Yaffe Tidbits

The Best and Worst Super Bowl Ads

Yesterday was the day, I don't move for 3+ hours. Being a huge football fan and a huge advertising fan, Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most anticipated days of the year. Yesterday lived up to the hype. For the third year in a row, we had a great game. And although we don't see the true wow factor in the commercials as we did in the good old days, it was a pretty good crop of ads this year - with the usual smattering of clunkers. So, let's look at what made my top ten list and what made me ashamed to be an ad man. First the good:

Number 10: Tru TV:"Punxsotawny Polamalu"

This commercial isn't getting the buzz around the agency as some of the others, but I thought it was pretty funny. Set up to look like Ground Hog's Day, the crowd is gathered around as the head guy in tux and top hat is pulling on this rat nest of hair. Finally, he pulls up a little Troy Polamalu by the hair. Polamalu sees his shadow and it's declared we'll have 6 more weeks of football, on Tru Tv's new reality show. Bonus chuckle: Polamalu's flexing at the end.

Number 9: Bud Light: "T-Pain"

Another one that just made me laugh out loud. Some random guy's wife brings home a 6-pack of Bud Light and all the sudden he's talking in the electronic T-Pain voice. He gets 3 buddies on the phone, all in the middle of doing mundane things like brushing their teeth, and they all start talking in that same electronic voice, about how they're gonna party now. At the end the actual T-Pain is at the party speaking electronically and looking for some guacamole.

Number 8: Flo TV "My Generation"

Flo TV did real well, this Super Bowl. I liked a lot of their spots, including some good ones with football announcers Jim Nance and Jim Brown. But the best of the bunch was a montage of highly charged events from the last half a century set to Will-I-am's remix of the Who's "My Generation." The base idea is nothing new, but the execution was done really well.

Number 7: Kia Sorento Toy Fantasy Life

With the Big 3 automakers pretty much out of the Super Bowl this year, we saw a flood of innovative ads from the foreign car companies. My favorite was the Kia Sorento spot featuring a hip gang of toys out for a night on the town in their new Kia. Turns out they belong to a kid who's mom drives a Sorento. Fun, cool spot.

Number 6: Doritos "House Rules"

Doritos was all over the place, producing some of the best and some of the worst ads on the Super Bowl. This one was the best of the best of them. It features his mom's date showing up, checking out the mom as she walks away and then taking a chip from the kid's bowl. The kid is having none of that and lets him know in no uncertain terms.

Number 5: Denny's Chicken campaign

Denny's had three spots featuring chickens screaming in terror in response to free Grand Slam breakfasts and how many eggs that was gonna require. The first, announcement one was only so-so, but the second two "Chickens Across America" and the :15 second "Chicken Birthday Ad" were classic. I knew it was a hit when the chicken in space floated by doing a silent scream and i could hear my son's group of 20-something friends all laughing from the other room.

Number 4: Vizio "Forge"

First of all, it's featuring a pretty cool looking product a flat screen TV enabled to run all kinds of Internet apps. It opens with Beyonce' singing and a huge mechanical arm snatches her mid-song, dumping her into a whole. It continues to grab all kinds of things including the Chocolate Rain guy and the Numah-Numah kid, dumping them all into the whole that apparently is the way into the new TV. Showcases cool product features in a very cool way.

Number 3: Bud Light "House"

The high point of the Bud Light stuff this year. Crazy house where everything, including the house, is made of Bud Light. There's even "Bud Light in this fridge made of Bud Light." Thirsty friends start to destroy everything to get at a can or bottle of the beer.

Number 2: Volkswagen "PunchDub"

Loved this ad. They took a simple, brandcentric game we've all played, Slug Bug, and turned into a great ad about their whole line. The spot features all kinds of people in all kinds of situations slugging someone and say, "there's a red one" or whatever color. From to Amish guys in a buggy to two partied out guys in the back of a limo. The spot has a great kicker at the end featuring Stevie Wonder and Tracy Morgan.

