While the Pittsburgh Steelers’ rousing victory over the Arizona Cardinals kept viewers on the edge of their seats until the very end, the question we posed to agency creatives was whether the Super Bowl commercials lived up to the game in terms of retaining audience interest.
The responses were a mixed bag with most characterizing this year’s crop of Super Bowl spots as lackluster yet some felt the level of creativity was up as compared to the past couple of years.
This year, though, is quite different in that we are in the throes of a recession, which has impacted our collective psyche. This arguably makes it an even more daunting task to break through to prospective consumers no matter what the target market.
Is humor welcome? Is sentimentality the wrong chord to strike? Is the hard sell advisable? Does spending $3 million on a 30-second Super Bowl time slot carry an inherent backlash in light of so many people struggling to make ends meet?
Furthermore there’s the Big Game dynamic of consumer-generated fare which reached new heights as Doritos’ commercialmaking contest yielded “Free Doritos,” a comedy spot which topped the USA Today Ad Meter. For taking the number one slot in the noted poll, the Herbert brothers from Batesville, Ind., who made “Free Doritos,” won a $1 million prize from Doritos.
As it has over the years in this survey, SHOOT talked with creative folk whose agencies did not have any spots on the Super Bowl so as to get an unvarnished, apolitical perspective on 2009’s Big Game advertising. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:
Cameron Day, executive creative director, McGarrah/Jessee, Austin, Texas.
Overall it was a weak crop of commercials, though there was some work that I liked. The Audi “Chase” spot [Venables, Bell & Partners, San Francisco] was wonderfully edited, beautifully shot. It made me like the brand better and showcased an actual product benefit, the supercharaged power of the Audi A5. I was hard on Audi last year for its Super Bowl work [The Godfather spoof] but this time they did a truly different car commercial with an actual product message, which is difficult to do.
Pepsi also stepped back into the spotlight and nudged Coca-Cola out. The “I’m Good” spot [TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles] made me laugh out loud. While it’s in the category of the shaggy dog bar humor I usually don’t like, this spot transcended that genre and represented a great way to pitch diet soda to men.
The other Pepsi spot [“Refresh Anthem”] was again a formula I’ve seen a thousand times–lifestyle montages depicting different eras [from Bob Dylan to Wil.i.am]. I didn’t think it was a great spot but it made me feel better about Pepsi and left me wondering what happened to Coke.
Coca-Cola’s “Mean Joe Green” spoof spot [Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami] was unfortunate. Keep in mind that I like the taste infringement concept behind the Coke Zero campaign but that just got lost in this attempted parody. It reminded me of when Coke tried to teach the world to sing all over again. There are some sacred spots that you should leave alone.
Cars.com [DDB Chicago] was a clear hit for me–the prodigy who was great at everything but inept at buying a car. It reminded me a bit of Dos Equis’ “World’s Most Interesting Man” campaign. But the strategic relevance to Cars.com made me willing to forgive that. The commercial I most wish I had written would be this one for Cars.com.
As for the $3 million that was best spent, my vote would go to Pedigree’s “Crazy Pets” [TBWAChiatDay]. The spot advocates something that doesn’t have to do directly with dog food–adopting a dog–but beautifully reinforces that Pedigree actually loves animals. That message represented money well spent.
One of my favorite commercials was Monster.com [BBDO New York] though I was already predisposed to liking that client. People can relate to having an asshole working directly above them and this comedy spot literally captured that feeling.
I also liked the humor of Hulu.com [Crispin Porter+Bogusky]. It made me check out the website and I intend to go back there.
The biggest tragedy might have been Jack in the Box. I have a lot of respect for Dick Sittig [creative director, The Kowloon Wholesale Seafood Company, Santa Monica] and that campaign and the spot in which Jack gets hit by a bus piqued by curiosity. But when I went on my computer to get to the website that the spot drove me to, I couldn’t get in. Either they didn’t have their act together or there was an overload that the system couldn’t handle. I tried several times. To get the teaser without the ending is a great way to piss people off. If Crispin, which integrates TV with digital so well, had been involved in that spot, there wouldn’t have been a failure on the back end, It would have been a positive branding experience.
