Not So Super: Violence, Low-Brow Humor Mark Crop Of Ads

A-B's "Auctioneer"

Unlike recent years, “Super Bowl XLI overshadowed its ads ... leaving very little room for the ads to shine,” according to Mekeisha Madden Toby of the DETROIT NEWS. It was a “pretty bland year of ads where animals talked too much and everybody felt amorous.” Michigan State Univ. ad professor Bruce Vanden Bergh said, “Very weak year for Super Bowl ads. The game was better than the commercials” (DETROIT NEWS, 2/5). Lowe Chair & CEO Mark Wnek wrote, “Overall, a sense of disappointment. ... Where was the genius of the Apple ‘1984’ spot?” (ADFREAK.com, 2/4). The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Suzanne Vranica: “This year’s Super Bowl ads overall didn’t live up to the hype surrounding them” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/5). In N.Y., David Hinckley: “One or two more rollouts like we saw on the Super Bowl last night and fans may be reduced to talking about the game. ... Super Bowl commercials keep getting safer” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 2/5). McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising President Steve McKee said, “This was not a banner year for Super Bowl ads. Nothing really stood out” (CNNMONEY.com, 2/5). In DC, Tony Kornheiser writes, “There was the Bud Light commercial with the auctioneer and the promo for Letterman and Oprah. Other than that, I’m underwhelmed” (WASHINGTON POST, 2/5).

VIOLENT THEMES: In N.Y., Stuart Elliott writes that over a dozen ads, including the rock, paper, scissors and the face-slapping Bud Light spots, “celebrated violence in an exaggerated, cartoonlike vein that was intended to be humorous, but often came across as cruel or callous.” FedEx featured an astronaut “wiped out by a meteor” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/5). Adweek’s Barbara Lippert: “It was the Super Bowl Smack-down. It’s like every time you looked up, someone was hitting someone else” (“The Early Show,” CBS, 2/5). Harvard Business School professor Stephen Greyser said that the “rock-throwing spot by [Bud Light] was ‘attention-getting’ but also ‘had a nasty character to it’” (AP, 2/5). In Boston, Joanna Weiss writes for the most part, there was “violence, pure and unadulterated, and the ads blended together in a fuzzy cloud of man-on-man (or monster-on-monster) attacks.” The “most memorable ads were the nice ones.” Chevrolet “gave a nod to female viewers with its raining-men fantasia,” while Nationwide’s ad with Kevin Federline “had a forlorn sweetness to it” (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/5). In Miami, Glenn Garvin: “The ads were mostly forgettable. ... When commercials were striking, it was mostly for their darkness” (MIAMI HERALD, 2/5).

Snickers' "Mechanics"

SHOW ME THE FUNNY: Ad Age’s Bob Garfield said this year was “maybe the best Super Bowl in memory in terms of just generally high quality jokes. ... Almost every single gag that you saw in the game was absolutely dead-on relevant to the product pitch” (ADAGE.com, 2/5). On Long Island, Keiko Morris writes in addition to violence, advertisers “stuck to the slapstick” and the “somewhat risqué” in ads, citing Snickers and GoDaddy. After the Snickers ad aired, the company “revealed alternate versions on the Internet so people could vote for their favorite ending” (NEWSDAY, 2/5). In N.Y., Li & Sanders note Sierra Mist ran an ad featuring comedian Jim Gaffigan with a “ridiculous ‘beard comb-over.’” Ft. Lauderdale-based Zimmerman Partners Founder Jordan Zimmerman said, “That comb-over guy was so disgusting, it didn’t make me want to drink” (N.Y. POST, 2/5). In Houston, Syd Kearney writes under the header, “Campaigns Perceived As Too Silly, Miss Mark.” This year’s ads “will be remembered for beard comb-overs, sneaker sniffers and Mr. Turkey Neck” (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 2/5). In Seattle, Danny O’Neil writes, "Super Bowl ads probably aren’t the place to go searching for enlightenment” (SEATTLE TIMES, 2/5).