I’ve never been much of a Super Bowl commercial guy – usually because I’m watching the game with friends or loved ones and the commercials are the perfect time for bathroom breaks, refills on beverages and getting more chips.
This year though, I watched the game by myself. And I had Twitter up while I was watching it, so it was fun to see a running commentary on the game and the commercials. I kept track of the commercials I wanted to comment on.
Here’s the list:
The Doritos bark collar commercial was clever. Animal commercials are the ones we remember and talk about.
The GoDaddy.com commercial showing Danica Patrick being massaged by a woman who wants to be a GoDaddy girl was ridiculous. Bob Parsons reminds me of Larry Flynt.
The Doritos commercial with the little boy slapping his mom’s date was the funniest commercial of the night in my opinion.
The Doritos casket commercial was sort of funny, but what happened to the TV the guy was watching in the casket after he rolled out of it? The TV was gone.
The Budweiser commercial with the bridge made out of people didn’t do it for me.
The David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Lay Leno commercial for the Late Show was kind of funny, although I didn’t understand why Winfrey was there. Any time you can get Letterman and Leno in the same room makes for interesting conversation. And, as many people pointed out on Twitter, how bad must things be at NBC for Leno to appear on a commercial for CBS?
The CareerBuilder.com commercial in which everybody appears in their underwear because it is casual Friday was just weird.
The Wear the Pants Dockers commercial kind of creeped me out. A bunch of dudes marching around in a field in their underwear is the best they could do? Really?
The Dove for Men commercial that began with swimming sperm cells was a failure from the beginning; just a terrible commercial that made little sense.
The Dodge Charger “Man’s Last Stand” commercial made fun of grown up men when the dude utters, in part, “I will take your call. I will listen to your opinion of my friends. I will listen to your friends’ opinion of my friends. I will be civil to your mother. I will put the seat down. I will separate the recycling. I will carry your lip balm. I will watch your Vampire TV shows with you. I will take my socks off before getting into bed. I will put my underwear in the basket (again with the underwear?). And because I do this, I will I will drive the car that I want to drive.” You are civil to your wife because you are setting the stage to drive a certain car? Really?
The Dr. Pepper KISS commercial was bizarre and I just didn’t get it.
The TruTV commercial with Punxsutawney Polamalu was funny. I love the fact that Troy Polamalu can laugh at himself.
The FloTV commercial in which Jim Nance comments about a man whose girlfriend has removed his spine rendering him incapable of watching the game was supposed to be funny; I didn’t find it to be so.
The Intel commercial with the offended robot – didn’t get it really.
The Volkswagen slug bug commercial was a brilliant use of an age old game. Although I don’t remember actually slugging anybody when we saw a Volkswagen drive by like the participants in the commercial did. We simply said, “Slug bug green” or “Slug bug red” or whatever color the car was.
The Denny’s Grand Slam commercial showing the chickens freaking out over the upcoming free Grand Slam breakfasts was funny. It’s hard to mess up an animal commercial.
I liked the HomeAway.com commercial with the Griswolds in which Clark complains about hotel charges. Can’t get enough of the Griswolds.
The “Your Bridgestone tires or your life” commercial in which the man in the car misunderstands the bandit as saying “wife” instead of life: stupid.
The eTrade commercial showing two babies on webcams: creepy.
The Census 2010 commercial couldn’t have been a more confusing, jumbled mess. On Twitter, @uscensusbureau, in an apparent decision to defend their decision to spend more than $2 million of your money on the ad said, “If 1% of folks watching #SB44 change mind and mail back #2010Census form, taxpayers save $25 million in follow up costs.” I responded by saying, “What if 1% change their mind in the other direction because they see the ad as a confusing, jumbled mess?”
The Google commercial was effective. Nearly anything the user entered into the search engine came up with solid results. That’s not quite how it happens when you really use the product, but there’s a reason Google has become a verb.
The Dante’s Inferno game commercial ended with the tag line “Hell awaits.” Nice.
The Budweiser ad with the horse and steer was cute.
The Audi “Green Police” commercial makes me want to get plastic next time I’m in the grocery store; and it makes me never want to buy an Audi. Can you tell I’m against a police state.
The Doritos commercial where the dude uses a Dorito as a ninja star was comical.
The Bud Light commercial about the book club with the dudes who are unread morons didn’t do much for me.
The GoDaddy.com “Too Hot for TV?” commercial was ridiculous. Noticing a theme with their commercials yet?
Which commercials did you enjoy most? Which ones annoyed you?
Oh, by the way, the game itself was awesome. The Saints won their first Super Bowl.