Predictably the Godaddy.com stuff [in-house agency] was lacking. Danica Patrick is probably very talented behind the wheel of a car. I wish she stayed there. She’s not doing herself any favors by appearing in this campaign. It devalues her as a person.
The Bridgestone spots [The Richards Group, Dallas] were also a waste of time. They’re supposed to be selling safety and traction. Not sure what they were doing.
Economic times are tough. And if I were watching the Super Bowl as an unemployed auto worker, I’d wonder why are they spending millions of dollars to tell me nothing. Most of the work was over produced and under thought strategically.
If I think of what could be done with $3 million instead put towards viral thinking, it becomes clear that most of the Super Bowl advertisers, maybe 80 percent, were burning their money right before our eyes. In that respect, I felt like I was watching the last dinosaur when viewing the Super Bowl spots. So much more could be done with the money.
Charlie Hopper, principal/creative director, Young & Laramore, Indianapolis
This wasn’t a really outstanding crop of commercials, though there were some I would have been proud to do. The bar has been set so high, expectations are so great that it’s like Saturday Night Live. When it first came on the scene, it was new, fresh and exciting. But over the years it’s had its share of ups and downs, just like Super Bowl advertising. What a burden to be a Saturday Night Live writer. You have so much to live up to, just like agencies on Super Bowl commercials.
Plus you had the Doritos paradigm. Will YouTube people be doing more of our work for us?
The excitement over the 3D stuff was a letdown. My kids enjoyed the movie trailer but were waiting for the SoBe Water ad to be fun and exciting, and that never happened.
GoDaddy isn’t even good bad advertising. They’re stupid bad ads. They’re trying to be the lowest of the low and not even doing it right. It’s like bungling badness.
Cars.com caught our interest at first but it seemed like a long way to go to get to the payoff of this brilliant kid not being confident buying a car. The expectations were for a greater payoff.
We enjoyed the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head spot for Bridgestone.
The Coca-Cola ad where the insects steal the bottle of Coke [Wieden+Kennedy, Portland] would have been remarkable years ago. But it’s kind of hum drum and run of the mill these days because consumers have seen so much. It’s harder and harder to break through.
The Conan ad for Bud Light [DDB Chicago] would have worked better if it had been Jim Lehrer. But Conan is the kind of guy who would want to be on the Times Square big screen.
Many of these ads would have been fine on ER. But when you place the standard of being a Super Bowl game changer, a lot of them just come up short.
It used to be said that the ads were better than the game. But this year the game surpassed the ads.
Liz Paradise, senior VP/group creative director, McKinney, Durham, N.C.
It’s easy to say I was a little disappointed but I was. That’s been the theme for a couple of years.
I enjoyed the Careerbuilder.com spot [“Tips” from Wieden+Kennedy, Portland]. It was a great concept. I applaud them for trying to break the mold and I felt they did just that.
Not surprisingly I did not see any epic film production this year. Whether it’s the economy or the realization that you don’t have to necessarily go all over the world and shoot if you have a good enough concept, I don’t know. Everything seemed pretty low key with average production values.
What was missing is you kind of always counted on something from Bud about men behaving badly. As a woman, I like that. But the theme more this year was let’s hurt somebody. This year there was a whole category of bodily harm, like the Doritos ad in which the guy gets run over by the bus.
Another “W.T.F.?” for GoDaddy. Good for them that they get noticed. I still have no clue what they’re trying to sell.
I love the Clydesdales [for Budweiser]. But leave them alone, don’t try to make them funny. I don’t think that worked.
There were choices to be blind to the recession, to be in a positive voice. In some cases, though, commercials came straight at it [like Hyundai’s promise that if someone buys a car and loses their job the next month, their credit won’t be hurt–Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco]. That’s kind of bold to acknowledge that.
