Super Bowl XLII - Do the ads add up?

Hope I got the Roman numerals right - I’ve seen enough of them over the last week. As I did last year, I’m blogging on the SB ads (other than those for TV shows or movies), noting my impressions in real time.

But before I begin, as a marketer, I have to ask has there ever been a worse color scheme than this year’s blood and aqua combo?

Now, on to the ads (which it is much harder to follow this year because I’m actually watching the game with a bit of local interest).

Bud Light: Breathing fire as a former feature of the brew. Thumbs down on this one.

Audi: Godfather horse-head-in-the-bed take off. Hard to believe that image is now almost 40 years ago. In any case, might have made more sense to me if I’d recognized the make of the damaged bumper in the bed.

Diet Pepsi: Everyone’s nodding off until they get the new Diet Pepsi with Ginseng and something else. Kind of fun - but who wants/needs Ginseng in their soda. Is soda the new health drink?

Sales Genie: Indian sales guy looking for leads to save his job. Why’s the sales guy an Indian? On the other hand, why not?

Bud Light: Wine and cheese party - the guys smuggle in beer and a TV. Mildly amusing in that sexist Bud Light way.

UnderArmour: Or is it UnderArmor? They’re obviously not aiming this at my demographic. But I’ve got to ask, are they advertising body suits or sneaker or both?

Bridgestone Tire: Screeching animals in the path of the speeding car, saved by those Bridgestone Tires. OK ad.

Doritos: Kim Grannis - nice singer, lovely voice, acoustic guitar. What’s not to like. (Might download her music, but don’t think I’ll buy a Dorito in her honor.

DCU: Home equity loans. Bor-ing.

G2 Gatorade: Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning. Love it - reminds me of the NY Yankees fine season in 2007 (thanks!) and the Colts loss to the Pats (thanks again).

GoDaddy: What am I supposed to do here? Go watch ads on GoDaddy?

Dell: Just how does a Dell Red laptop save lives? Not intriguing enough to get me to go to their site and figure this out.

FedEx: Giant carrier pigeons carrying for the competition. I could have lived without the image of those giant pigeons.

cars.com: Death match with a car salesman. Eh.

Tide Go: Cute idea about having your interview go wrong because of a stain on your shirt, but the talking stain? Didn’t work for me. And I can’t imagine there’s going to be a big number of hits on mytalkingstain.com. (Bet they didn’t have anyone competing for that URL on GoDaddy.)

Bud: Rejected horse works out with the dalmation, and gets to be one of the show horses the next year. I’m a sucker for a Clydesdale. Ultra cute and sweet ad.

Corolla: A nursing badger demonstrates how quiet the  car is? Not that I have anything against a nursing badger. Or was it a wolverine?

Garmin: Paris. Napoleon. Tiny horse. Just what is Garmin? Is it a GPS device?

CareerBuilder: Follow your heart is a nice concept, but the heart that leaps out of someone’s body? No thanks.

LifeWater (did I get this right?): Nice production on the dancing geckos, but the thought of reptiles as an image for water? Water that you’re going to drink?

PSA on Drugs: A good and necessary message.

Yukon Hybrid: Nice graphics on Sisyphus image, but I can’t really connect it to the truck exactly.

Bud Light: English language classes, coaching awkward foreign guys to pick girls up. Funny enough, but they do hit every cliche and stereotype, don’t they?

Planters: An overly made-up Plain Jane rubs Planters nuts across her cleavage, and the guys just fall in line. I may never eat another cashew again.

T-Mobile: Charles Barkley has some other basketballer on his 5 faves. Kind of cute.

United Way: Ad for kids fitness, with Tom Brady’s voice-over. That’s our boy - even though he’s not looking so sharp tonight.

Pepsi: Starts off with a guy with straws shoved up his nose. Then some guys getting brutalized and tossed around. I don’t get it. (Bring back the Ginseng ad.)

Doritos: Carmen (as in the opera), a mousetrap, and a giant mouse. (Bring back that nice folk singer.)

Daytona 500: Coolish-graphics, but nothing would get me to watch a car race.

Nissan Murano: The rest of the world has to catch up. Nice graphics, but didn’t quite work.

Toshiba DVD Player. Football in high-def. Boring - but at least I knew right away what the product was.

Ontario: Lovely ad for Toronto tourism - but why are they spending this kind of money? (Must be a local ad.)

