The Super Bowl was a great game, but, given my profession, I paid a bit more attention to the ads, seen by over 97.5 million fans- the most ever. You may recall my review of Super Bowl 2007 Ads last year. 30 second spots cost about 7% more this year, averaging $2.7 million a piece. Overall, I think last year was a better year for the ads, and I was actually a bit disappointed with some companies this year. Which ads succeeded, and whose flopped? I tell all, below.

This year’s Super Bowl XLII ads included many familiar themes: Furry creatures, attractive women, celebrities in silly situations, new product introductions and a complete exaggeration of reality. I tried to categorize most ads by the style they went for, and evaluate how successful they were in producing the intended effect. Some ads tried to combine several of these styles, but they were generally less impressive in those cases. There were:

• Funny Ads
• Wow Factor (special effects - how did they do that!?!)
• Sexy
• Artistic
• Americana

The Winners

Doritos - “mouse trap” - The entire allure of this commercial is just the shock value and violence…I don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t seen it yet. Silly, simple, and totally successful.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny (violence & furry creatures)

Tide To Go - “silence the stain” - This was unbelievably funny, great acting, and all around creative idea. A guy goes on an interview for a job and instead of his potential employer hearing about his qualifications we see the stain talking and disrupting. This was also a very creative way to target males for a traditionally non-male task (stain removal), as one of my focus group females pointed out.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny, Wow Factor (talking stain)

Fedex - “carrier pigeons” - A worker has been experimenting with new ways to send packages - massive carrier pigeons. Unfortunately, they are still in beta, and packages are dropped all over city streets, cars go flying, and it ends up looking like an ad for Birdzilla or something. The idea was very creative, and passes on the message of FedEx being reliable.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny, Wow Factor

E*Trade - “Baby” - Two ads about a baby who invests in the stock market, makes a bunch of cash, hires a clown, and throws up. You’ve got to see it to appreciate it.
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Funny

Bridgestone - “Unexpected Obstacles” - A driver avoids a deer, Alice Cooper, and finally Richard Simmons (although not before considering mowing him down) using his Bridgestone tires. This was great just because who wouldn’t want to run over Richard Simmons after having him around for a few minutes? The second spot was not as impressive, but still funny (and featured furry creatures).
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Funny

Bud Light - “Wheel Suck” - See below for full coverage.

The Losers

SalesGenie.com - Sorry, both ads were competing with each other for the absolute worst spot. I couldn’t decide which, so I’m letting them both bask in the glory of failure. One had a Genie, the other one had a Panda - both were animated and stupid.
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Lack of Intelligence

GoDaddy.com - As usual, a terrible ad, but I’m sure they will still drive a ton of traffic to their site, just as they did the past few years.

SunSilk - Celebrity singers and some artistic attempt at relevance - even the women in my group didn’t appreciate it.

UnderArmour - Athletic wear brand ad had bad acting, bad script, and mediocre effects.

The Just Plain Strange

Planters - “Perfume” - What do you get when you mix a unibrow, a girl and a cashew? We’re not quite sure, and I don’t think too many other people were either. I don’t know if Planters is planning some product line expansion, and I didn’t know whether to be disgusted, laugh, or what…
Watch | Effects in use: Funny

CareerBuilder.com - “Queen of Hearts” & “Firefly” - Just as gross and violent as last year’s ads from CareerBuilder, all aimed at getting you to seek a better job. I almost threw up on the Queen of Hearts one, since they ran it while I was eating…
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Funny (violence), Wow Factor

Cars.com - “Stone Circle” & “Witch Doctor” - These featured “Plan B”, what car shoppers should do if they don’t feel they were dealt with appropriately, from getting a witch doctor to shrink the salesman’s head, to Glondoor and his circle of fire wrestling match. These might have been good, if not for being so darn weird…
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Funny (violence), Wow Factor

