Awww, baby horse!

When I was a kid, my family took many road trips from our small semi-rural town into the city to visit family. Both sets of grandparents, plus all of my aunts and uncles and cousins, lived an hour away from our house. In order to entertain us and/or keep us quiet, my mom often encouraged my brother and me to play The Billboard Game.

In the billboard game we would look at every billboard we passed, counting up the number of ads we spotted for radio or television stations. And so began a lifelong love of media and marketing.

Now that I have a DVR (yes. finally.), I’m told that I can skip right through those pesky commercials and get back to the good stuff, my shows. But more often than not, I forget to fast forward and watch the ads anyway. Don’t tell my shows, but I really like watching commercials.

Honestly, I get such an enormous kick out of good marketing. (I want to say that nothing makes me happier than good marketing, but I’m trying to exaggerate less. So.) I could gaze at the Dollar Shave Club website for hours, just grinning at their brilliant strategy and excellent execution.

And that is why I’m sharing a list of my favorite Superbowl ads with you today. Even though tons of other websites have done it, and we’re now two days out from the big event (which is light years in the world of the wide web). Because I appreciate good marketing. Because I love commercials. Because I want to know which ones were YOUR favorites!

My Top 10 Favorite Superbowl Ads:

1. Budweiser: Brotherhood – Awwww, baby horse! It’s cute, it’s sweet, and darned if I didn’t tear up a tiny bit!
2. Coca-Cola: Security Camera – People being nice to each other, caught on camera? Gold.
3. Samsung: The Big Pitch – Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd bickering and bantering was, refreshingly, smart-funny not raunchy-funny.
4. M&M: Love Ballad – Look. Chocolate. Anthropomorphic chocolate. Singing anthropomorphic chocolate. Need I say more?
5. Taco Bell: Viva Young – Old people acting like crazy young people. Maybe it shouldn’t make me laugh, but it does.
6. Best Buy: Asking Amy – I love Amy Poehler. The end.
7. Tide: Miracle Stain – This was so goofy, so typically Superbowl-ish, but I loved it anyway. *sigh*
8. Jeep: Whole Again – I get it. This ad was manipulative and a whole bunch of other things, too. And it had Oprah. Still, I stubbornly refuse to be cynical when it comes to a chance to appreciate our military. Thank you to all of those who sacrifice. I don’t care what you drive, but I am grateful for what you do.
9. Dodge Ram: Farmer – Paul Harvey plus gorgeous images plus appreciating farmers is good stuff. Even better is Ann Voskamp’s post inspired by this ad.
10. GoDaddy: Your Big Idea – Don’t hate me! I know every other GoDaddy commercial is downright heinous. I KNOW. But this one, where the guy has a “unique” idea and the woman encourages him to start a website, just in case he’s not as original as he thinks? Worked for me.

A couple other thoughts on this year’s Superbowl ads:

• Prior to the Superbowl, I liked the Bud Light commercials about fan superstitions. But the ones played during the game on Sunday with Stevie Wonder and a random assortment of voodoo were just plain weird. What a disappointing development for a campaign that was working (for me . . . which doesn’t matter to the company, because I don’t drink Bud Light . . . but still.).
• The Calvin Klein commercial with the guy and the abs and the black and white was just . . . ugh. I didn’t like it at all. And I’m pretty sure I was supposed to.
• The Deion Sanders commercial for the NFL Network was funny – until he was supposedly drafted by the Chiefs. And then it was just depressing.
• Every article I’ve read about this year’s Superbowl ads has panned the singing fish in Beck’s commercial for Sapphire (which is a drink, I think?). But for me, the combination of a singing animal and “No Diggity” is going to get my vote every.single.time.

What were your favorite Superbowl commercials?

This post will be linked to Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings.