Comments

The FedEx ad with Burt Reynolds was funny and effective. It's the best (and most memorable I've seen so far).

Posted by Karen Labenz at February 6, 2005 8:05 PM

Just saw the "10 Things" FedEx commercial. I love it when advertisers poke fun at themselves. The gratuitous groin kick sealed the deal!

Posted by Reed Porter at February 6, 2005 8:06 PM

FedEx ran a good spot in the first quarter, talking about how to have the best ad on the Super Bowl. They said 10 ingredients are necessary, and built the commercial around them, including a celebrity (Burt Reynolds), a talking bear, a cute kid, etc. It certainly cut through, and was memorable. But, is this worth $2.4 million for a brand that already has huge awareness? (you could argue that the FedEx/Kinkos merger is still not known by enough people ...)

Posted by Steve Yastrow at February 6, 2005 8:09 PM

This is where living up in Canada sucks. We don't get any of the good ads except for those companies who want to pay extra (less than a million $Cdn) to advertise in Canada.

We only get to see the ads after the fact.

Update: we DID just get the Budweiser horse commercial.

Posted by Andrew at February 6, 2005 8:09 PM

I thought Diet Pepsi's second ad was better than the first ... the first, where P. Diddy gets a ride after a car breakdown in a Diet Pepsi truck and then starts a fad of driving Pepsi trucks, was funny, but a stretch. The second has a good looking guy walking carrying a diet pepsi can while a bunch of women stop in their tracks to gawk ... of course they are looking at the diet pepsi. But the great moment is when Carson from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy also stops to gawk.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at February 6, 2005 8:14 PM

C'mon McDonald's. A fry that looks like Abraham Lincoln?

Quiznos Baby Bob is better than the dead rodents, but only by a little bit.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at February 6, 2005 8:24 PM

Throw M.C. Hammer back! Rofl

Posted by Reed Porter at February 6, 2005 8:48 PM

My friends really liked the careerbuilder.com ad with a guy working at "Yeknom Industries" with a bunch of monkeys.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at February 6, 2005 9:01 PM

My favorite one so far: The Michelob Amber Bock ... Rich and Cool.

Posted by Karyn at February 6, 2005 9:08 PM

iTunes - 2nd ad (w/ Gwen) was great...Quiznos Bob was yukkie!

Posted by kp at February 6, 2005 9:18 PM

About the ads that got pulled from the roster before the Super Bowl ... the story of the Lincoln priest ad was all over the news today. I'll bet they consider it a triumph - not having to pay to run the ad, but getting tons of publicity anyway.

Posted by David G at February 6, 2005 9:25 PM

We are all undefeated tomorrow. That NFL Network is a great example of a corporation knowing its customer and creating an awesome product for them.

(McCartney is awesome, btw)

Posted by Reed Porter at February 6, 2005 9:31 PM

Totally agree with Reed, on the NFL ad and McCartney.

One of our group asked, at the begining of the act, if McCartney was the "safe" act, after last year. He was awesome, and made the older tunes sound great.

(How about the irony of doing Get Back live ... if you remember the Let It Be movie, where John wanted to play live and Paul didn't. Part of the compromise, for John, was doing Get Back live on the roof. Remember? If not, rent the movie!!!)

Posted by Steve Yastrow at February 6, 2005 9:44 PM

The HOT Tabasco

I wonder if a tantalizing model straight out of the ocean is a good(leave alone great!!!) idea to seduce grocery shopping women into lining up their refrigerator shelves with the product!!!!!

Posted by AJ at February 6, 2005 10:10 PM

The Amheuser-Busch thank you to our troops walking through the airport terminal to the applause of the folks in the airport terminal, it gets my vote. There's nothing more American pie than the Super Bowl and honoring our troops. A-B gets it. I got it too and I'll buy a Bud the next time I'm out.

Posted by Terry K at February 6, 2005 10:17 PM

AJ ... good point about whether the Tabasco ad will appeal to female consumers.

