I’d be thrilled. If they then told me I’d be working on a spot for a real-estate company,
I’d wander off into the night, weeping gently, never to be seen again.”
~ AdAge review of Century 21’s commercial
I really love commercials. And billboards. And magazine ads. It’s no wonder I ended up working at an advertising agency, albeit briefly. [And speaking of jobs, after working for a national real estate company, the AdAge quote above resonates with me. A LOT. Because it’s true. Marketing real estate was actually worse than pitching pet food.]
So while I don’t give a flip about football, I look forward to the Superbowl every year. A ridiculous amount of money is spent by the biggest and baddest companies out there to craft the message they want people to be talking about on Monday and beyond. And I love every ridiculous second of it.
As usual, some of the commercials were annoying, lame or disappointing. I’m talking to you, Jerry Seinfeld, Elton John and stupid Jillian Michaels and Danica Patrick. (Seriously. Way to go, ladies. *huge eye roll here*) I didn’t like the NFL commercial, either (What’s the point? We’re already watching your big game!), and I was bummed out to see none of the Budweiser commercials was moving or funny.
But it wasn’t hard at all for me to come up with 10 commercials from this year’s Superbowl that I really enjoyed.
Top 10 Superbowl {2012} Commercials
The Coca Cola polar bears are just cute. The end. [Click here for Coca Cola video.]
Sassy chocolate girl candy? Yes, please. (And, as fans of the The Wedding Planner know, the brown M&Ms are much healthier.) [Click here for M&Ms video.]
Yes, the couch is annoying (and, as one article I read noted, not comfortable-looking at all). But a blender that plays Lionel Richie? And, duh, rain that makes you skinny? IT’S LIKE THEY READ MY MIND! [Click here for the Toyota Camry video.]
Who hasn’t been there? And, really, making something related to taxes kind of fun deserves major kudos in my book. [Click here to see the TaxACT video.]
“Should we tell him?” “Nah, let him tire out first.” This commercial was completely over the top, but it cracked up every person at our party! [Click here for the Camaro video.]
“Dave drove a Ford.” Ha! Even if my husband didn’t detest Ford as much as he does the Jayhawks, the combination of Barry Manilow, tough guys, the end of the world and frogs falling from the sky would make this a winner in my book. [Click here for the Chevy Silverado video.]
Once I got past the creepy extra neck factor, I couldn’t stop grinning at this one. I really thought, “Why yes, you are right. My confidence should be dancing and singing disco!” [Click here for the Cars.com video.]
Ahhhh, Ferris Bueller. After seeing the mini teaser ad on Facebook several days ago (and hearing my friend Amy tell us how very awesome the whole ad was), I was excited to see this spoof on what really is one of my favorite movies. I’d say it lived up to its hype, even though I wasn’t sure what the ad was for until watching it again on Monday. Also, I am sure the heavily made-up Matthew Broderick was entranced by the walrus simply for the fact that he, too, is long in the tooth. Overall, though, this ad was a ton of fun. [Click here for the Honda CRV video.]
Okay, fine. I will admit that handsome, ages-so-well Uncle Jesse was the main draw for me here. But every single one of us burst out laughing at that head butt, and when Mark and I discussed the game commercials later, this was the first one he mentioned. [Click here for the Dannon Oikos video.]
With the kids [mostly] relegated to the downstairs toy room, my three friends and I watched the game from the kitchen, while the four husbands lounged in the living room. And throughout the game, we ribbed each other about the commercials banking on sex selling anything, from clothes to flowers (ICK on both accounts.). So when this commercial began, we started mocking the guys, noting that while they changed the channel during the David Beckham skin-fest, they didn’t bother with this one. But we soon realized there was more to this commercial than girls in bikinis. And after watching the whole thing, I decided this was definitely one of my favorites. It was creative, it certainly had something for everyone, and the ending was a good payoff for both genders. And the tagline is great. [Click here for the Kia video.]
A few more commercials that I couldn’t help but comment on:
- The Voice – Vocal Kombat: I don’t watch The Voice, and I suppose you could say that Betty White has been overexposed to the nth degree, but I loved this one. It was exciting and fun and had a funny surprise ending – which is a lot more than I expected from a TV show promo.
- Audi – Vampire Party: I thought this one was kind of dumb. But as someone who has less than stellar night vision (and I’m underplaying that a LOT to ease the minds of anyone who has ever ridden with me at night), I want me some of those headlights.
