If Super Bowl is the apex of advertising creativity, as it is billed, there wan’t much to get excited about this year.
There seemed to be, for one thing, a lot of talking animals (is the technology that much easier now?). Rabbits talked on ads for Blockbuster and Frontier Airlines, and in a Bud Lite ad about gorillas conspiring to grab some human Bud Lite was almost identical to two different versions of a Taco Bell ad in which lions contemplate snaring their lunch. Farmyard animals sang "Green Acres" to tout California cheese.
For all its buildup, the Kevin Federline ad about his recording pipe dreams, coming back to earth while making fries at a fast food place for Nationwide – “Life comes at you fast” was neither as good as their batch of ads last year nor any better than the M.C. Hammer demise ad that inspired it.
As for the real company called FedEx, they had one ad about an office on the moon that had better effects than humor; but one about office workers with strangely accurate, from the leaning Eileen and uh, joyful Joy to a jowly Mr. Turkey Neck.
Of the other celebrity ads, it was kind of sad to see Jessica Simpson flee the red carpet to chase a Pizza Hut driver delivering some Cheesy Bites crusts. We didn’t learn anything about Sheryl Crow going on tour for Revlon except for poor use of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” as it refers to hair dye.
NFL had an odd spot I saw only once about an imaginary Super Bowl party where Janet Reno sat next to Jimmy Fallon and Martha Stewart was putting together snacks in the kitchen.
There were a ton of CBS promos, but the best was one featuring David Letterman watching the game on the couch with his sweetie – Oprah Winfrey. It had more production value than the whole of his recent episode marking his 25th anniversary in late night.
Violence seemed in style in many ads. In two different Bud Lite ads, one guy threw a rock at another to win their rock-scissors-paper contest for a final bottle; in another, the fist-bump as a greeting is replaced by a face slap, leading to face slaps in every social situation. Even a spot about heart disease had the organ being bet up by various maladies driving by.
Bud Lite spends a bundle on Super Bowl ads when they should just be uploading viral videos of dudes who’d do anything for Bud Lite – like speed up a friend’s wedding by using an auctioneer as officiate. The worst of them Carlos Mencia, who specializes in race humor, teaching foreigners how to order Bud Lite in different ethnic episodes.
For sheer humor, you can hardly beat the team of players in the Lemon Mist commercials, featuring Michael Ian Black and Jim Gaffigan in a funny beard combover ad. The two return in a karate ad that also features Nicole Randall Johnson and Tracy Morgan.
Bud always throws in a tear-jerker ad just to balance things out. This one was about a ragmuffin dog who gets to ride on a parade as a fire engine Dalmatian, after he’s splattered with mud to make him look spotted. It wasn’t that memorable.
Better were some heartfelt ads about black history – that subtly commented on the day’s advancements on the field, from both Doritos and Coke.
Coke also had a fairly funny ad about an old guy who, after drinking his first Coke, decides to do a number of other things he didn’t do before, from jumping from high diving board to running with the bulls.
There’s a couple ads I liked. The one from Emerald mixed nuts about Robert Goulet entering offices during the 3 p.m. lull when everyone is dozing off and messing up your desk, partly for its use of the actor and partly for the phrase “Robert Goulet away.”
The career builders.com ads were better this year as well, moving away from the chimps in the office ads that served them well for a couple of years for an elaborate office business jungle setting that represented the worst in workaday life.
Toyota Tundra ads of real desert tests were pretty darn impressive I got to say, even if I’ve never consider buying such a tank.
Still, it was nothing you’d wade through a football game to watch. Even the Super Bowl.
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