BloggerDad reviews the Super Bowl commercials

Wow, two Super Bowls in a row which looked boring on paper but which rocked the house. But enough about the game. Let’s talk about the reason you probably watched – the commercials.

I don’t know what you thought, but it felt like this year lacked any commercials that will inspire water cooler talk Monday.

Many companies toned down their advertising approach, fearful of looking too extravagant or apparently, making people laugh during such dire economic times. Hence, several commercials attempted to capture some sort of nostalgic feel good buzz that Joe Consumer would associate with their product.

In other words, lots of boring commercials. Here’s what I thought to be the best and worst of the night.

The worst Super Bowl Commercials

Fast and the Furious – the crappy movie trailer
A cinematic first! A movie by douchebags, starring douchebags, for douchebags! If you are a huge fan of this movie series, please unsubscribe from this feed now.

The only thing missing from this ad – The ShamWow Guy.

Cash 4 Gold:
I thought those Cash 4Gold commercials were awful without a budget. What happens when you give them Super Bowl mounds of cash to hire some big names? Well, this craptacular ad. So bad it should be labeled a hate crime.

Coke Zero – Mean Troy
This ad is a play on the classic and cute Mean Joe Green, where Mean Joe tosses his shirt to a kid.  This updated version features Troy Palamayahoo (yeah, I’m too lazy to look up his actual name) of the Steelers. For his part, Troy did fine. The ad breaks down with the whole “Coke Lawyers suing Coke Zero because it tastes like Coke” ad campaign they keep trotting out like it isn’t the worst concept ever (which it is).  Hello? It’s the same damned company! Maybe it would work if the ads were funny, but they are as about as funny as a car crash. Well, a car crash not involving a drunken Hollywood starlet. Because, those are always funny.

Go Daddy – The Shower and Enhanced
It’s not that the commercials are sexist, which they are, it’s that they are just awful. If you’re going to be sexist, and risk offending a big chunk of your potential customers, at least bring The Funny. Go Daddy failed on so many levels.

NBCs House Ads
Heroes is suffering badly enough without having the cast break into song routines. You’d think that as the network is about to come back from their “winter hiatus” they would want to remind people of what’s good about the show, not associate it with cringe-inducing ads during the frakkin’ Super Bowl!

“Hey, let’s make even more people think we suck!”

E*Trade – Talking Baby
Who can forget last year’s memorable E*Trade commercials with the talking baby who threw up in one spot and hired a creepy clown in another? This year’s entry failed to deliver anything new or funny. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but I was hoping for something better. So in with the bad it goes!

And now for the Good Super Bowl Commercials

Hulu – Alec and Huluwood
Best ad of the night!
Hulu wins for using the always funny (well, maybe not to his daughter) Alec Baldwin, who reveals that television is actually an alien plot to turn your brain to goo. I never thought I would see such truth in advertising!

Firestone – On the road with the Potato Heads
The best ad not featuring Alec Baldwin is this one which might be the commercial with the most replay value in the weeks to come. Nagging wife + ad = hilarity.

Bud Light – the meeting

Usually Budweiser brings The Funny several times during the Super Bowl. This year they seemed to place more of an emphasis on the lame horse commercials in attempts to appeal to … well, I don’t know who, horse lovers. Anyway, this was their funniest ad of the night.

Bud Light – Swedish

Bud Light + Conan O’Brien = funny.

Monster.com – Need a new job?
Given the high unemployment rate and the recession, I was curious how Monster.com would deliver. They indeed brought The Funny with this inspired ad capturing a feeling many workers are all too familiar with.

Cheetos : Chester the Cheetah

This Cheetos ad would’ve been funnier if it involved bird feces.

Career Builder – Tips
Another job search commercial. Who among us hasn’t screamed a time or 500 while banging at their steering wheel at the prospect of spending one more day at the same job?

Which commercials did you like? Which did you hate?

If you missed any, check them all out at Hulu.

As always, thank you for reading,
David

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Tagged as: ads, media, super bowl, tv