Another Super Bowl has passed, and the advertising industry is still standing. Now we can the take time and examine how the spots resonated with the audience, and from a creative standpoint, how they fared. With many of the commercials leaked to the public, many of the spots were not a surprise. Some shops, though, kept the world guessing until their time came. We are not going to look at all of them, but we'll a look at a few good ones, one or two of the bad, and one or two of the ones that made us ask what they were thinking when they made it.
The Good
Acura: Transactions
"Leno!" We thought that not only was it entertaining, it was a great way to show the world how excited people should be to get the new Acura NSX. To think that people would try to buy up the waitlist in order to be the first is not a novel idea, but certainly not a bad one. The commercial didn't showcase many of the attributes of the car, either, which means Acura wants the hype of the commercial to pull people in to see it.
M&Ms: Just My Shell
It's always fun to see how Mars is going to introduce its next M&M. This commercial is no exception. The humor of the commercial, along with the company's ability to build characters, made this one fun to watch, and sparks the interest of the viewer. BBDO did a great job making the introduction a memorable one.
Silverado: 2012
A man, his dog, his friends, and their trucks. Oh yeah, and they survived the end of the world. It was interesting that the Mayan calendar wasn't more of a theme in this year's Super Bowl, but Chevy used it in a pretty classy way. From the giant robots to the frogs falling from the sky to the rib-jab at Ford, this ad was very well done. Not to mention that Twinkies also survived the Apocalypse.
The Bad
Hyundai: Think Fast
We see where they were trying to go with this, but it was a swing and a miss. The first thing someone thinks of when their passenger passes out would not be to repeatedly slam on the brakes. Maybe an exciting dash across roads or highways, or a makeshift shortcut to a hospital, or some kind of voice-activated feature to the car all would have been decent twists. After this ad, people are not going to talk about the awesome brake response the car has; a debate will ensue about proper recessitation measures.
Doritos: Sling Baby
We're sure that you would have guessed that we were going to put at least one of the user-generated ads here. We get the message here, but it simply didn't get the job done.
The Huh?
GoDaddy: Heaven
Really? Okay, you're using a QR code, that's great. But turning "the cloud" into a heaven with a bunch of scantily clad women that would make your "Internet dreams come true" is not using any form of creative imagination. We know Parsons is all about the women, but at least lie to us by actually trying something different.
TaxACT: Free to Pee
This was TaxACT's first go at a Super Bowl commercial, and we are not sure how to feel about it. They were going for the "free feels good," but it just turned into us rooting for the little kid to get to a bathroom. Where filing taxes for free comes in, we're not too sure. It's a funny commercial, and we guess we can make the parallel that running around for a bathroom is just as annoying as filing taxes.
Of course there were more good, bad, and huh? commercials during the game, but we wanted to share the ones that stuck out the most. Other honorable mentions include Audi's Vampire Party and the GE power and beer commercials, which we thought were pretty well done.
Then you have the ones that women's activist groups will be in an uproar over: the Fiat commercial, Kia, and both GoDaddy spots. As they repeatedly attempt to use the female body, in a now majority-female population, it will be interesting to see how the backlash develops.
Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.
Another Super Bowl has passed, and the advertising industry is still standing. Now we can the take time and examine how the spots resonated with the audience, and from a creative standpoint, how they fared. With many of the commercials leaked to the public, many of the spots were not a surprise. Some shops, though, kept the world guessing until their time came. We are not going to look at all of them, but we'll a look at a few good ones, one or two of the bad, and one or two of the ones that made us ask what they were thinking when they made it.
