Super Bowl Ads: White, Vigoda Propel Snickers To Ad Meter Prize

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Snickers last night during CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XLIV "walked off with the Super Bowl's best-liked commercial in USA Today's Ad Meter ... three years after getting hammered by gay activists for what many felt was an anti-gay Super Bowl commercial," according to Bruce Horovitz of USA TODAY. The winning Snickers spot "featured octogenarian actors Betty White and Abe Vigoda in a rough-and-tumble football game that ultimately gets both of them tossed on their fannies." The win marks the "first time Snickers' maker, Mars, has won Ad Meter, replacing last year's winner Doritos, which took second this year with an ad about a dog with an electronic bark collar who gets revenge on a nasty dude." Anheuser-Busch, which has won the Ad Meter 10 times, "finished with two ads in the top five." Meanwhile, Horovitz notes it was a "big night for undies lovers." Two underwear ads for Dockers and CareerBuilder "ran back-to-back -- essentially putting all the drawers in one drawer." Coca-Cola later "followed up with a sleepwalker crossing the African savanna for a Coke in his, you guessed it, underpants" (USA TODAY, 2/8).

EYE CANDY: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Suzanne Vranica writes the ads, "in usual Super Bowl fashion," featured a "parade of celebrities." But Snickers' ad featuring White and Vigoda "seemed to draw the most enthusiastic response." Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners Group Creative Dir Joseph Mazzaferro: "Great use of geriatric talent" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/8). In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones wrote the "best commercial of the Super Bowl was, hands down, the Snickers ad." Jones: "Any commercial that has White saying, 'That's not what your girlfriend said' is an instant classic in my book" (TAMPABAY.com, 2/7). SPORTINGNEWS.com's Dan Levy wrote, "Betty White, one of the funniest women in the history of television, covered in mud and making jokes about another guy's girlfriend? That's advertising gold on its own, but when you add in Abe Vigoda getting sacked, you win the day. Color me satisfied, Snickers" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 2/7). FOXSPORTS.com's John Galinsky: "Any commercial with Betty White and Abe Vigoda is a winner in our book no matter what it's about" (FOXSPORTS.com, 2/7). In Detroit, Mekeisha Madden Toby writes Snickers "had one of the best commercials" thanks to the "comedic timing" of the 88-year-old White (DETROIT NEWS, 2/8). Fox Business' Connell McShane said the Snickers ad "was one of the best commercials ever. It was great" ("Fox Business Morning," Fox Business, 2/8). Genuine Interactives Chief Creative Officer Chris Pape said that the Snickers ad worked "because it was so unexpected and funny" (BOSTON HERALD, 2/8).

LEAP YEAR: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Vranica writes the ads in general "didn't live up to the hype preceding the game." Some industry execs "blamed the absence of perennial fan favorites," such as Pepsi and FedEx, and also "pointed to the unusually large number of first-time Super Bowl advertisers." The execs said that companies new to the game "typically don't have the large production budgets to go all out, and are less apt to strike the right chord" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/8). In Ft. Worth, Robert Philpot writes most of the ads "don't seem likely to generate much water-cooler talk today." However, some exceptions "could include the Kia Sorrento ad in which some retro toys in the back seat fantasize that they're out for a night in Vegas; Boost Mobile's 'Shuffle' ad, a takeoff on the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle that proves that former Bears QB Jim McMahon is still a lousy rapper; and an elaborate Coca-Cola ad featuring the entire cast" of Fox' "The Simpsons" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 2/8). In San Diego, Karla Peterson writes, "So many ads, so few memories. That's what yesterday's parade of high-priced, hype-fueled Super Bowl commercials added up to" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/8). MARKETING DAILY's Sarah Mahoney writes many of the ads "were mostly forgettable" (MARKETING DAILY, 2/8 issue). In S.F., Peter Hartlaub wrote, "I'm thinking that overall this was an above average year for ads. Still, I can't think of one that's going to be remembered 10 years from now" (SFGATE.com, 2/7).

Watch The Dockers Spot

MALE HUMOR: In DC, Tom Shales writes an "oddly recurring theme had to do with men asserting their masculinity, or attempting to assert it, as well as the perpetual male fear of emasculation." In an ad for a "very portable television called FloTV, a man was seen being dragged through a torturous shopping trip by his girlfriend while sportscaster Jim Nantz ridiculed him." Also, men in their underwear "kept popping up" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/8). Deutsch Inc. Chair & CEO Donny Deutsch said the overall theme of the night was the "10 ads with guys in their underwear." Deutsch: "It was men acting stupid. For some reason, this was the year like, 'Let's show the American male at his stupidest, acting goofy.' ... I don't know what it was in our society that this year, let's knock the guys" ("Today," NBC, 2/8). In S.F., Scott Ostler writes, "Was there a restriction placed on Super Bowl TV commercials, an FCC ruling that every ad had to feature doughy, flabby dudes in their underpants?" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/8). But in Denver, Joanne Ostrow writes the "tone of the Super Bowl's advertising campaigns overall was remarkably civil and not nearly as crass as in recent memory." Nothing was "as revolting as the gross-out, bodily function ads of years past." A "postmodern type of masculinity -- moisturizer for men who are 'comfortable in their skin' -- topped them all when it comes to redefining machismo." Ostrow: "Put these ruminations on guys and guyhood together, and you have evidence that the American male has turned a corner" (DENVER POST, 2/8).

GET IN THE GAME, AGAIN: In N.Y., Stuart Elliott noted there had been "speculation that additional commercials would turn up in the game because of the strong demand among advertisers for time during this Super Bowl." A-B "added a spot in the fourth quarter, for Bud Light, bringing its total for the game to nine." Hyundai also "added a spot in the fourth quarter, running a commercial for the Hyundai Sonata that had appeared during the pre-game show." ETrade "bought an additional spot that was originally not in its plans, also in the fourth quarter" (NYTIMES.com, 2/7).

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