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Local Ad Agencies Pick Best, Worst Super Bowl Ads
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- During Sunday night’s nearly four-hour Super Bowl, roughly 59 minutes of exciting professional football interrupted some inspired and well, some not so inspired, advertising.
Last month, Harris Interactive polled 2,166 U.S. adults ages 18 and older and found that 28% of women and 12% of men watch the Super Bowl predominantly or exclusively for the commercials. With 30-second spots selling for $3.8 million each and 56% of Americans planning to watch last night, that had to be good news for advertisers
The Business Journal asked five advertising/public relations agencies in the Mahoning Valley to keep tabs on the commercials that ran from a minute before kickoff until the final gun, choose the best and the worst, and briefly explain their rationales.
Invited were Farris Marketing, Boardman; The Prodigal Co., Poland; Keynote Media Group LLC, Youngstown; Rubenstein Associates, Liberty Township; and Pecchia Communications LLC, Canfield.
Adrienne Sabo, a copywriter at Prodigal, chose Chrysler’s Jeep ad, “Whole Again,” narrated by Oprah Winfrey as the best (CLICK TO VIEW). The two-minute commercial, which made its debut last night, showed scenes of U.S. servicemen and women in the six branches of the armed services returning to their hometowns as their family, friends and neighbors cheered their coming home. Jeeps were present in the commercial but the video, said a Jeep press release, showed the veterans that “Americans everywhere hold them in the utmost respect and admiration for all they do protecting American institutions and values.”
“This spot was able to effectively strike a chord with viewers and make us all feel patriotic … while never coming off as cheesy or inauthentic,” Sabo says.
Vic Rubenstein at Rubenstein Association picked the other two-minute Chrysler video that also made its debut under the Ram truck brand, Paul Harvey reading his essay, “God Made a Farmer” (CLICK TO VIEW). It showed scene after scene farmers using Ram pickup trucks as they raised crops and livestock. In fairness, many shots of crops being grown or harvested were without pickup trucks.
As was usual, automobiles, soft drinks, fast-food restaurants and beer made up the bulk of the commercials. Throw in the plugs CBS gave its own programs and it would be easy to overlook the Century 21 ad that Jeff Mamula of Farris Marketing deemed the best.
A groom stands at the altar about to be married when his mother-in-law to be leans over and informs him, “We’re going to be one big happy family.” Not realizing he was going to move into his bride’s residence, he faints.
Not to fear: the Century 21 agent informs the groom he has a house he and his bride can afford and move into upon their return from their honeymoon.
The punch line is the agent whispering to the bride’s mother that the house is but a block from hers.
“Although the concept is not original,” Mamula says, it does use the old reliable agency tactic of Problem/Solution. A+.”
Pecchia’s Jim Houck thought Audi’s “Prom” the best. Rich Hahn of Keynote also thought it effective. Houck downplayed the somewhat nerdy high school senior going stag to his high school prom, summoning his courage and passionately kissing the prettiest girl in full view of everyone on the dance floor – including her boyfriend who punches him in the eye. We see his shiner as he drives home in his father’s Audi. “It was the calm cool dad tossing him the keys knowing he was creating a special night for his son,” Houck observes. “Here. Take the Audi. The ad wouldn’t have worked for Volkswagen or Ford. But it works for Audi.”
Hahn also liked the perennial Budweiser commercials runs about its Clydesdales. Its ad agency keeps coming up with new ways to tug at viewers’ heartstrings. Rubenstein called last night’s premiere one of the two best “feel-good” commercials. The other was Harvey’s tribute to farmers.
The Taco Bell commercial “Viva Young” drew praise from Hahn as “most entertaining” and Rubenstein as “Best merchandising commercial.” Here a group of senior citizens break out of their nursing home for a night of wild entertainment. Mamula disagreed, calling it “By far the worst and most tasteless spot” to run during the Super Bowl. “Really kind of creepy.”
Other contenders for worst were Go Daddy’s “Perfect Match.” Supermodel Bar Rafaeli returned the kiss of a pimply-faced geek at some length – the premise being the union of the beautiful and the brainy.
Sabo noted some in her group went “eww!” while others simply looked disgusted. Hahn said his response was, “I actually cringed. GoDaddy? NoDaddy. This disaster requires a total recalibration.”
Rubenstein’s pick for worst commercial was Sketchers. A cheetah is pursuing a gazelle and about to pounce when a man -- wearing Sketchers running shoes, of course – intervenes. He ropes and ties the cheetah as a cowboy would rope and tie a cow at a rodeo to the satisfaction apparently of the gazelle. “The violence to the cheetah was unexpected,” Rubenstein feels, “and most consumers will be offended by the unnecessary animal roughness.”
Mamula points out that running down a cheetah, the fastest mammal on earth, and saving gazelles from being eaten is a real stretch. “Was this not the same company last year that put out a sneaker promising weight loss?”
The worst ad in Houck’s view was Oreo’s “contrived library whisper fight.” Inspired by Miller Lite’s “Less Filling. Tastes Great” campaign of three decades ago, the participants whispered loudly about whether the filling or shell is the better part of an Oreo.
The Business Journal invites you to express your view on the best, worst and most memorable ads that ran during the Super Bowl. Send your nominations and reasons to [email protected].
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10 Super Bowl ads that generated buzz (VIDEO)