One thing to think about: When a company like Tabasco spends this kind of money (it was their first Super Bowl ad) they are not just marketing to consumers. They want to be able to tell the buyers at Safeway/Albertsons/Wal-Mart et. al. that they are supporting their brand with Super Bowl ads. It is as much a B to B ad as it is a consumer ad. So ... what does that say about using the model? Good idea or bad idea?

Posted by Steve Yastrow at February 6, 2005 10:18 PM

Steve....Of course using the Superbowl Platform, Tabasco reached their B2B objectives.
I believe that a unisex campaign can be (more) creative and an (equally) effective tool in creating an overall "BUZZ" (aka Trump style!!!!!! )
Selling Tabasco is not the same as selling Beer!!!!

Posted by AJ at February 7, 2005 12:17 AM

Ok Steve... I'll do mine in categories

Best Ad:
The Half-Time show (I know it is not a commercial, so sue me!)

Memorable (for the next few days):
A-B Thanks to Our Troops

Memorable (as Apple's 1984):
None

Funny:
A-B Designated Driver and FedEx (tie)

Attention-getter for Men:
Tabasco and GoDaddy.com (tie)

Attention-getter for Women:
(Better let someone else vote for this one)

Attention-getter for Kids:
Visa Debit Card w/Superheroes

Huh? What's that ad for?:
GoDaddy.com

Most likely to draw an apology:
Ameriquest w/cat, knife and sauce.

Most suited for daytime TV:
MasterCard w/ Ad icons having dinner

More-than-once-was-too-many:
Ford's frozen driver and Pepsi Truck (tie)

Posted by Gabriel Salcido at February 7, 2005 2:48 AM

What Superbowl???

Posted by PaulH at February 7, 2005 4:27 AM

Was I the only one who caught Brad Pitt doing a Heineken ad??? The celebrities with the most recognizable faces usually keep their advertising money-making efforts out of the American air space, not wanting to dilute their brands when it comes to drawing audiences into movie theaters. (They do ads in Europe, Japan, and other places, but not here.) But, that ad was brilliant! Capitalizing on his ultimate noticeability in such a fun way. I expect Heineken is the beer I'll think of the next time the occasion arises.

Oh, and did I mention? The Patriots won!!!!!!!

http://www.patriots.com/

Posted by cathy at February 7, 2005 8:25 AM

Cathy, you make a good point. I heard Brad was paid $14M for this ad !! Any one know--if this is a fact or not ??

Posted by /pd at February 7, 2005 8:53 AM

The Amheuser-Busch thank you to our troops is the #1 in my arena!

Posted by Carmen Salerno at February 7, 2005 9:00 AM

I had several favorites, but first, Steve, that's not Tabasco's first SuperBowl ad. Who remembers the ad several years ago with the guy eating pizza smothered in Tabasco, only to have a mosquito come and bite him, fly away, and explode?

One commercial I thought was excellent was the Ford Mustang Convertible with the frozen driver. I thought it was catchy and a great way to hype the coming release of their new car.

I thought the A-B ad that paid tribute to our troops was excellent as well. It made me tear up, as did several other moments during the pregame show. Very well done.

I thought the Fed-Ex ad was good as well, but it wasn't the first ad that came to mind when I thought about it.

Posted by Colin at February 7, 2005 9:24 AM

I'd love to get David Wolfe's take on Paul McCartney doing the half-time show. Talk about The New Majority rules! How many of the Superbowl ads truly appealed to women or people 40+?

Tony Kirton

Posted by Tony Kirton at February 7, 2005 9:43 AM

Lessee . . . Carls Jr. had a great, um, hamburger; GoDaddy was just plain duh-mb; FedEx starring Burt Reynolds was very creative and VERY funny; Lay's was good but using Vanilla Ice would have been better; Bud salutes the troops, now that was classy; I wonder if Heineken thought of having Jennifer Aniston pointing the crowd to where Brad Pitt was escaping; my wife (a Texas native) loved the Diet Pepsi truck with the monster tires, a la the Lone Star State; and did Master Lock have a commercial this year?