Daytona 500: Once again.

Comcast: Mom and son over dinner - she’s proud her son has Comcast. Ho-hum.

Tundra: Nothing special, but it’s still odd to hear a Japanese car bragging about being made in America.

AirTran:  Well, I wouldn’t fly AirTran on a bet, but what a fun ad! The revenge of everyone who ever got laid-off on the phone, or via e-mail, or on IM…

Dunkin Donuts: Same old “Doing things is what I like to do…” ad, but, what can I say? It’s one of my shower tunes.

Acura: Jimmy Durante singing “Make Someone Happy.”Haven’t I seen this a million times already?

Daytona 500: Enough!

Zantac: Same old, same old.

Claritin: Same old, same old.

cars.com: Plan B this time is a witch doctor. This time I found the ad mildly amusing.

Sales Genie: Irritating panda cartoon. Maybe if you really need 100 leads, you’d pay some attention. I don’t.

Vitamin water: Shaquille O’Neal as  a jockey - a funny enough image, but overlong.

Bud Light: Cave men need to invent the wheel to haul beer.

IceCube gum: With Carmen Electra. This one’s obviously for the boys.

Bridgestone Tire: Deer in the headlights. Heavy metal in the headlights. Richard Simmons in the headlights. Bring back the screeching squirrel.

Career Builder: Jiminy Cricket should sue.

Genesis: Do I get this right? Hyundai has a lux-mobile?

eTrade: Very cute baby making trades on line - anyone can do it. I could have lived without the spit-up.

Bud Light: The ability to fly is another retired feature. Better than fire breathing, but not that much.

NFL Ad: Amusing little vignette about recruiting a musician to the NFL. Can this little story be true?

Jet Blue: Straightforward ad for TV on board. Now you know.

US Trust: When I’m rich, I won’t lose the common touch, either. I promise.

Tundra: What can I say? I haven’t liked many of the special Super Bowl ads, but I feel cheated when the ads are the plain vanilla ones.

SunSilk: Some type of hair product. They lost me after Marilyn Monroe sang.

Coke: Macy’s Day balloon tussle. Very cute even though it’s a bit too green for November in NY. (Nice to see Charlie Brown win the prize!) Pretty much my favorite so far.

Coke: Bill Frist and James Carville. A little bit of non-partisanship. If only it were that easy. (And if only I didn”t get the impression that the one thing that can get these guys to bury the political hatchet is the primacy of the almighty buck!

Toyota Sequoia: Pack a lot of kids in a mini-van. Big deal.

eTrade: The cute baby again. Wise is the child who understands that clowns are creepy.

Taco Bell: Sorry - there has never been, and never will be anything sexy about Taco Bell.

GatorAde. Big old black dog slurping water from the dog bowl. Is man’s best friend GatorAde or was that puppy slurping GatorAde? I hope not.

Bud Light: Will Ferrell(?) as a pasty white basketball player asking us to suck on a Bud - gross, but obviously not interested in what I think.

Genesis: Another Hyundai ad - pretty effective, I’d say, as a way to introduce a new line.

Victoria’s Secret: And I thought the Carmen Electra ad was for the boys.

Amp: I did not need to see that slob with the jumper cables attached to his nipples. Not at all.

American Idol: Okay, I wasn’t going to comment on ads for TV shows, but Ben R. singing the Pina Colada song was very cute. (Keep your day job, Ben!)

What I liked: My favorite were the eTrade baby ads (other than the spit-up) - funny, cute, memorable. I also think the Hyundai ads were a pretty effective way to position themselves up the automotive food chain. I did like the Coke ad with the Macy’s Day balloons, but mostly because I have such fond Thanksgiving Day memories of watching the parade on TV before our big family gathering.

The only Bud Light ad I liked was the one with the Clydesdale.

What I disliked: Hmmmm. They were so unmemorable that I’ve already forgotten most of them. The one I hated the most (and hope to forget quickly) was the Career Builder ad with the leaping heart. Just gross.

It will be interesting to see what the ad pros say. I’m guessing that this won’t be considered the all-time greatest slew of Super Bowl ads.

As for the game outcome: Of course, I wanted to see the Patriots win. I’m a New Englander. But they didn’t play a great game, and I’m not sorry that we won’t have to be inundated with all the post-Super Bowl, perfect season hoop-la. And you have to give little Eli Manning credit: he came up big.

Bring on the Red Sox!

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