First Impulse: Super Bowl Ads

It was an entertaining, competitive, down-to-the wire football game this year, so hopefully people aren't too disappointed by an unexciting crop of commercials. I say, let's get back to the game as the thing and quit expecting Big Event Spectacular commercials to entertain us for 4 hours.

Even hours after the telecast, I had trouble remembering many ads, but for the record, a few favorites off the top of my head:

-For humor, I liked the Bud Light "wine and cheese" party with the guys smuggling in "guy stuff" in the middle of their loaves of bread and such. Have I seen that one before? Possibly. But it made me laugh more than any other ad during the broadcast.

-For storytelling, I liked the Clydesdale "Rocky" ad. Sentimental, perhaps, but it had a story to relate, and it did so brilliantly. Budwesier can afford not to shill its products directly because the clydesdales are iconic enough that we get the idea. However, many advertisers went for striking images and may have left an impression, but didn't bother putting over their product--or making anyone want to learn more about it.

-Most pleasant surprise? The NFL ad telling the tale of oboe star turned Houston Texan Chester Pitts. This was a very well executed spot that really humanized the players and had a nice "wow" factor. The NFL can be annoyingly self-promoting and self-important, but this single brief commercial did a lot to get across the meaningful nature of pro football--much more so than all those footballers reading the Declaration of Independence before kickoff.-I enjoyed the balloon fight between Stewie and Underdog, and Charlie Brown's appearance at the end was a great surprise. But Stewie and Underdog? Who chose that combo? Great production in this ad, though.

Worst ads:

-Anything that tells me to go to the Internet to see another ad or the rest of the ad or whatever. You know, the vast majority of us still like to watch television sometimes in front of the television, not out of the corner of our eye as we sit off to the side with a laptop.

-Naomi Campbell dancing to "Thriller." What the hell was that supposed to be promoting, again? And why should we care about Naomi Campbell?

-Diet Pepsi Max: Anything that references "Night at the Roxbury" at this moment in time has to be considered an artistic failure.

-Pepsi's Justin Timberlake ad: I missed the point of this one. I get an uneasy feeling nowadays when we see Timberlake do stuff like this that we're supposed to be entertained simply because there's some kind of BIG STAR being goofy on camera. I'm not buying it. And I'm not buying Pepsi.

-Gatorade and Careerbuilder: A dog slurping water for what seems like minutes and a heart flying out of a chest, respectively. One is sort of amusing to watch when it's your dog and it's, you know, real life. The other is not visually appealing at all. Maybe if Jackie Chan had chopped the heart out of her and then dropkicked it into a ninja's face, I would have been interested.
One final note: Hey, did I really see an entire football game without seeing one Peyton Manning ad? I was actually looking forward to a special Super Bowl "Priceless Pep Talk." Maybe I missed it.