Posted by Ron at February 7, 2005 11:19 AM

get viagra overnight

AmeriQuest's Rude Cell Phone Guy getting pepper maced and savaged with an electric cattle prod
was great, and the halftime show was far and away the best EVER! NFL, please listen-NO MORE JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE/BOY BAND POP MEDLEYS! Hire a real performer like Sir Paul to belt out entire songs and we will stay glued to the set!

Posted by Stan at February 7, 2005 1:01 PM

Thanks Cathy !!

All:As on FYI.. theres some good chatter happening at BoB's Blog too !!

http://www.bobparsons.com/

Posted by /pd at February 7, 2005 1:28 PM

I'm 42 and thought McCartney was good -- although I found myself hoping a surprise guest would join him on stage. The 10 teenagers I watched the game with were bored with the half-time show. They did like the Mustang commercial though.

Posted by Gregg Stutts at February 7, 2005 2:52 PM

McCartney was good, but too bad he couldn't do the original ending to Hey Jude. I know it reeks havoc on his vocal chords though.

The GoDaddy ad was an insult to the intelligence of anyone who even knows what domain registration is. Makes me regret having two domains registered through them and I will be looking for alternatives to renewing.

The Bud Light skydiving ad caught me off guard. Found it very amusing.

CareerBuilder.com's Yeknom Industries probably will help them close the gap with Monster.com. I about fell out of my chair when the monkey kissed the bosses butt.

Steve, I'm not as sold on the Diet Pepsi ad. The guys in the room were exclaiming, "Ahhh noooo. That's just wrong." as Carson from Queer Eye started gawking. Seemed like an ad aimed at women... during the Super Bowl? Nothing wrong with targeting women, but why alienate the millions of men watching who might be potential Diet Pepsi drinkers?

The Lays ad was great! Ron...why Vanilla Ice? He was more annoying, but wasn't the icon that MC Hammer was. Parachute pants? That's great stuff.

Overall, I thought AmeriQuest had some of the best ads. "Don't judge too quickly. We won't." What a great message that they clearly communicated in very clever ads. I'd give them the trophy.

Posted by Dustin at February 7, 2005 4:48 PM

Here goes:
Anheuser Busch "Thank You".
Cadillac "C-Series"
Anheuser Bush: "Clydesdale Burro"

And the best sponsorship:
Ameritrade's Half Time Show sponsorship.
Never been a special fan of Sir Paul, or The Beatles, but this was THE absolute B-E-S-T.
Interesting aside: Audience shots showing teens and twenty-somethings dancing to the music along with us boomers and geezers, together. Remember when counterculture meant "Don't trust anyone over thirty"??? In the space of forty years, and the lifetime of this one musician, how things have sure changed for the better.

Posted by lemarmion at February 8, 2005 12:12 AM

About the Godaddy.com ad...

I read a news story before the super bowl ad was shown, went to godaddy.com because of what I read, and was seriously considering using their services for a couple of domains I'm about to register. Then I saw the ad... I found the ad tiresome, completely unfunny and not relavent to anything (not even nipplegate). 2.4 million dollars increased their brand awareness but is negative publicity better than none?!

Posted by Charles at February 8, 2005 11:07 AM

For the record, I use Godaddy but was embarrassed by the ad. It was a waste of money. When a company is introducing itself to millions of viewers, you want to impress them, not cause them to dismiss you as some hack. Godaddy actually has some powerful tools but were they showcased? No. Instead we get a lame joke that's a year old with nothing said about their product.

I was more than irritated with it. I was disgusted that a good company could pass the baton of advertising to the mind of a fifteen-year old. I'm sure Godaddy will now be deluged with domain requests for "www.mandymoorerules.com" and "www.pimpmybike.com" which is perhaps all they care about, anyway.

Posted by M. R. Maguire at February 8, 2005 7:24 PM

Looking back a week later, the message I recall best was the Ford ad with frozen driver. Too often we see funny/entertaining ads, and have no idea who/what they were selling.

The AB ad with the troops was great. I actually was part of a similar event in the Atlanta airport atrium area. Hard to forget.

Posted by michael at February 14, 2005 5:08 PM