Super Bowl 2007 Ads Worst Ever
Sacha Zimmerman has a pretty fair rundown of the ads from last night’s Super Bowl, which have already been mercilessly savaged by the critics. My favorite of his summaries:
After head injuries and then a commercial that ends with sex in the check-out line of a grocery store, the good folks at Doritos would also like to remind you that they, too, care about black people. Especially black people who eat Doritos–on this very historic day.
He believes they “metastasized into an orgy of hype and promotion the likes of which we have never before seen” because of YouTube. Could well be. Regardless, they were bloody awful.
UPDATE: Steven Taylor and Dan Drezner offer their takes on the ads, with differing views on the political implications.
Oh, I dunno… the Bud Lite ads were all pretty good, and I liked the ‘office in the jungle’ series too. But when they did the Sheryl Crow thing, my first thought was “Ummm… do you guys really think your target demo for hair color products is watching the 3rd quarter of the Superbowl?”
On a mildly-related subject, has Dobson or anyone wigged out yet about Prince’s shadow-puppet show with his “guitar”?
Was Chevy really trying to sell a car by having unattractive semi-naked men rubbing themselves on it? Was this supposed to appeal to women? To men?
One side note, did anyone else notice the over the heads irony of the last Criminal Minds promo that ended with Mandy Patinkin decrying someone using murder as entertainment?
I think there are a number of reasons for it. First off, in an age of Tivo ads will be skipped anyway so in a very real sense the whole medium is dead in favor of product placement. I see more and more signs that we’re going back 50 years to the old Burns & Allen shows where the ads were woven inextricably into the show itself.
Another explanation. Product marketing, advertising, and television production are notoriously places for youngsters. I’m afraid we may just be seeing that Generation Y just isn’t very creative.
Absolutely awe-inspiring nonsense from advertisers who are currently using us (including me) to fulfill their expectations for the effort. Talking about it.
Dave,
I dunno about the Gen-Y thing… I laughed my ass off at the Garmin GPS-Ultraman takeoff, but the 21yo in my office was completely mystified by it & complained about the crappy special effects…
Prince was the best half-time show in the last 16 years. i’m not a fan, just watched him do it at
midfield and hold an audience, at least, at my house.
the Doritos kids from Cary, NC won!
guys in ads have been “dorking out” for a
while now. nice to see a girl face-plant.
prediction: more girls (even “hot” girls)
in real (not CGI) Three Stoogettes-type
slapstick.
I would have to agree with the first post. There were some really dumb.. and very bad ones… but unlike a few years ago there were some new approaches that were very good. However… I’m not sure I want to eat a Snickers bar every again.
Does anyone really give a rat’s ass about how “good” tv commercials are?
Well I guess for some folks it is less painful then a discussion about all the “good things” that are happening in Iraq…