sometimes his students tell the story. Sometimes he does. Sometimes we see it as if it's live. Sometimes the clerk at the video store is telling the story. Sometimes the video game announcer. To share how well they conveyed the story, it was brought to my attention by my senior art director, who hates baseball. He saw the spot, and despite his disdain for baseball, he found himself really getting into the story of digging up baseball stats and learning the game. If it can compell someone to watch a commercial about something they don't like - that's good storytelling.

It's another really well done Google spot. Enjoy.

 Google - Brian Kingrey: Perfection

Thanks again to Kyle for sharing the spot with me. If you have a suggestion for Ad of the Week, let us know. Drop us a suggestion in the comment sections below. Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, avid storyteller fan

Ad of the Week: Toyota Prius Family - People Person

After a couple week hiatus, Ad of the Week is back! And I think it's a good one. I've seen a number of ads out right now that I really like and a few people have suggested some good ones as well. But, my choice this week is Toyota's "People Person" spot for the family of Prius vehicles.

Who says all auto ads look alike. This one is really different, with a special effect that's just really fun to look at. But not only that, it actually makes a point about a brand feature. If you haven't seen the spot yet, It's a giant "person" made up of a bunch of people piled up into a humaniod shape. It gets up out of bed and goes about getting ready for work. The effect is facinating to watch. Then, when it leaves to go to work it sees the whole family of Prius, drops it's briefcase and suddenly all the people who make up this person start splitting off to get into the Prius that's right for them. The point being that within their family of cars there's something for everyone.

I'd only seen the :30 second spot on TV, but found the :60 online. It has a lot more shots of this people person getting ready for work and is a lot of fun to watch. That's the version I've put in this post below. Enjoy!

 Toyota Prius Family - "People Person"

If you have an idea for Ad of the Week, let us know. Drop us a suggestion in the comment sections below. Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, people person

Ad of the Week: State Farm - 911 New York Kids

Last Sunday marked the 10 anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. Which meant a number of advertisers rolled out either new tribute ads or ones that only ran once back in 2001. Budweiser brought back their moving tribute with the team of Clydesdale horses bowing towards New York. Verizon did a black and white ad with a bunch of kids looking at the Statue of Liberty (I only know it was Verizon because as I watched it for the umpteenth time during football I thought to myself - who does this ad? - and then paid attention to see the logo at the end)

My favorite of the day, though, was State Farm's ad. It featured a talented bunch of kids singing "Empire State of Mind" as they walked through New York to a firehouse. The door to the New York firehouse rolled up and bunch of tough looking firemen greet the children with smiling faces. When the kids finish the song, there's a real connection between the men and the children. There are also some nice shots of the new 9/11 memorial and the new skyscraper being built there.

 State Farm - 9/11 New York Kids

So, what do you think? Did the all the 9/11 ads move you or annoy you? If you liked them, which ad was your favorite? Also, do you think this was a smart move by the advertisers who did it or did it come off as pandering?

If you have an idea for Ad of the Week, let us know. Drop us a suggestion in the comment sections below. Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, Wondering What Works

Ad of the Week: Tide - Hoodies & Cargo Shorts

This commercial for Tide detergent featuring a tomboy little girl and an "oh-so-pink-obsessive" mom has caused a bit of controversy. Some are upset to the point of flinging F-bombs at Tide in the comments of the video. Personally, when I saw this ad on TV for the first time, I backed it up and called my daughter into the room to share it with her. We both had a good laugh.

You see, my daughter was one of those girls who insisted on wearing Tony Hawk clothes from the boys section. Now, she's 20 and hasn't worn a dress since she was about 8 and was bribed to wear one in my sister's wedding - where she was the flower girl. And I'm okay with that (the not wearing a dress part). So is her mom. We all found the ad something we could relate to on one level and funny, in that we could make fun of the mom who was trying to get a grip and be happy. She wasn't trying to push the girl into her model of femininity, but she was wishing for it.

I understand those who are unhappy with the ad, but I really think it's more about making fun of the mom than striking one for standard middle America gender stereotypes. So, what do you think? Offensive or funny?

 Tide - Hoodies & Cargo Shorts

If you have an idea for Ad of the Week, let us know. Drop us a suggestion in the comment sections below. Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, Tommy Boy Dad

Ad of the Week: Burger King - California Whopper

Over the last few years, Burger King advertising has mastered the art of being quirky, being funny, being sublime, even being a little creepy (plastic king man in your bed, anyone?). Burger King has ushered in innovations like the Subservient Chicken and branded X-Box games. What will they do next?

Well, to completely plagerize Monty Python: "And now for something completely different..."

BK's newest spot, presumably from their newest agency, features loads of beautiful food photography shot in interesting and innovative ways. They took all the ingredients for the guacamole and flew them in the air, moving camera shots in and through the onions, tomatoes and such. It's gorgeous camera work that says this is a delicious, quality food place. It just is a complete 180 from their brand and seems to float into McDonald's territory. Smart move or have they sold their weird quirky little souls? Take a look and let me know what you think.

 Burger King - California Whopper

Thanks to our Sr. AD, Satch for flagging this one for us. If you have an idea for Ad of the Week, leave it here in the comments. Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, Wondering if that emptiness in the pit of my stomach is hunger... or just sadness