Bud Light / Budweiser

Blowing Fire - Bud Light showed off a very funny ad with a man and woman on a date, and after drinking Bud Light he can breathe fire, which helps him light two candles for the romantic setting. The problem arises when her cat shows up and he happens to be allergic to it. Before you know it, half the house is on fire. This was funny, but not the best.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny, Wow Factor (fire breath)

Ability To Fly - Part of the same series as Blowing Fire, you see a man flying holding a Bud Light, only to be sucked into the jet engine of a plane. The voice-over then says “the ability of flight no longer available, but the refreshing taste is”. This was a very entertaining ad, but only as part of the series.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny

Wheel Suck - The setting is the days of cavemen, and one brilliant caveman invents the wheel to help them transport Bud Light. The problem is, instead of rolling the wheel, the carry it like a disk, with the Bud Light on top, and we hear a caveman grumble “wheel suck!” on the way. The closing scene has a great followup - you see a caveman crush a beer bottle with a heavy rock, to which he reacts by grumbling “bottle opener suck!”. I think this was the best Bud Light commercial, and competes with a few others for the top commercial of the whole night.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny

Language of Love - Carlos Mencia teaches some foreigners how to pick up women, only to have it backfire on him when an attractive woman is already taken by a short Indian fellow. It was clever, but not the winner of the night.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny

Wine & Cheese Party, Will Ferrell - These two ads were poor attempts to make viewers laugh. I guess when you run as many ads as Bud Light does, you don’t focus on quality…

Drinks

Pepsi

Diet Pepsi Max - Played to the soundtrack “What is love”, people are nodding off to sleep everywhere, from sportscast booths to ranchers on horses. Alas, after only a sip of Diet Pepsi Max, they are energetic and bouncing their heads to the rhythm. This was really very amusing, and the “focus group” I was with was laughing quite hard.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny

Magnetic Attraction - Justin Timberlake is magnetically pulled through a town, crashing into many things on the way, including a particularly painful mail box post. This was a very creative idea, and while it played to the fact that men apparently enjoy watching other men get hit in the groin more than women, it was still hilarious. Everyone I sat with couldn’t stop laughing for a minute. They really tied it all together well at the end with the phrase “every sip gets you closer to Justin Timberlake MP3s, CDs…”.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny

Gatorade

G2 & Gatorade - These were two ads which simply missed the mark. One was with Derek Jeter walking and a “baseball field” appearing under his feet with each step (nice effect, but that’s about it), and the other involved a dog drinking Gatorade. I will say that it was smart to have a New Yorker star in a commercial in a year where there was likely to be more New Yorkers watching the Super Bowl than ever before, I just wish they would have put a bit more effort into the actual ad.

Coca Cola

It’s Mine - Thanksgiving Day parade balloon characters fight with each other to get the Coca Cola balloon, and eventually Charlie Brown gets it. Stewie from Family Guy is one of the balloons, and this had a very “All American” feel to it, reminding Americans that Coca Cola is patriotic.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny, Americana

Jinx - James Carville and Bill Frist frolick around the capital of the US together, apparently under spell from sharing Coca Cola. It wasn’t terribly funny, although I guess some of the election nuts out there might appreciate it.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny, Americana

AMP

Energy Jumpstart - This was a great commercial. The scene has a tow truck guy pull up, place jumper cables on his nipples and the lady’s car, and try to jump start it. When that doesn’t work, he drinks some AMP, and that gives him enough energy to start the car. This was well done, creative idea, and gets the point across with high imagery. There was another one in the series with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. carrying a camel across the desert with the same general idea.
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Funny

Sobe

Thrillicious - Sobe lizards and Naomi Campbell share a “Life Water” drink and then start dancing to Michael Jackson’s thriller. The lizards reminded me of the Geico lizard for some reason, which confused the message a bit. Overall, it was a neat effect, but nothing great.
Watch | Effects in use: Wow Factor

Vitamin Water

Horsin’ Around With Shaq - Shaq rides a tiny horse to victory after drinking Vitamin Water. I kept wondering when the horse would collapse, given Shaq’s 7′1″, 325 pound frame. Not terribly amazing, but just funny to see Shaq on a tiny horse.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny, Wow Factor

