Good Game, So-So Commercials
 

I was pleasantly surprised by there actually being some pretty good football in the SuperBowl. Certainly unusual. The commercials came up short this year, though, in my not so humble opinion ...

I only identified two total loser commercials, ones that just didn't click for me at all ... those were Levi Jeans: Buffalo Stampede and AT&T Wireless MLife: Gilligan's Island. These companies should fire their ad agencies NOW.

Budweiser rules the roost yet again, not by way of making better beer, but by having better commercials. I'm having a hard time deciding which was more clever ... The Assclown or No Pets. (I'm leaning toward assclown). I enjoyed the "instant replay" ad as well, very low key, until you saw the zebra, anyway. Bring back the Bud Bowl!

The Pepsi Twist Commercial with the Osbournes had me giggling, even on the repeat, but probably won't hold up to repeat viewing very well.

Guilty pleasures for this year include Visa Check Card: Yo/Yao, Fedex: Castaway, and Trident: 5th out of 5 Dentists.

The Best Use of Body Fluids Award goes to Dodge Ram Truck: Heimlich. I'm guessing that anytime we see that add from now on, there will not be the same close focus shot of the regurgitated beef jerky (which is probably just as well).

That Pepsi commercial WAS funny. The only other commercial I remember was the woman who had the huge ass.

Another commercial I like has actually been on the air for a few weeks now, but Wolf reminded me of it: The Apple Powerbook commercial featuring Yao Ming and Vern Troyer.

Wow! That Levi commercial really was terrible. Definite round of firings this morning. Ass-Clown and Zebra really were good.

The Dixie Chicks did a nice job on the SSB. Celine makes me wince at best and for all my tough talk about hyper patriotism, I still don't want Canucks singing GBA. Bring in a citizen. Did dishes at halftime so I don't now how that came off.

Rod Woodson should have held on to that ball. Another blowout, even in parityland, too bad.

The halftime show was the only part of the game I actively watched (I taped it for my wife, who likes Shania Twain and No Doubt), so I missed 95% of the commercials.

Was it me, or was this the BEST halftime show they've put on in many a year? No marching bands, no interpretive dance troupes, no fifteen-minute feel-good heavy-symbolism routines to the music of Gloria Estefan (or someone equally innocuous). Instead, they went simple this time, throwing out a few musicians and saying "Here, be entertained," and it WORKED for once.

Shania was in total lip-sync mode, which was blatantly obvious on several occasions, and her outfit reminded me of Geena Davis as a wannabe-vampire in "Transylvania 6-5000." Still, it's what I expected, and she was passable. No Doubt then popped up, said "Oh, you people wanted MUSIC!" and delivered, and even STING remembered how to rock for five minutes.

Not bad at all...

I liked the Castaway commercial, since I'm one of the approximately 75% of the smartasses who saw the movie who figured that was EXACTLY what the package contained. (the other 25% thought it was a build-your-own-ultralight kit)

The game seemed to be something of a repeat of the Eagles game. Had to be painful for the Raiders fans... oh well, they got their frustrations out with a little harmless (OK, maybe not) arson.

I agree, the Dixie Chicks were great. I too, was mystified (and pissed off), by the CANADIAN singing "god bless america, my home sweet home ..." It don't make no sense, but hey, when has anything.

I have to disagree with vsp's assessment of the halftime show ... Musically, yes, it was better, but I came away feeling extremely cheated. (this is where I have to point out that I just really don't like Shania Twain) ...

What gives ... 10 minutes+ of Shania Twain (which seemed a lot longer), 7 minutes of No Doubt, and like 3 minutes of Sting (which he had to Share with No Doubt, increasing thier aggregate total to 10 minutes) ... There should have been a larger timeslice devoted to Sting, dammit ....

I thought that Santana was very cool on the pregame show, but can't figure out why they bother to book anyone for post game ...

Like it or not, Shania Twain was the biggest "name" (where name == current airplay) of the three, as far as network executives were concerned. Sting has obviously had a more lengthy and distinguished career -- hell, Shania hadn't hit puberty yet when the Police debuted, and she's 37 now -- but the last album he released that made a blip on the general public's radar was ten years ago (Ten Summoner's Tales). She had a new album to hawk, whereas No Doubt did a seven-year-old song and then teamed with Sting on a TWENTY-FOUR-year-old song.

No Doubt and Sting were certainly more inspired choices than Aerosmith and Britney last year (both of which ought to be euthanized)... but they were givebacks to those of us with attention spans, in that I'm a little surprised they didn't give the WHOLE break to Shania in a fit of "old & busted -- new hotness" logic. Note that I'm not saying that they _should_ have...

Man, I am REALLY out of the loop . . .
 

. . . Ooops, was yesterday the Superbowl? Missed it.

For those who missed the ads, you can view them online here.

Thanks for the link! That was great, and saved me hours of viewing time!

This has been your daily linkage with juju. Thank you, drive through.

2004 Edition - The Commercials
 

This year's commercial load was better than last year's, but uneven.

The overall best were the Budweiser ads, particularly the "romantic evening" spot. I could watch the sleigh-horse fart again and again.

The Clydesdale Donkey spot was classy as well.

Willie Nelson having a good sense of humor over his own tax troubles really enhanced the H&R Block ads.

The Lay's Potato Chip ad where the old people beat each other up was just plain fun.

I think the guy in the Staples Supply Room ad worked for the last company that employed me.

I want to see the MasterCard Simpsons ad another dozen or so times, just to catch the subtle jibes that I missed the first time.

What I don't understand are the companies that pay for Superbowl Time, but don't provide a Superbowl Quality commericial ... particularly the ones that just run their regular advertising, like the Sony "Paolo the Exchange Student" ad.

Best Eye Candy goes to the Cadillac "water" ad. That was just pretty to watch. Not likely to sell many cars, but it was a fun piece of advertising.

Product I most want to try that was advertised: Club Chalupa at Taco Bell. I really like Chalupa's anyway, but adding bacon to them is sheer genius.

Honorable mention to Pepsi for the RIAA ad ... but loss of yardage for the "Hendrix" spot. Just damn stupid.

The NFL ad ... "As of tomorrow, we're all undefeated again" was more than clever. I wonder if they will add to this, including Delhomme singing along with the others.

The razor commercials were the worst. Get a sense of humor if you're gonna spend those kinds of dollars. I don't know about the Caddy commercial... not that I'm their target audience. Thumbs up to Mastercard and H&R Block.

There seemed to be a lot of unsold ad space this year -- commercials for CBSs other shows, NFL commercials, etc.

Canadians live in America. So do Mexicans.;)