More Super Bowl XLV – The Ads – Part 2

by AdFool | February 11, 2011 at 01:37 pm

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Well, as the stampede to the Super Bowl ad buffet finally abates, permit me one last pass at some of the remaining dishes on offer. Sure they’ve been sniffed at and picked over already but a buffet just isn’t truly appreciated unless one indulges long past the point they should have announced “enough.”

The NFL says “Thanks”

Every year the NFL says “Thanks” to its fans by producing a feel-good spot trumpeting their fans’ commitment to their on-field product. This year’s was kind of cool with the NFL ponying up for TV clips from what seems like every well-known sitcom hit from the last 30 years or so. We saw the guys from Happy Days, 90210, The Office, Sopranos, Brady Bunch, Cheers, The Golden Girls, Dukes of Hazzard, Family Guy, Friends, Alf, Family Matters and on and on and on. They picked spots where the famous stars were being fans – cheering on their teams – and then personalized the whole thing by digitally inserting NFL merchandise into (and on) every single scene. Fonzie wears a Green Bay foam finger, Norm wears a football jersey and even the General Lee sports a massive Atlanta Falcon’s flag. I always like seeing old clips of shows I loved but it also tends to strike me as more than a little scary when you see what can be done (and how easy they seem to do it) with historical footage. Is it only a matter of time before someone puts Hitler in Khaki pants and makes him promote Banana Republic? Maybe they could team him and Hugo Chavez up for a song and dance number. I’m just sayin’…

Made in Detroit – Chrysler…..and Eminem

So Marshall Mathers aka Eminem has remerged from whatever witness protection program he had been in to treat Super Bowl watchers to two ads. The first was a claymation style Brisk ice tea spot that was kind of funny in an I’m-not-really-a-sellout-because –I’m-self-parodying-my-own-selling-out sort of thing but not particularly groundbreaking in any way. The second shill he offered, for Chrysler, was a bit more interesting in what it seemed to be striving for.

The spot was long – more than two minutes – but in it we’re treated to a gravely voice over laying bare Detroit’s hard-core bona fides. It’s a rough hewn love letter to the (apparently) hard-scrabble truth beyond Detroit’s past automotive greatness and what it’s gonna take to get there again, with images (and sounds) of our buddy Em mixing in. It’s an uphill battle to be sure as most of Detroit’s cold steel toughness has been set adrift in a sea of begged-for bailouts and government required butt-kissing just to stay afloat. And it must also be noted that Chrysler’s getting pretty good at this sort of thing (does the name Lee Iacocca ring any bells?) Anyway, the spot itself does have a certain something when it comes to adding emotional punch and resonance back into the brand. Will it be enough to make up for their asshat designs? (Challenger excepted, of course) Time will tell.

Bridgestone – Reply All

This was another Super Bowl favourite as some nerdy cubical guy sends goes and hits “send” on something obviously meant for one dude’s eyes only to be told by his buddy next desk over that he must have sent it “reply all.” Nerdy guy freaks and immediately embarks on one of the most hilarious attempts at turning back the clock ever. He runs into other offices and destroys computers, flips laptops on their side, throws people’s PDA’s away. deletes hard-drives, breaks into houses, rips power cables from the wall, attacks friends in parks, etc. It’s sobering when you stop to think about how much there is to do once a bad email is sent. Anyway, when nerdy dude returns to his desk, buddy informs him that he must have made a mistake, and “reply all” was not hit. Sigh of relief, though I still don’t know what the hell all this had to do with Bridgestone tires. Still, as a PSA for lazy emailing I would say they hit a home run.

VW Beetle Spot

Visually, one of the ads that really turned me on was Volkswagen’s beetle spot. Keying in on a lovely forest scene of flora and fauna we focus in on a bunch of bugs and whatnot crawling around. Suddenly, a black beetle comes ripping past them to the tune of “Black Betty” by Ram Jam. We then follow the crazy crusin’ beetle as she rockets around the forest cutting folks off, doing jumps and hanging fish tails as she enjoys her “ride.” They even use slow motion to pretty groovy effect. Without a doubt, this spot was fun and eye catching, and it actually gets me a little excited about what VW is up to with their new Beetle re-design. Hey, I just thought of something. Maybe this is where someone could use that Hitler re-jig thing…..uh, then again maybe not.

Pepsi Max – Race War?

Pepsi Max – the diet drink for men who don’t diet - offered up a few spots on the big day but the one generating all the virtual ink currently features a guy with a cranky wife that won’t let him eat anything he wants to eat. She kicks him for not ordering fruit salad, she yanks a burger from his mouth, she smashes his face in a pie. But when he takes a pull on a can of Pepsi Max he sees her and freezes – expecting her to take this away too. She doesn’t (of course) because its calorie free. And she smiles . Buddy feels good and as he turns a pretty girl runs by and sits down on the park bench adjacent to him, smiling as well. He checks her out a little too long and his lady is angry all over again – so she hauls off and chucks her own can of Pepsi Max at his head. Buddy ducks and the nearly full can absolutely brains the girl sitting next to him. Then they both run away. I laughed out loud. It was funny – I thought – but a US Congresswoman actually made a speech on the floor of their chamber denouncing the ad as “demeaning” and focusing in on the race aspect of it. Oh right, I forgot. You see, in the ad the main participants – the man and his lady – were black, and the woman who was hit with the can was white. Personally, I didn’t notice – I just thought it was slapstick humor but apparently I missed the demeaning racist overtones noticed by certain intellectual betters. Believe me – I thank God every single day that I grew up in a world of Sam Kinison and Looney Tunes versus this PC claptrap that rules today. What about the children?

Motorola – Fight the Power

A spot I really enjoyed came from Motorola. Again, it wasn’t particularly groundbreaking or otherwise impressive but the message was unique and appreciated. It teed off on Apple’s mindless drone consumers that roam the earth tethered to their entertainment units by white ear buds. Heck, they even had their hero reading Orwell’s “1984” on his Xoom as he moved among them. I enjoyed the spot mainly due to it’s tweak at Apple’s own iconic 1984 spot where the then little guys championed a revolt from the kind of cultish devotion other firms enjoyed at the time. Well, as they say, times have changed and now the rebel is the king and we’re all his devoted subjects. Eventually, everybody grows up to become what they hated. Viva la revolution? I’ll take the peace of death, thanks.

Best Buy – When Ozzy met Justin

Trumpeted as a really “ big deal” Super Bowl spot, Best Buy leveraged Justin Bieber’s need for street cred with Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s need to stay relevant by pairing the two in a spot that (as always) relies on Ozzy’s incoherent boob persona alongside, well, anything else. In the spot, addled Ozzy just can’t get his head around the new technology. Best Buy reminds us that they’ll protect us all – by buying back old tech we already bought from them. Then they trot in Bieber to replace Osbourne. It was all a little too cute for me but it did show Eminem how much further he’s got to go when it comes to selling out. A loooong way to go.

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Shyloh NFL Merchandise (not verified)

at 14:57 on March 11th, 2011

I love the NFL stampede, I don't know about other people but, for me it's better than Black Friday! I love chasing down the last piece of NFL merchandise just to sport it at a game or in my living room while we watch the game. Does anyone else feel the same way?