Car Ads

Ford

Built Ford Tough - A Ford pickup was shown being swung around in a centrifuge, to convey the strength of the truck’s tow hooks (and by extension, the rest of the truck). The effect was neat, but that’s about it. My favorite part of the commercial is the small disclaimer stating “do not attempt” (as if I have a centrifuge just hanging around my back yard large enough to…).
Watch | Effects in use: Wow Factor

Ford Edge - One spot with Derek Jeter which really didn’t impress me, and two spots that looked like normal boring car ads which is a bad thing to waste money on even when it isn’t the Super Bowl. Ford really dropped the ball here…did they spend so much on the spot that they didn’t have any budget left for making a quality commercial?
Effects in use: Wow Factor

Audi

Godfather - “Old luxury has just been put on notice”. Audi introduced the Audi R8, one of the slickest sports cars I’ve seen in a while. With a price over $109,000, Audi no doubt wanted to reach the wealthy, middle age audience. They recreated a scene from the Godfather movie (the one where an old man wakes up with a horse head on his bed, covered in blood), and then had the R8 speed away in an impressive effect. The spot leaves you breathless mostly because of how classy the car appears.
Watch | Effects in use: Wow Factor, with a touch of Americana

Hyundai

Genesis - The Hyundai Genesis ads introduce a new luxury car with 375 horsepower as part of its recent “Think About It” campaign, which tries to get viewers to rethink how they view Hyundai (I personally think they are some of the ugliest and most useless cars out there- at least until I saw the Genesis). The ad shows the Genesis riding on a mountainside road and compares it to a Mercedes and BMW. My favorite part is when the ad says “you are probably expecting a twist” making you think they were referring to the road, and then surprises you by showing a Hyundai logo (as if admitting that Hyundai cars are junk). Sometimes admitting faults is the only way to connect with customers who have sworn off your product. This was a solid commercial, well done Hyundai.
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Artistic, makes great use of sound, lighting, dramatic effect

Toyota

Corolla - Toyota rolled out one of the funniest ads of the night. In the spot, an average Joe is placed in a Corolla, touting its quiet interior. The only problem is, there are ferocious badgers sleeping who will attack him if they are woken up. While he survives the blast of a cannon outside the car, it’s his cell phone ringing in his pocket that causes trouble.
Watch | Effects in use: Funny (using furry creatures and violence)

Sequoia - This spot was not special, and just showed a bunch of kids having fun and then piling into the SUV. Been there, done that. Where was this agency during the late nineties (when all the other SUV ads were doing this)?

Cadillac

Escalade / CTS 2008 - “When you turn it on, does it return the favor?” - This spot features sexy Kate Walsh driving the all-new Cadillac CTS 2008 and speaking in a soft voice. It was a nice spot, though not amazing. The second spot is similar, but features a guy with the Escalade. Cadillac is trying to make their cars appear to be not only luxurious on the inside, but also thrilling to drive. We’ll see if the public buys that.
Watch, 2 | Effects in use: Sexy

GMC

Yukon Hybrid - “Never say never” - GMC shows a sketched man rolling a ball up a hill, struggling. For the first half of the commercial it actually looked like an ad the Oppenheimer Funds might run. The tone of the commercial makes you feel like they are patting themselves on the back for creating a hybrid SUV (didn’t some other brands do this already)? I guess the never say never slogan comes in handy - we never did expect GMC to get their act together, but I guess late is better than never.
Watch | Effects in use: Artistic

Acura

MDX - A few years ago, Acura introduced the MDX with some amazing sound and image. How sad is it that they spent millions for the spot in the Super Bowl, only to make a very mediocre ad, without any memorable music, and without exhilarating video. The ad focused on some obscure feature in the Acura MDX to monitor and adjust heating based on where the sun is…I’m not sure we were all worrying about that “problem”.
Watch | Effects in use: Artistic

So there’s my take folks. Want to voice your opinion on anything? By all means, please do add in your two cents in the comments.