TV Verdict

Last night’s Super Bowl was one of the most exciting in recent memory. For this New-Englander-at-heart, the New Orleans Saints’ trouncing of the Indianapolis Colts was the best all-around game since the Patriots upset the Rams a billion football years ago. With all eyes on the field, the toughest competition for the uber-expensive commercials was the big game itself. Sorry, ad execs; the Saints won that battle, too. I’ve always said that Super Bowl ads are overhyped and disappointing. This year’s were no exception. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have the obligatory round-up, does it?

Rather than a “best-of” list, I’ll limit mine to the ads that still stick with me 12 hours later—not necessarily for the reason their creators intended. In no particular order…

Budweiser: “Clydesdale Fence”

In this ad, we see a baby Clydesdale racing a fenced-in calf. Cut to a few years later: the colt has landed a job pulling the Bud wagon and the calf has become a bull, who shows his old pal that he can still run with the best of them—right through his fence. I’m sure Budweiser wanted this to be a stirring celebration of friendship. I’m just not sure they want to associate their product with crashing through fences.

Bridgestone: “Whale of a Tale”

An SUV barrels down the highway with an orca sticking out of the back as three pals race to return their oversized passenger to the ocean. They skid to a spinning halt, throwing the killer whale homeward through a pier fence. In all, a crazy set-up for a decent punchline. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll let you experience it for yourself. If you have, try not to think too hard about what happened before the cameras started rolling.

E*Trade: “Baby Girlfriend”

These talking baby ads have always creeped me out. It’s worse now that I’m a father. Still, my wife laughed at this one. Whether that laugh was out of genuine humor or revulsion, I can’t be sure.

Google: “Parisian Love”

Hands down my favorite commercial of the night, even though I doubt it will show up on other critic’s top ten lists. It combines all the excitement of typing things into Google with the visual style of…typing things into Google. It’s also decidedly European in content for this most American of events. But any search engine ad that can make eyes my well up at the end has to be doing something right.

CareerBuilder.com: “Casual Friday” and Dockers: “Men Without Pants”

Super Bowl ads usually show women in their underwear. These ads showed average-looking men in theirs. A strange choice for companies shilling to your stereotypical football fan. Even moreso considering we’re talking tighty-whities, not boxers. Unfortunately, the only person these ads likely left laughing is the CBS employee who decided to air them back-to-back. Or should that be “front-to-front”? (shudder)

Kia’s 2010 Big Game Commercial

I’m not sure which was weirder: that this commercial featured kids’ toys living it up in Las Vegas, or that one of those toys was Yo Gabba Gabba!’s own Muno. Either way, Kia knows what I like.

GoDaddy: “News”

One of a couple “too hot for TV” ads from the URL registrar and web hosting company. I’m probably several years too late to say this, and I know sex sells, but using the promise of porn to sell domain names is crazy. It’s like using a lap dance to sell carbon monoxide detectors.

CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman Ad

This ad, which features David Letterman complaining to Oprah Winfrey about Jay Leno joining them for their Super Bowl party, landed on a lot of lists and maybe rightfully so. I’m not so sure I liked it. Besides Dave’s mocking Leno impression and Jay’s willingness to poke fun at himself, what is there? It doesn’t prove that Letterman and Leno like each other. It just proves that they both still like money. The only thing that could have made the commercial better is if they pulled back at the end to show that Dave and Jay had their feet up on a human coffee table played by Conan O’Brien. At least it would have been honest.

Coke: “Hard Times”

More an ad for The Simpsons‘ transition to HD than for Coca-Cola, this one still tugged at the ol’ heartstrings. I doubt a Coke and a smile would keep the real Mr. Burns from releasing the hounds, but thanks to this commercial I’d like to think he might.

Among other notable commercials there were a bunch of movie trailers, including one for Disney’s Prince of Persia, which is apparently brought to us by the letter P and the color Yellow; a quartet of vote-able (and forgettable) Doritos commercials; and more random appearances by celebrities. The most controversial ad leading up to the big game ended up being much ado about nothing. Focus on the Family’s pro-life commercial, featuring Tim Tebow and his mother, was prematurely slammed by pro-choice activists. In the end, the ad was short, slight, and didn’t include the word “abortion” at all. Whatever you think of the political issue, I’m guessing more than a few people at NOW are wishing they hadn’t give James Dobson’s group a week’s worth of free publicity.

What about everyone else? I defy you to argue about the quality of the game, but I bet there are those who liked the commercials more than I did. Stand up and be counted! If we learned nothing else from last night’s ad fest, it’s that the best place to get your point across is online.