Sunday, February 03, 2008

Super Bowl ads

I'm honestly not that interested in the Super Bowl this year. Neither is a particular favourite team of mine so I have no one to really cheer for. Still, it's the Super Bowl, so I'm watching. However, I think I'm more interested in the commercials this year, so for those of you who can't get the US commercials (one of the perks of Nunavut, Global or NTV don't cut in with their commercials. So here's what I think so far. I'll see how long I can update this evening. I've never done a live blog before.

Break #1
Bud Light #1 - Something with a guy who can breathe fire, but also has a cat allergy. Kind of lame and I think they aired it already somewhere else. Eh.
Audi - A riff on the Godfather involving sports cars. Still didn't do much for me.

Break #2
A Diet Pepsi Max ad (really?) - Starts off cute, with people bobbing their heads trying to stay awake but once you figure out what the product is and everyone starts dancing, it loses some of its oomph.
Sales Genie - That was a couple of million well spent. Not at all.

Break #3
Bud Light #2 - Wine and cheese ad. Funny, finally, with people smuggling in beer in hollow pieces of bread and cheese.
Under Armor - Dude, go easy on the steroids.

Break #4
Brdigestone tires - screaming animals as a car is about to paste a squirrel. That was pretty funny.
Doritos ad - she's pretty and can sing, but nothing great.
Unhitched - a new show from Fox. Looks awful.

Break #5
Wanted trailer - Can't go wrong with a Morgan Freeman voice over. Could be fun.
Gatorade - Boring.
Go Daddy.com - Eh
Dell - Yes, because a Dell computer will have people jumping your bones. So far, these commercials are pretty crappy.

Break #6
Fed Ex - First laugh-out loud commercial. Giant, mutant pigeons gone wild. Something like Cloverfield, really.
cars.com - And back to the not funny. Circle of death with Gondor.
Tide - Talking stains. That's annoying.

Break #7
Budwiser - Hank the Cyldesdale to the tune of the Rocky music. With a dalmation for good measure as the trainer. And a high five at the end. Cute
Iron Man trailer - OK, that was fucking cool. I need to see that movie now.

Break #8
Corolla - ferocious badgers. Mildly entertaining.
Leatherheads trailer - Could be amusing, but it's a choppy ad with bad voiceover.
Garmin - Napoleon using a a GPS to get to a fight. Cute enough, but nothing earth-shattering. They are useful devices though.

Break #9
Career Builder.com - Ok, the heart popping out of the chest was an interesting visual. Cute ad.
Life water - What the fuck? Was that Beyonce? Dancing lizards to Thriller? Jesus christ...

Break #10
Yukon Hybrid - Boring. And stuffed with pompous talking.
Bud Light #3 - Guys using accents on babes. Bud Light hasn't had much luck this evening, really.

Break #11
Narnia trailer - You know, I knows I should be interested or excited by this movie. And the effects look fine. But still, it does nothing for me.
Planters - A woman using peanuts as perfume and men going nuts (pardon the pun) for it. Funny.
T-Mobile - Charles Barley and Dwayne Wade, with Wade learning the drawback to be on Chuck's Fave 5. Pretty funny.

Break #12
Pepsi - You know, 30 seconds of watching Justin Timberlake getting the crap smacked out of him is quality entertainment for me. Good.
Doritos - Using Doristos to get a mouse, with not quite the effect the guy was hoping for. Surprising and funny.

Break #13
Toyota Tundra - seen it before. Eh
Then a bunch of local ads which I won't comment on.

Half-Time Show
I like Tom Petty. Really, I do. But Tom is really pretty mellow for this kind of event. And after Prince's show last year, this is quite the come down. Can we have Prince back?

I skipped the ads that ran during the half time show. Much of it was local stuff anyway.

Break #14
Cars.com - Well, it was more amusing than the one with the circle of death earlier.
sales genie.com -Wow, how much money is sales genie wasting during this super bowl. This one is with pandas. Still very, very lame.
Vitamin water - Shaq as a horse jockey. Pretty funny.

Break #15
Bud Light #4 - It's all right, but Bud Light isn't having a great Super Bowl. Caveman and the wheel. And that is a pretty sucky bottle opener.
Ice Breakers - Carmen Electra. Nothing memorable about it.
Bridgestone - Bridgestone is having a pretty good Super Bowl, unlike Bud. A guy has to avoid a deer, Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons.
Career Builder - Disney is probably warming up it's lawyers, with a pseudo Jimny Cricket singing away, with unfortunate results.