And my number 1 Super Bowl spot: Google "Parisian Love"

Great first effort by Google. It's simple. It's engaging. It's compelling. And it tells a story. All through simple googles a guy does over time in the process of wooing a French girl to become his girlfriend, wife and mother of his child. All done by simple product demonstration that highlights the key benefits without them getting in the way of a good story. Best one of the bunch.

Honorable Mentions:

I did have a hard time cutting this down to just 10 commercials. The ones that just missed the cut are a Snickers ad where Betty White gets drilled in a backyard football game, a touching but funny Simpsons ad for Coke, Monster's Beaver Violinist was a scream, as was their pre-game Boogy Man ad, The Letterman ad with Opera and Jay Leno at his lousy Super Bowl party, the Audi Green Police spot, the new eTrade baby spots and the Doritos "Snack Attack Samuria" spot where a guy who stole a bag of the snacks from Tim's locker finds mild mannered Tim garbed in a Dorito suit of armor.

And the Worst of the Bunch:

There were still those that made me want to make sure nobody knew I worked in Advertising. The worst offenders, in no particular order are: The Charles Barkley ad for Taco Bell. It was a lot of build up for nothing. I had a feeling from watching the teaser ads that it would be bad, but it was way worse than I thought it would be. The Go Daddy spots are now not just sexist and full of empty titillation, they're just plain stupid. The woman tries to outdo Danica Patrick and whips off her outer wear to reveal a skimpy Go Daddy beater shirt. The ad then hits us with instructions to go to the website to see what happens next. There's no real indication as to what might happen next other than to warn it's for mature adults. Why Ms Patrick does these is beyond me. Another clunker was the guy who faked his death to be put in a coffin filled with Doritos. He's inside it watching the game on a mini TV while his funeral is going on, He then gets exited and knocks the casket over spilling out him and his Doritos. And maybe the worst of the worst is the Boost Mobil Chicago Bears spot bringing back these old pros to reenact their Super Bowl shuffle. Problem is half the audience has no idea who these guys are and why they're dancing around. They just know it's awful, and it is.

What are your thoughts? Did I miss your fav or one you hated?

Mike McClure, Executive Creative Director

Is Digital Killing the Local Sports Fan?

I set my clock early this morning and got up with the eager anticipation of an old time bride and groom on their wedding night. I live for mornings like this. My beloved Spartans had made the Final 4 in the NCAA tournament the day before. Like similar days in my past, I was expecting to find the stories splashed across the front page of my morning Detroit Free Press. I expected a full sports section dedicated to MY TEAM.

I got out on my porch and stood there dumbfounded. There was nothing there. Then, the realization hit me. Today was the first day the Free Press stopped delivering a daily paper. It will only come Thursday, Friday and Sunday now. Like other papers around the country, they are failing. Too many people these days, especially the young, get all their news online and are not buying papers any more.Me?  I've read a paper every morning of my adult life. I turn 50 next week. The magic is gone. Like modern couples (who don't wait for their wedding day to consummate the relationship any more), there will no longer by any mystery and anticipation on my special days. So, I downloaded a few stories online and took them with me to read over breakfast (our home computer isn't a laptop). It wasn't the same. It was over way too soon.

Then it got worse. Before on days like this, I could listen to the local sports talk stations jabber on and on all day about every little nuance of my team's great accomplishment and break down all that was to come. Some months ago, the sports talk radio I listened to, WDFN, dropped all local programing, fired the local talk jocks and went all national syndicated programing. Part of the Clear Channelization of America. We have another sports talk station, but for whatever reason, their morning show doesn't talk about sports. They talk about local politics and local business and goofy morning talk prattle you can hear on every morning show in America.

It's maddening. Something has been lost. It's not just happening here, it's happening everywhere. In general, I love the digital revolution. And to be honest, I probably won't renew the trade magazines we subscribe to here in the office, because they sit in my mailbox for months at a time. I get most of my trade news and views through my own searches, through my twitter updates and through the email newsletters I subscribe to. That's part of the problem. I'm part of the problem. But is it a problem or something an old guy like me just needs to get used to. And more importantly, what's a local sports enthusiast to do? Will national brand name teams, college or pros, gain more prominence over local. Or will we just migrate to our favorite sites, our Facebook fan pages and Twitter sports follows? What do you think?

