Advertisers can check the overnight ratings this morning
from yesterday's Super Bowl to see if they got their money's
worth. Post-game analysis showed Pepsi, Budweiser and McDonald's
to be winners in most polls. Pepsi's ad featuring a Coke driver
caught taking a can of Pepsi on a security camera was tops,
according to USA TODAY, with Pepsi's Frozen Tundra and Deion
Sanders/Wile E. Coyote ads finishing second and third (USA TODAY,
1/29).
OTHER REVIEWS: AD AGE's Bob Garfield called Bud's spot
featuring its Clydesdales playing football "the best spot of
all," but noted "not a single commercial rated 4 stars."
Garfield pans Master Lock's spot: "In its 21st year on the big
game, Master Lock offered a disturbing montage of urban helter-
skelter, but for the first time its padlock seem a pitifully
impotent measure" (AD AGE ONLINE, 1/29). In Houston, Greg
Hassell writes McDonald's "deserves a Lombardi Trophy for
creating the best commercials of Super Bowl XXX," citing the
chain's dinosaur and baby spots. Hassell also writes Hakeem
Olajuwon "came into his own" in his spot for Visa Gold. Hassell
panned the Budweiser Frogs, writing that they "look like they are
getting ready for retirement." Bob Dorman of Foote Cone &
Belding, San Francisco: "There was nothing that was totally
awful. But on the whole I would say it was an average year"
(HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 1/29). In Chicago, Phil Vettel notes "this
year's batch ... were disappointingly tame, derivative and
boring." Vettel liked McDonald's "Rocking Baby" spot, the Pepsi
delivery man, and Doritos' "Life without Doritos" spots.
"Lowlights," according to Vettel, were the Eddie George/Tylenol
spot, Master Lock and the "predictable" Deion/Pepsi ad (CHICAGO
TRIBUNE, 1/29). The ATLANTA CONSTITUTION's Chris Roush lauded
McDonald's, but calls Pepsi's Goldfish spot "the best commercial
of the night." Roush also bashed the Bud Frogs: "Maybe it's time
for the frogs to jump into something else" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION,
1/29). In Dallas, Tom Maurstad calls Nike's Pee-Wee spots
"hilarious" and writes that Tylenol's Eddie George spot reflects
"the state of both sports and advertising" as NFL stars advise
him "on what endorsements and sponsors to choose" (DALLAS MORNING
NEWS, 1/29).
THE BUILD-UP: In Boston, Chris Reidy reported that
advertisers spent about $100M on production costs for yesterday's
ads -- about the same as the production budget for "Jurassic
Park" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/28). This weekend's TV coverage included
several features on Super Bowl advertising. MEDIAWEEK Editorial
Dir Bill Gloede, on CNBC's "Sports View": "Clients and their
agencies are very, very savvy about a buy like this. ... It isn't
the kind of risk that some people make it sound. Surly it would
not be sold out at these rates" (CNBC, 1/29). On "Moneyline,"
CNN's Allan Dodds Frank profiled CNS's Breathe Right and their ad
buy. Analyst Anne Marie Rahm: "It's a wise business decision.
The greatest challenge for the company right now is to achieve
critical mass in terms of the number of people who try the
product" (CNN, 1/26). "ET's" Bob Goen profiled the making of
NBC's promotions that ran yesterday, including several Packers
players who joined the cast of "Mad About You" ("ET," 1/26).
ESPN's Jimmy Roberts profiled the process of developing Super
Bowl advertising, with a focus on Pepsi's Sanders spot. USA
TODAY's Dottie Enrico, on the gamble taken by Pepsi: "They had a
lot of money, a lot of hope, riding on the fact that he and the
Cowboys would make it to the Super Bowl" ("ESPN, 1/28).
