Advertisements. You know them. You bypass them or use their time to get a piece of cake. Otherwise, you usually have no use for them. Except during the Super Bowl. If you didn’t watch the Steelers win the bowl (and I didn’t) or listen to sounds of Bruce Springsteen (I think I was going through my RSS feed backlog–I’m surprised I didn’t hear him stick some social/political message that all the rage with celebrities these days), you were doing what I did, and watched for the advertisements.
The ads this year were all right. Not mind blowing. Not awful. Better than average, I’d say. However, some stood out to me as the best, and some as failure.
Epic Failures
Pepsuber: How do you screw up a MacGuyver parody with Richard Dean Anderson himself in it? Rather easily, it seems. No, I don’t mind that Anderson wasn’t the hero; that was part of what would have been fun. It’s just that MacGruber…sorry, Pepsuber, just makes me want to smack him with six-pack ring. Also, I’m a Coca-Cola guy, but truth be told I’m one of 4 people who liked Pepsi Blue and I’m more into root beer and Dr. Pepper.
Land of the Lost: Way to take what could have been an interesting remake of the classic Sid and Marty Kroft movie (they even get the Sleestacks in their classic form rather than the otherwise excellent costumes of the previous remake), and turn it into just another Will Ferrel movie. I’ll be skipping this.
LMAO Syndrome: It was funnier when a local radio DJ used the bit to promote a local comedy club a few years ago. And even that wasn’t all that funny.
“Mean Troy”: A flag on this play. I have no overriding love for the original commercial or anything, but there’s a certain heart in that which is missing in this parody.
The Go Daddy ads: We had two this time, one going back to the “hearings” bit and the other with a bunch of guys using their computer to make Danica Patrick take a shower with some hot girl from their office. I laughed at the “beaver” bit..was it last year?..because the joke worked there (if you went to their site to see the ad). They tried the same misdirection here (continuing to make fun of their problems getting the semi-racy ads into the Super Bowl itself), and the “enhanced” thing just falls “flat”. I don’t know what we were supposed to expect from the shower thing. I just watched the net ad directly.
There was also an ad for a site that helps people commit adultery, and while it was banned by the NFL, YouTube says it ran in Texas, and it was in the voting this year. Way to suck, Texas.
EPIC WINS!!!
(Note that I didn’t include the Priceline Negotiator bit, which was humorous, but aired well before the Super Bowl.)
Alec Baldwin Hulu Ad: Decided to link to the Hulu site instead of YouTube for this one to be silly. And to point out how odd it is that ads are being sponsored. 🙂 Anyway, we already knew Alec Baldwin was an evil alien, didn’t we?
Thugs: Mostly because I hate the mob. 🙂
Budwiser Clydesdale Generations: The Bud ads were pretty good this year, but I thought this one was the cutest.
Race to Wish Mountain: This is how you do a remake, Land of the Lost!
Coca-Cola Avatar: I may only be a casual gamer, but still enough of one to like this.
Sadly, You Tube doesn’t have the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer, at least not in the “ad blitz” section, but I like what I saw. However, two commercials stood out as the absoulte best of 2009. They are…
What if Roadies Ran the World (or airport, as the case may be)
and Astronauts Driving in Spaaaaaaaace (that’s how it should be said, if you ever saw the Muppet Show)
Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers on their win. I’m just not football fan enough otherwise care. But at least the ads were good.
BW Media Spotlight 