First Quarter, First Commercial Break
Brand: Bud Light
Company: Anheuser-Busch
Description: Rock, Paper, Scissors for Beer
Agency: DDB
Anheuser-Busch ponied up $25 million for this year's Super Bowl ads. The company bought a whopping five minutes of commercial space and is the largest Super Bowl advertiser. This first of nine spots showed why Anheuser-Busch and its brands are always the ones that get talked about long after the Super Bowl is over.
Brand: Doritos
Company: Frito-Lay
Description: Live the Flavor
Agency: Winner of the consumer-generated ad contest
Guy sees girl. Girl sees guy. They both have the same kind of Doritos bag in their hands. Crunchy pops up on the screen as he crashes his car. Smooth pops up on the screen as she falls into the street. Doritos got a lot more exposure with the contest than they will for this ad. Not a bad commercial. A lot better than some commercials that get plunked into the Super Bowl.
Brand: Blockbuster
Company: Blockbuster Inc.
Description: The pet store pets mistake a real mouse for a computer one.
Agency: Doner US
The ad's purpose is to promote Blockbuster Total Access that gives you online and in-store DVD rentals. The best part of the commercial probably went unnoticed: the celebrity voiceovers. James Woods played the rabbit, Jim Belushi played the guinea pig and Bob Goldthwait voiced the mouse. The closing voiceover was Alec Baldwin.
First Quarter, Second Commercial Break
Brand: Sierra Mist Free
Company: Pepsi-Cola
Description: Guy with a beard combover can't make good decisions.
Agency: BBDO New York
Michael Ian Black and Jim Gaffigan team up for three Super Bowl ads. Very quirky, just like you expect from these two. Having three spots in the game and two in the same commercial block helped keep this ad on people's minds.
Brand: Salesgenie.com
Company: infoUSA
Description: Work smart, not hard, for sales leads.
Agency: Produced in-house
Did you hear the sound of $2.6 million gushing out the door for that 30 second Super Bowl commercial? The actor says, "I work smart, not hard," but parent company infoUSA should have done the same and saved its millions for a long-running, better placed ad campaign than a :30 quick fix that got lost on its audience.
Brand: Sierra Mist
Company: Pepsi-Cola
Description: Karate class learns how to attack Sierra Mist thief.
Agency: BBDO New York
Michael Ian Black and Jim Gaffigan are back just 30 seconds after the first spot. Tracy Morgan also appears in this ad. BBDO does something many Super Bowl advertisers don't. They actually put the focus on the product while still putting in that :30 of humor. The Sierra Mist bottle is only off screen a few seconds. The class being dressed in white really make that Sierra Mist bottle stand out. Makes you thirsty for...guess what? A Sierra Mist.
First Quarter, Third Commercial Break
Brand: Tundra
Company: Toyota
Description: Redesigned Toyota Tundra
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Like most auto commercials, you either want this vehicle or you don't and you won't be persuaded just by one ad. However, the approach Toyota takes by using an actual demonstration is pretty cool. It's not flashy. It won't end up on the list of funny commercials this year. But it's one you want to see again, just to check out that ending. This spot marked the launch of Toyota's ad campaign for the redesigned Tundra.
Brand: FedEx
Company: FedEx
Description: Who Delivers to the First Office on the Moon?
Agency: BBDO New York
Two years ago, we saw Burt Reynolds dancing around with a bear in a FedEx commercial in the Super Bowl. Cute ad. Last year, we saw cavemen hawking FedEx in the Super Bowl. Easily forgettable, unlike Geico's cavemen. But FedEx is headed back to the future with its Super Bowl XLI ad. It's definitely a big improvement over last year's commercial but music fans will have to laugh that the song of the future featured at the end of the ad is the 80s hit "Final Countdown" by big hair band Europe.
Brand: Bud Light
Company: Anheuser-Busch
Description: Auctioneer Marries Couple
Agency: DDB
Most people won't admit to their friends that they would love to go to a wedding like this so they can get through the ceremony quickly. DDB scores again.
