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