Wow! That was a surprisingly exciting superbowl. The Baltimore Ravens won 34 to the 49ers' 31 points. 2 points that the 49ers scored thanks to a Raven intentional safety. Who would have thought that would have happened. We also had the joy of a 35 minute power failure - did the Beyonce half time show take up too much juice? Did a poor intern flip a switch by mistake? The NFL are investigating.
Well I have turned this into a bit of a tradition. Every Superbowl Kevin and I watch, and I take notes of the adverts.
1. Coke vs Pepsi
Every year I decide which soft drink giant wins the best superbowl add. I am not counting that the Half time show was sponsored by Pepsi. So we have the Pepsi Next ad - which features a house party gone wild, when parents show up and are won over by the Pepsi Next. And then we had a truly aweseome Coke ad which shows exercepts of security cameras leading up to "let's look at the world differently." I thought that that ad (shown during the first quarter was more powerful than the Coke Lawrence of Arabia meets Mad Max.) So Coke wins.
2. Beer commercials.
Just really meh commercials. I thought that the Bud Light "It's only weird if it doesn't work" themed commercials set in New Orleans were kind of fun. But nothing really stood out and wow'd me. So no honorable mentions, and no winners. I just didn't feel it. Even a the trusty Clysdale Budweiser horses didn't do it for me.
3. Auto commercials.
We have the Audi "Prom Nite/ Black Eye", numerous hyundai commercials that made me yawn, the toyota Rav 4 Genie commercial that I thought was fun, the VW Beetle "Get Happy" White dude with inappropriate Jamaican accent also enjoyable. I will give the Lincoln ads a big thumbs down. Meh! Jeep with Oprah was good but mainly because it was supportive of our military. The "Respect the Tech" Kia ad was also kind of cool - I loved the fembots. The Mercedes ad "Set your Soul Free" was a clever ad campaign where teaser ads had been shown during the play off games. This one was the conclusion. It was ok, and in normal years would have easily won against the usual round of boring pick up and GM ads. But this year the auto commercials were actually quite a decent lot of creative commercials. The "Where do Babies Come From?" Kia ad also deserves Honorable Mention. The best auto commercial (drumroll please) is (and I never in a million years would think this was the one I would pick) is "God Made A Farmer" Dodge Ram commercial.
Honorable Mention: Kia - "Where Do Babies Come From?"
Winner: Dodge - "God Made A Farmer..."
4. Food / Snack / Fast food category
Some really great commercials in this category. The Dorito "Goat 4 Sale" and "Daddy and friends play dress up" were excellent. Watching The Rock in the "Got Milk" ad was very enjoyable. And a huge shout out for the M & M ad "I would do anything for love..." Honorable mention has to go to the Oldees Night on the Town, by Taco Bell. What a hoot. The best in this category - Oreo, "Cream vs Cookie" fight in the library.
Honorable Mention: Taco Bell - "Night on the Town"
Winner: - Oreo - "Cream vs Cookie fight in the library"
5. Other
There were a stack of movie promo's, and endless CBS promos. The only one I thought was funny enough to deserve a mention was the Big Bang Theory promo. But then I am a huge fan of the show, so my bias is showing. The Sketchers Go Run ad was also fun. Kinda of fun to see the guy tackle the cheetah. I have a suspicion I have seen a version of this many years ago... mmm. I can't end this round up without mentioning Kevin's favorite - the Go Daddy ads. As always, they never seem to be able to reach the heights of their very first showing. But I thought the Sexy meets Smart ad with squelchy kissing noises was kind of good. Their "Big Idea" slot was also cute.
The Cars.com "Without the drama - wolf and wolf cub" deserves a gold star for effort. Another gold star must go to the Tide advert -Joe Montana miracle stain on t shirt which gets cleaned by wife (a Ravens fan) and her trusty Tide.
That's all folks. But not to worry, in no time at all the NFL Season will be starting all over again....