Mike McClure, ECD & frustrated sports fan

Pumped Up, Ratings Down

Well, the Mitchell Report comes out today (12/13), indicting hordes of baseball stars of being on the “juice” i.e. steroids.  For die-hard sports fans, this is big news.  But does the rest of America really care?  It’s no secret that TV ratings have been continuously slipping for all four major sports (if you consider hockey a major sport).  You’ll find all kinds of theories out there explaining this decline: 24-hour sports saturating the market, overexpansion, people’s disenchantment for today’s pro athlete, long regular seasons, the New York Yankees.  Personally, I love sports, but I do find myself watching less and less on TV.  How about you and why?

A Football Fan without a coach,

Ron Lee

Sr. Copywriter

Root, root, root for the (your company’s name here)

When Comerica decided to move their headquarters from Detroit to Dallas, some local yokels were demanding that The Detroit Tigers change the name of their stadium from Comerica Park to almost anything else.  Does it really matter?  Are people really swayed to buy a product because a company has its logo on the wall?  Personally, I think it’s nice to see a business support a team on the scholastic level because that school probably needs the financial help.  On the major league level, however, I think it’s pointless.  I really don’t care that this company is helping line the team owner’s pocket with money.  How do you feel?

Sports fan forever,

Ron Lee

Senior Copywriter 

Super Impact?

What kind of impact, if any, do you think the Super Bowl had on the city of Detroit?  I heard this question brought up on a local talk radio station prior to this year’s Super Bowl.  Everyone agreed it was a great pick-me-up and was good for the psyche of the city, but it seemed like a lot of callers that actually lived in the city felt it made no social impact whatsoever i.e. suburbanites won’t come into the city unless they know a lot of other suburbanites will be there too.  What do you think?

Someone who should spend more time in the “D”

Ron Lee

The consumers are watching

I get to write my blog entry right after the Super Bowl; one of the occasions when the advertising industry can either shine or come across as total morons.  There have been some stupendously horrible advertising blunders, which have been broadcast across the nation during past Super Bowl's which makes you wonder "what were they thinking".  Click here to view this year's Super Bowl ads.

Someone had to come up with this brilliant idea, pitch it internally at their Agency and then convince presumably savvy corporate executives that, for example, a talking baby would propel their brand to the next level.

I have always been very proactive when it comes to letting corporations know when I am either happy or displeased with their product.  Lately I saw an ad on TV for an auto insurance company.  It featured three women driving in an open top car and none of them were wearing seat belts, so I sent an e-mail to the company telling them that I thought this was poor advertising.  They responded, most don't.  I can only presume that my e-mail was one of many but their ad now has a disclaimer saying that as it was an older car it only had lap belts and they were wearing them.

I also wrote to a Jeans company telling them that their ads, which they ran at Halloween about a store dummy following the buyer of the jeans home and even entering the house, was creepy...I suggested their tag line should be "buy our jeans and you too can get your own stalker"....they didn't respond but I read on-line that the ad had been pulled because of complaints.

I have been told that I just didn't understand what a particular ad was trying to tell me, well no kidding, doesn't that mean that it's a poor ad? Cute ads are great, funny and many of them are memorable, but how many do you see where you have no idea what they are trying to sell you.

Anyway, the most important time of the year is upon us...DAYTONA!!!!! NASCAR's banner event is on February 18th, with February 10th being the Budweiser Shootout. This year marks the entry of Toyota into the Nextel Cup Race, the Car of Tomorrow, which will be featured in 17 races this season, and a change in the points system, in the race for the Chase.

This blogger is hoping for big things from Dale Ernhardt Jr. this year. He has been putting in some good fast practice sessions and doesn't seem to be having any issues with his cars. So, good luck to the Number 8 Budweiser, Wrangler, Menards, Bass Pro Shops, Sherwin Williams, Sunoco, Sharpie, Freightliner, Kennametal, Chevy Monte Carlo.

Sheila Smith

Agency Watchdog & Nascar Reporter