Congrats to the Saints, on winning New Orleans' first-ever professional sports championship, five years after Katrina and 44 years after the team entered the league, and spent most of the next four decades losing in an embarrassing fashion. I would have rather it had been the Vikings, of course, but good for the Saints, at least we lost to the defending world champions.
The game was fully worthy of its status as the most-watched television broadcast of all time.
Now, without further ado, thoughts on the commercials; here's a roundup I did of the tech-based ones.
- The Google ad was the best of the night, and one of the best TV commercials I've ever seen. It reminded me of the "Married Life" montage from "Up"- it told a full story, in an extremely condensed amount of time, almost entirely wordlessly. And even better, I heard they did it in-house, with no ad agency.
- That FLO TV ad with Nantz was pretty bizarrely mean-spirited, not to mention nonsensical- if your wife asks you to go shopping during the Super Bowl, say "no." Plus, if you have the type of wife who makes you go shopping during a big game, she probably won't take too kindly to your carrying around a FLO TV while doing so.
The other FLO TV ad wasn't much better, featuring a historical montage that wrapped up with will.i.am, who is the Ted McGinley of advertising- that guy just poisons everything he touches (music, ads, CNN's hologram gimmick- really, everything but Obama.)
- The Dodge Charger "affirmation" bit had a singular implication: If you really hate your wife, this car is for you!
- On Leno/Letterman, the backstory is much, much better than the ad itself. I love that NBC flew Leno to New York on its own jet so he could promote their competition's show.
- Ultimate lesson of the Tim Tebow ad: If your mom doesn't abort you, one day you may tackle her. And much as Focus on the Family is a noxious organization in every way, they played the media like a fiddle for the past few weeks, earning themselves millions worth of free publicity. They must have the same media strategist as Mancrunch.com.
- TruTV: I laughed about five minutes straight at Punxsutawney Troy Polamalu.
- Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" makes any footage 75 percent better, whether you're the NFL or Spike Jonze.
- Doritios: Loved the little kid telling off his mom's suitor, but the other spots were pretty mediocre. What's up with the guy who buried himself in a coffin full of Doritos? He knows they get stale after a day or two, right?
- Bud Light: Not a good one among them. And do all-female book clubs usually serve beer?
- Snickers: I don't get it- why did Betty White turn into a man? And yes, Abe Vigoda managed to outlive "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien." Don't think anyone saw that one coming.
- KGB: Wow, there's a product no Russian immigrant will ever use.
- Audi "Green Police": Um, what? This played like a right-wing critique of green culture- so why don't you buy this green car?
- Taco Bell/Charles Barkey: Wha? Charles is many things, but a performer is not one of them. As his recent SNL appearance showed, Charles is about as good at acting as he is at golf.
And finally... enough of the talking E*Trade baby. Enough of another animal wanting to a Clydesdale. And enough of this GoDaddy nonsense. I get it- we're supposed to think there's nudity on the Web site!
I really like the bud-lite commercial where everyone is talking with auto-tune. With all the controversy behind the overuse of auto-tune I found the ad hilarious. The snickers ad with Betty White was a close second. She turned into a man because she ate the candy bar and stopped playing like a woman. He he he.
Posted by: Jeff S at February 9, 2010 10:27 PM