While Anheuser-Busch "relied upon the tried-and-true
formula of animal gags" in its advertising on ABC's
broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIV last night, the "story of the
night was less the winners and more the losers," as the dot-
coms "walked off with little more than bruised egos and red
faces," according to USA TODAY's Bruce Horovitz. Horovitz:
"Such a lousy group showing could result in the nation's
dot-coms searching for a new field of marketing dreams next
year" (USA TODAY, 1/31). In Boston, Chris Reidy: "A Super
Bowl game that was a lot better than the ads?" Deutsch
Boston GM Kathy Kiely: "A lot of the ads were, like, www dot
come again? There were a lot of head-scratchers" (BOSTON
GLOBE, 1/31). On ABC's "GMA," Ad Age's Bob Garfield said,
"This was the 'I told you so'.com, because I told you a long
time ago that these things were going to fizzle. ... Most of
these dot-coms did not succeed in memorability or likability
or, for heaven's sake, in even telling you what they do for
a living" ("GMA," 1/31). A-B's second quarter spot titled
"Rex" took the top spot in USA TODAY's "Ad Meter," and
Farrell & McCarthy write that "once again" the company
"demonstrated that it has mastered the art of tickling the
funny bones of tens of millions of viewers." Monster.com's
effort drew the second-lowest rating (USA TODAY, 1/31).
NO CLEAR CONSENSUS? In DC, Tom Shales writes there was
"perhaps no single dominant ad" last night, but the "most
winningly memorable and high-impact advertisers would have
to include" WebMD, FedEx and E-Trade. Shales writes that
the WebMD spot featuring Muhammad Ali "would probably
deserve" the "trophy for best Super Bowl ad." Shales adds
the "clearly ... single worst" spot was Mountain Dew's
featuring a "man on a bicycle racing a cheetah," as it was
"gruesome and tasteless." Some of the "e-business ads were
clever and funny but didn't make clear what the Web site was
or what it had to offer" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/31). AD AGE's
Garfield calls last night's ad effort "sometimes magical,
but mostly terrible." He gives "four stars" to E-Trade and
three-and-one-half stars to NFLP, Computer.com, FedEx and
Oldsmobile. But he calls Nuveen's ad featuring Christopher
Reeve "crass and disgusting" (AD AGE, 1/31 issue). In
Houston, Mike McDaniel calls the "e-commerce ads similar and
uninteresting." McDaniel gives an A to Charles Schwab and
FedEx; a B+ to Mountain Dew and Pets.com; a B to NFLP; and
an F to Monster.com (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 1/31). EDS won top
honors in a "Southern region poll." Second place went to
FedEx, third went to A-B's "Rex" spot. Meanwhile,
Monster.com and Healtheon/WebMD tied for the "biggest waste
of money" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 1/31).
WINNERS: USA TODAY's advertising reporter Greg Farrell
talked about the ads on NBC's "Today." Farrell, on A-B's
Super Bowl success: "They really have a pulse on what makes
people laugh -- and large groups of people. They [appeal
to], according to our surveys, old and young people from
different demographic backgrounds" (NBC, 1/31). ABC's
"GMA" ran results of its Super Bowl Ad Survey of 12
panelists in their 20s and 30s, run by SWR World Wide
Polling. Mountain Dew won top honors (ABC, 1/31). SCRIPPS
HOWARD'S Steve Joynt calls the EDS spot "everything that
truly great commercials can and should be. It was clever,
well-written, satirical but highly original" (SCRIPPS
HOWARD, 1/31). In Pittsburgh, Chuck Finder: "E-Trade Wins
the Corporate Big-Buy Category, barely beating Budweiser"
(PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 1/31). In Baltimore, Kevin
Cowherd gives kudos to the two Mountain Dew spots, while
calling the Nuveen spot the "clear winner" for "dazzling
special effects." E-Trade "also scored with a funny spot"
(Baltimore SUN, 1/31). In L.A., Steve Horn gives "Thumbs
Up" to E-Trade, Mountain Dew and FedEx (L.A. TIMES, 1/31).
LOSERS: In Orlando, Jerry Greene wonders, "Is this the
cream of our advertising imaginations?" (ORLANDO SENTINEL,
1/31). In AZ, Bill Goodykoontz writes that most dot-com ads
"were as confusing as Boomer Esiason's 'analysis.'" Dot-coms
"may be revolutionizing the stock market, but they're not
setting any commercial standards" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 1/31).
CBS SportsLine's Bob Keisser writes the dot-com ads "fell
into two groups, boring and confusing. All of the companies
could use a bit of dot-comedy the next time" (CBS
SportsLine, 1/31). In Ft. Worth, David Martindale writes
that the "biggest disappointment of the night" was the spot
from Monster.com, "inspiring a collective 'huh?' from
viewers" (STAR-TELEGRAM, 1/31). In NJ, Alan Sepinwall
writes that viewers were "left struggling to distinguish one
e-trade company from another" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 1/31).
HALFTIME: In Hartford, Roger Catlin writes that the
Super Bowl halftime show "imported all kinds of razzle-
dazzle from Disney World's millennium celebration for a
classier-than-usual show that provided" the game's "first
real touchdown" (HARTFORD COURANT, 1/31). But in DC, Tom
Shales writes, "ABC self-promotion got oppressive with the
halftime show, a hideously staged pageant that looked like a
pagan or satanic ritual" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/31).