- Chrysler – Halftime in America: Was it too much? Too much sap? Too much gravelly Eastwood gravitas? I don’t know. I really couldn’t decide. Hence it not making the top 10.
- Chevy Sonic – Stunt Anthem: Though this was one of Mark’s favorite commercials of the night, I found nothing remarkable about it other than its choice of song. Apparently “We Are Young” is the new “Mercy.” (I like both songs, but hearing them in widely varying commercials, movies and TV shows is bizarre.)
- Swamp People – This is Your Boss: Am I the only one who thought this was going to be a truck commercial? (And for the love of classy reality TV everywhere (*snort), why is this show still on and making enough money to broadcast a Superbowl commercial?)
- Volkswagen – The Dog Strikes Back: Obviously, as someone trying to lose weight, I loved this dog’s quest to fit through the doggy door. But the Star Wars tag at the end was awkward and a little weird. Don’t get me wrong; I love Star Wars. But that seemed like an afterthought. An awkward afterthought, at that. (Whew! Say that five times fast!)
- MetLife – Everyone: I loved seeing all the cartoon characters together in this feel-good commercial. But the commentary from AdAge cracked me up: “But it raises more questions than it answers. How many characters are inthere? How did they get the rights to hold this prom? What is Daphne doing in Richie Rich’s limousine? When did MetLife turn socialist?” Valid questions, all.
P.S. How stinking AWESOME was Madonna at halftime? That was undoubtedly my favorite halftime show EVER.
Now it’s your turn. What did I miss? Do you agree with my list or disagree? What was YOUR favorite commercial during the Superbowl?
This post will be linked to Top Ten Tuesday at OhAmanda. And it has affiliate links.
I was SO disappointed with the commercials this time around. I couldn’t believe that the beer commercials weren’t funny! The Chevy commercials were my faves.
I know! What happened, Budweiser??
Chevy won the night for me. I also enjoyed Swamp People. Cars.com freaked me out…it was absolute bottom on my list.
I liked the idea of Cars.com and loved it if I only listened. Watching that creepy neck was awkward, though.
I loved the M&M’s one and john stamos one especially! I don’t think the commercials were as great as I expected them to be but they were okay.
I think the heyday of Great Superbowl Commercials may be a thing of the past. But I’ll take better-than-normal ads if I have to!
The Oikos yogurt commercial had us rolling. The “Vocal Kombat” commercial was another one of our favorites. Great post!! Thanks for sharing!!!
I hadn’t realized that the Matthew Broderick one that I saw on TV at some point wasn’t the whole version. Thanks so much for posting it — I loved the whole thing!
Yes, I loved the whole, long version!
Oh, the one with the jaguar turning around and chasing the guy who opened the cage was my very fave– that one cracked me up!
Haha! That was funny. I didn’t see it until the next day, though!
Cory LOVES Swamp People, but I hate it, so I appreciate your take on it. I knew you’d love the Ferris Bueller one. Did I ever tell you how I think of you every year when I watch Super Bowl commercials because I think of the time in college when we had to be very quiet during the commercials because you had to write a paper about them (and youtube wasn’t around yet to watch them later)? Well, anyway, I do.
Thank you for being positive about Madonna. I felt like everyone was very critical of her, although that could have been because I was at a High School Super Bowl party for church. I liked hearing her old classics and I thought she stayed classy and didn’t try to be too sexy or anything. Linda Holmes has a good article about her performance on npr that I totally agree with.
Haha! I kind of wish I had to write a paper about the commercials every year. That seems so fun now! And I liked that Linda Holmes article, too. (She really is my favorite, and I’m so glad you introduced me to her!)
So, I just had to comment on the Kia commercial because my husband and I are reading “Sacred Sex: A Spiritual Celebration of Oneness in Marriage” (I highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it) and one of the things it talks about is how a husband wants his wife to desire him more than anyone else and how he gets his greatest fulfillment when he focuses all of his desires on his wife–of course he goes into it in much more detail and better, but the ending reminded me of that. In the end, his dream was to be his wife’s hero and experience everything with her…so sweet.
I haven’t read that book, but I do think I’d like to tell Mark he’s going to get great fulfillment by focusing on me. :) But seriously, yes, that’s why I loved the Kia commercial, too!