Super Bowl Winners and Losers

This year the game for me was a winner. Unfortunately, the spots were the losers for me. In fact most of them were an interruption in my life (And people who know me know I don’t care much for NFL Football.) To me the Super Bowl is a celebration of smart creative individuals and brands, showcasing their talents to nearly half of America. And then they play that important game.

As a Creative person I always try and find the germ of the idea in the spots and then analyze why they went bad or good. Was it the Executive Creative Director putting his thumbprint on it? Did the agency President think it should have his stamp and twist on it? Did it fall short in the production or did the client muddle with the agency and crush a killer concept. I’m not being a creative hater here. At dio we had a spot ready to roll for a local Super Bowl media buy but the client pulled the plug at the last minute. The interesting thing is, and not to brag, but our spot for uFinancial told more of a story than 60 percent of the spots that aired, and I know strategically would have created a connection with the local audience. Oh well, maybe next year!

To me the big winners were:

Dodge Charger: Man’s Last Stand

They are selling these cars to MEN. The creative connects with the demographic watching the game, especially the line about being civil to her mother. Lets face it men, we’ve all been there. Celebrate you manliness with a go fast mean machine. This is a spot well done. I’d buy one but my wife says no because I wrecked my last manly go fast machine.

http://adage.com/brightcove/single.php?title=65106415001

Dove: Manthem

Great montage of “manthem” to the William Tell Overture. This spot is driven with incredibly powerful music and voice over to celebrate all the accomplishments you’ve made with a very simple message - Now that you’re comfortable with who you are, isn’t it time for comfortable skin. How much clearer can that message be? I love the spot; I’m just not giving up my Old Spice.

http://adage.com/brightcove/single.php?title=64892881001

Audi: Green Car

We’re all trying to be a little “Greener”. This spot takes a smart yet funny approach to how we could all do a little better to be green. This spot is full or great scenarios, hot tub water too high, ryes’ in the compost piles violations and the ever so dreaded statement, please step out of the car and put your drinks on the hood. (Glad it wasn’t a tofu doughnut joke.)

http://adage.com/brightcove/single.php?title=64892835001

Spots that didn't connect with me.

I wouldn’t call any of the spots I didn’t call winners, losers. I think all the spots had some sort of merit. The production quality was good on all of them except the strange Sketchers Exercise Shoes spots that ran about three times. I think the Google spot was good story telling but I’m not so sure why they spent the money to run during the Super Bowl. The Boost Mobile Shuffle left me scratching my head. The Bud and Bud Light seemed like they were a huge stretch in reality, rather than embodying the beauty of truisms. Then we have the stick with no pants in Career Builder and Dockers. They reminded me of creative that was embodied in bathroom humor that creatives know to stay away from. The Coca-Cola stuff was just plain and simple strange. I don’t sleepwalk for soda or watch the Simpsons, so why would that motivate someone to purchase a shitty can of Coke? Hell, you can’t even find that stuff in the bottle that you patented a billion years ago so show the fuckin’ can. The Denny’s Chickens Across America - mediocre creative but the offer is so huge they will have every seat filled on Tuesday the 9^th.

Now I’m going to get to my biggest disappointment of the night - Go Daddy. Guys or girls, you need a new shtick. How many times are you going to play the same joke over and over and over? I don’t know if you focus group test that crap-ass creative, maybe it tests well, that’s why you want to run it over and over. Maybe it’s time you take it from in-house and hire a real dam agency or marketing firm to come up with something new. The hot ladies are fun a couple of times but now it’s boring and everyone knows what’s going to happen. And please don’t send me to your Web site to see the ending. Yep, you’ll be able to quantify your media spend to your shareholders by the number of hits on your site. But it’s getting old and we know to go to your site to purchase a domain name and host for $1 a day. I’ve actually given this too much thought, and I certainly don’t want them to get any free PR or a viral effect.

The Tim Tebow – Focus on Family wins my award for the most talked about PR Driven, viral spot that was so soft in the media environment during the game I actually missed it. However, I think they did get the most PR and viral out of all Super Bowl spots. So, well done for the little guy getting noticed.

Till next year! Stay away from people buried alive in Doritos or disrespectful little brats reminding adults to “keep yo hands of my momma” and people with no pants sleepwalking going to Web Sites with scantily clad women and babies talking about your finances. I mean who trusts a kid to handle your retirement anyways?

Joe Easton Creative Director