Break #16
Genesis car - standard car ad.
Wall-E trailer - Like there was any doubt I was seeing this movie anyway. Still, pretty funny, although I could have done without Woody and Buzz in the ad. Not really any need for them there.

Break #17
Jumper trailer - That movie looks like it could be fun.
E-Trade - A baby making stock tips via YouTube. Cute and funny, especially the ending.
Bud Light #5 - Funny, but the last three seconds kind of ruins it.

Break #18
NFL ad - cute enough, abut a guy who was bagging groceries and ends up making it to the NFL
Time Warner - Boring and unmemorable
First Niagra - Boring and Unmemorable

Break #19
Sunsilk shampoo - Wow. Really. You spent millions to get that ad up? A few famous people and their hair.
Coke - Macy Thanksgiving Day parade balloons battle for a bottle of inflatable coke. Featuring Underdog, Stewie and Charlie Brown. Cute and amusing.

Break #20
Coke - An ad featuring pundits. Right before Super Tuesday. It works and is cute enough, even though I suspect mroe than a few won't know who they are.
Sequoa - Hey, an unsucky car ad. That's noteworthy in and of itself.

Break #21
You don't mess with the Zohan trailer - Like you could get me to see an Adam Sandler movie anyway. Looks awful.

Break #22
E-Trade - the baby on YouTube is back. Not as funny as the first one. Or as surprising.
Taco Bell - Yeah, that was stupid and boring.
Gatorade - Wow, that was a boring as watching a dog drink water. Oh wait, it was a dog drinking water.

Break #23
Jackie Moon trailer and Bug Light - Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Will Farrell did a movie like this awhile ago, but with NASCAR?
Genesis - I think the polls tomorrow will say your car ad sucks.
The Moment of Truth - Mildly amusing, still wouldn't watch that show if you put a gun to my head.

Break #24
Victoria's Secret - Well, that ought to shut down the higher brain functions of most men watching.
Amp - "Do not try this at home." Do you think?

Huh...most of the last quarter was commercial free...that was nice. And hey, the Giant won. Didn't see that coming at all. The first three quarters were kind of boring, but the last quarter was pretty good football.

And that's it. I'm signing off.

8 comments:

jen said...

Haha, that last commercial for Bud light with Will Farrel was great, especially at the end when he tells you to "suck it". Maybe not genius, but I will gladly have a bud light for that one. lol
Here is a hurray for this the being the last football game my husband is going to watch this season! YEY!

towniebastard said...

Cathy agrees whole-heartedly with you on that, Jen.

Kate Nova said...

All those ads remind me of why the television lives in the closet and never sees daylight.

towniebastard said...

Well, it was the second most watched tv program in US history (after the last episode of MASH) with something like 97 million people tuning into the game. So it's a bit understandable why there were so many commericals. And why they cost $2.7 million for 30 seconds.

Having said that, we're not watching a lot of "normal" tv these days. With the writer's strike about to take out the last of my regular shows (the last "House" airs on Tuesday) we tend to watch lots of DVDs. We're currently burning through "The West Wing" again. After that, not sure. Perhaps we'll start rewatching "Veronica Mars."

Kate Nova said...

I borrowed House seasons one and two from the library just before Christmas, and was totally obsessed for two weeks. It was insane. I was insane. And slightly hypochondriac.

towniebastard said...

Then for the love of God don't start watching Veronica Mars. Everyone who has watched our DVDs have become hooked like crack addicts. And then sob like small children when they realize it was cancelled after season 3.

Chris Windeyer said...

Prince's show last year was surprising because not only was it not bad, it was actually really good. The consensus amongst Super Bowl attendees at my place was that it's unclear if Tom Petty is even alive. You could not tell from his performance, although he could have just been really baked.

towniebastard said...

Yeah, Petty was pretty sedate. I thought the fallout from the Janet/Justin racket a few years ago might be over, but they're still going with safe acts. The fact that Prince was kick-ass last year is beginning to look more and more like an anomoly.

And that version he did of the Foo Fighters 'Best of you" is still great. I wish he'd release it as a single.