As reaction from this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads continues, THE DAILY presents a roundup of opinions surrounding the tone and subjects of commercials that aired during Fox’ broadcast of the game.
WEAK IN THE KNEES: SI.com’s Chris Ballard: “It was not a good night for advertising. ... It was a case of too many companies, scared by last year’s wardrobe malfunction, playing it too safe” (SI.com, 2/7). MEDIA LIFE’s Toni Fitzgerald wrote the ads “hit perhaps a new creative low” (MEDIALIFE.com, 2/7). DeVito/Verdi Advertising President Ellis Verdi: “I was really hoping for a lot more. I want to see smart, intrusive advertising that gets to you. It was disappointing.” DiMassimo Carr Brand Advocates’ Mark DiMassimo said, “They went a little crazy with ads last year and now everyone is going back to the formulas” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 2/8). Utah-based 3point5 Owner Paul Kirwin: “They lost their edge. All the advertisers were trying to walk through a political minefield” (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 2/8). Durham-based McKinney & Silver Senior VP & Creative Dir Liz Paradise: “I didn’t see a lot of innovation. How many times have we seen monkeys?” (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 2/8).
O.K. BY THEM: McCann Erickson Chief Creative Officer Joyce King wrote the ads “suffered a bit from Trying Too Hard to Please. ... Still, this year’s spots were better than last year’s” (ADWEEK, 2/7 issue). The Romann Group Creative Dir Gad Romann: “I think what the advertising industry proved ... is that you can be bold, you can be creative, you can breakthrough and you can be affirmative about your brand without using either sex or violence or any risky executions” (ESPNews, 2/7).
METER READER: While Anheuser-Busch took top honors in the USA Today Ad Meter for the seventh straight year and also had three of the top seven rated ads, in Chicago, Lewis Lazare writes the poll “blatantly favors A-B because of the huge number of spots it runs during the game.” Lazare suggests USA Today limit “the number of ads any one advertiser can include in the poll just to level the playing field a bit and possibly create some drama surrounding the outcome” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 2/8). Adweek’s Barbara Lippert, on Bud Light’s “Skydiver,” which placed first in Ad Meter: “People want dumb, funny commercials, and that was the only dumb, funny one that Anheuser-Busch made this year” (“Inside Edition,” 2/7). Romann said the A-B spots “were great” and the “Skydiver” ad “would have been as good ten years ago as it was [Sunday]” (ESPNews, 2/7). Meanwhile, NBC’s Bob Faw wondered of A-B’s military tribute ad, “Thank You”: “Is the brewer exploiting soldiers? Some squirm when beer is wrapped in the flag” (“Nightly News,” NBC, 2/7).
MCDONALD’S: The Web address www.lincolnfry.com was shown on the screen during McDonald’s Lincoln french fry spot, and the WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Suzanne Vranica notes the Web site “has fake blogs and a real-life Yahoo auction of the [fry], with the proceeds destined for the Ronald McDonald House.” As of yesterday afternoon, 240,000 unique visitors had clicked on either the site or the Yahoo auction page (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/8). As of presstime, there have been 368 bids on the fry. The current high bid is $22,500 (THE DAILY). But New Media Strategies CEO Pete Snyder said of all Super Bowl advertisers, “McDonald’s is probably the one of the biggest misses. Often the test is not only what people are saying, but when they’re not talking about it at all” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 2/8).
MORE AD REVIEWS: Northwestern Univ.’s Kellogg School of Management assembled a panel of students and faculty to “rank the ads based on the following criteria: Breakthrough, branding, persuasiveness and likeability.” The panel ranked Toyota highest and Pepsi second, and also awarded A’s to Emerald Nuts, MasterCard and Tabasco. The bottom-ranking ads were by Bubblicious, Silestone, Degree, GoDaddy.com and MBNA (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 2/8). Butler Shine Stern & Partners Creative Dir John Butler, on Ameriquest’s “Cat” spot: “The only laugh I had all night other than watching Bill Clinton roll his eyes at Jaguar owner Wayne Weaver.” Butler added of Pepsi’s iTunes, Napster and Olympus ads: “The audience they are trying to reach is a lot hipper than this stuff.” Ford Exec Creative Dir & JWT co-President Tom Cordner, on MBNA’s “Rugby” spot: “Rugby and Gladys Knight! Now that’s a match made in heaven. What was the agency thinking?” (ADWEEK, 2/7 issue). SI.com’s Ballard gave the FedEx spot featuring Burt Reynolds and Ameriquest’s “Robbery” spot a rating of nine out of ten (SI.com, 2/7). In K.C., Jennifer Mann writes the FedEx was “one of the best all-around,” and Ameriquest’s “Cat” also “scored well.” Another one of Mann’s favorites was the Diet Pepsi spot featuring Carson Kressley and Cindy Crawford (K.C. STAR, 2/8).
