I will admit I’m not a football fan, I watched more playoff games this year then years previous. So when the big game came on, I am usually for the commercials and don’t care who plays in the game. To put this in perspective, I go to friend’s party every year and this is how it usually goes… We stand around and talk and then when a commercial comes on, someone yells “Comercial” and we all run out. Watch it then go back to our conversation.

This year however, I watched more of the game then the commercials. This was a first for me. They were , for the most part, just lame to me. I had high hopes when one of the first commercials was the Snickers Betty White commercial. That one was the best, hands down, of the entire game. I think it will go down as one of the best Super Bowl commercials of all times. Every time I see it I laugh, even now, two days later! The marketing side of me came out too when you knew it was for Snickers. That’s what advertising is for, to remember your brand and come and have people purchase it.

The second best to me was Google. They didn’t try to out do the other advertisers. They showed what they do best, internet search. It centered around someone going to Pairs. I loved how they just showed the search engine interface. There were not actors, no animals or bad humor.  It didn’t’ score too high on the USA Today Ad Meter but to me it showed you can use sentimental feelings to do an ad in the big game. Advertisers don’t have to focus on humor.

The one surprise to me was the Coke commercial. Normally Coke doesn’t have celebrity endorsements. They stick to the feeling and sentimentality of the brand. They have crafted some of the most memorable commercials ever with this formula. One of their commercials was with the Simpsons one. It reminded me of a Pepsi commercial. Had I not known already that Pepsi was sitting this one out, I would have thought it was a Pepsi spot. I’m not sure that’s what Coke was going for, but it was one I liked even if it caught me off guard.

Most of the other ads on the to quote my mother “were just stupid.” The themes this year were: Men are stupid, Underpants, humor that doesn’t pay off.

• Doritos – I didn’t think these were funny. Granted fans made them, they needed to promote that fact more. The best of the bunch was the little boy who confronted his mothers date. But in all they didn’t make me laugh and I can’t recall them.
• Boost Mobile – Super Bowl Shuffle, I have one thing to say WTF? I can recall this ad but not for the right reasons.
• Budwieser – I feel they were off their game, they usually have some of the most memorable ones. This year they had very few that stood out. The best was the Clydesdales ad.  The only ad I had unaided recall was the Clydesdale and the Bud House.
• Denny’s – They gave away free breakfast today but the commercials were just annoying. Gary Vaynerchuk did a video about this that summed it up. See Boost Mobile
• Bridgestone Tires – I’m lost on these ads, they could have fun fun, but turned out to be Cheesy. I added these in after I looked at the YouTube page. I had forgotten about them totally.

I could go on and on about the bad ads, but I wanted to close with something I thought was great. The Dove for men ad, it was a smart ad that didn’t put men or women down. I personally liked it and it piqued my interest. Will it make them big in the men’s bodywash category? I don’t know but glad to see there was one company not talking down to us or trying to make us laugh with lame jokes. I think with all the talk about how sexist some of the ads were this was smart on Dove’s part. The press they have received on being an example of how not to degrade either sex is priceless.  I say good job Dove!

Below are some of my worst and best ads. Let me know what you thought of the ads and who was a hit or miss.

USA Today Ad Meter – http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2010-02-07-results-chart_N.htm

Super Bowl Commercials – http://www.youtube.com/superbowl

My Best Super Bowl Commercials

The Worst Super Bowl Commercials