I was really stunned by the amount of TV show promos and movie trailers. I heard they [NBC] sold out their ad space. I don’t know about that. There were an awful lot of TV show promos.
Adam Stockton, senior art director, The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.
I felt the strain of the looming recession, particularly with the Hyundai work. If you lose your job, we won’t trash your credit. Even Denny’s offering a free breakfast [Goodby, Siverstein & Partners] would be nice if we weren’t in a recession. But since we’re in a recession, it kind of had a sad overtone to it.
At the same time there was a lot of punching people in the nuts. This year marked the first time I’ve seen those two extremes together on the Super Bowl.
Those classic nuts jokes apparently work every time. Those Doritos guys won $1 million. I will start pitching this to clients.
By far my favorite commercial was CareerBuilders.com. That was refreshing. This had some flow to it. Even the crazy stuff of a koala getting punched or a lady riding a dolphin in the ocean or a guy in Speedos clipping his toenails represented states of mind, not just hyperbole to make a joke. There was a train of thought, a real message.
The Clydesdales are usually solid and good. I’ve noticed that the ones that go from good to great straddle that sentimental quality–they have a nod of humor instead of being silly. The one that didn’t use joke cheapshots–the young Clydesdale with the Scottish accent had that sentimentality. It gave meaning to the Clydesdales.
The Pepsi “McGruber” [Pepsuber from Arnell Group, N.Y.] seemed more like a Saturday Night Live sketch that they put a can of Pepsi in. It seemed like someone else’s joke. But the Pepsi “Refresh” spot [TBWAChiatDay was fantastic, representing the kind of voice you want to hear from Pepsi.
Last year’s screaming animals from Bridgestone made sense even loosely in my foggy creative mind. The car swerving to avoid hitting the animal showed a tangible product benefit. This year, though, you have the guys on the moon, their vehicle’s tires are stolen but there was no real connection. Just a Super Bowl spot that a logo was thrown onto. The film quality looked great but I thought the work was more relevant last year.
I’m an art director and Cash4Gold [Euro RSCG Edge, N.Y.] had no art direction. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how things look. It was Ed McMahon and M.C. Hammer as two classically washed up guys, It was funny.
Then there was a Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes commercial [Leo Burnett, Chicago] that was sweet and sentimental, about baseball fields for youngsters. It was a little oasis in a sea of silly stuff.
Mike Wilson, chief creative officer, Dentsu America, New York
Going into the Super Bowl, I was thinking who’s spending this much money during these tough times on a commercial. Would there be a backlash internally in these companies or from the consumers? The pre-game Miller High Life one-second ads made their point and I enjoyed them.
Overall though, I thought this year’s crop of Super Bowl commercials was good, much better than the last two years. I liked the Monster.com with the moose head. It was nice to see a new gag.
What really blew me away was the Coke spot with the bugs [“Heist” from Wieden+Kennedy]. Fantastic, incredibly well produced, the way they manipulated the Coke bottle and the bug that wound up being the bottle opener. It was probably one of the few ads that I saw that I wish I had done.
I liked Hulu.com, the Denny’s mafia guy with the silly whip creme breakfast.
Cars.com had me for the first two-thirds of the spot but didn’t live up to the buildup. It fell flat at the end. The same for Audi with the guy from the Transporter movies. He just hops into the new Audi. It was kind of a letdown.
The spot I disliked the most was the Pepsi McGyver spoof, McGruber. What the hell was that?
And I didn’t understand the SoBe Life Water spot [Arnell Group] last year with the dancing lizards–and I didn’t understand the 3D lizards this time around.
Everyone I was with during the game loved the Clydesdales work. I liked the one where the Clydesdale is showing off and fetches the large tree branch.
Overall though I thought the commercials generally tried to make a point. The previous two years they meandered all over the place. You had the spots making a point about being frustrated at work [Monster.com and CareerBuilders.com], the Cash4Gold work that seemed more like a Saturday Night Live sketch but still had something to say. Every commercial break there were points being made. It’s easy to sit back and criticize everything. But generally I thought this year was pretty good and fun to watch.
