Super Bowl Ads: You know you love them

The Super Bowl is over. Some of us are still losing sleep over the loss of our team, some of us are still hungover from the celebration and some of us (like myself) are spending hours online revisiting the ads.

Last night, I had the opportunity along with fellow coworkers, to attend a panel of creative directors hosted by the SF Ad Club on the Super Bowl and the top ten Super Bowl ads according to USA TODAY.

USA TODAY uses 286 volunteers in Phoenix and McLean, Virgina and monitor their reactions to the ads during the program. Volunteers used handheld meters to register their score. According to USA TODAY, these are the following top ten Super Bowl ads:

10. Fiat


9. Career Builder


8. Honda CRV


7. Hyundai



6. Bud Light


5. M&M's


4. Doritos- Baby


3. Skechers


2. Volkswagen



1. Doritos- Man's Best Friend


I must say the only one that made the list that I really enjoy is the M&M's commercial. Perhaps I am biased since that is my favorite candy. For so long we have seen M&M's bring on the humor with essentially what is a bunch of M&M guys having a good time and occasionally hitting on the green M&M. Now we see the M&M guys acting completely foolish in the most stereotypical "checking out the bare naked girl" way while little do they know she is the most intellectual in the room. Ok so maybe I'm reading too much into it but it's sure to cause any female watching the spot to laugh. It was interesting that not a single guy on the Ad panel last night found it funny. Sorry boys.

The Honda spot with the older version of Ferris Bueller seemed quite charming. After all, that movie was a classic growing up. But while you had to see the full spot to get a bit more of the story, the ending just seemed to fall short. And as one of the panelists mentioned last night, it took cool Ferris riding in a Ferrari, to old Ferris riding a "mini van". He sort of has a point.

Surprisingly, across the board on the Ad panel last night, the Fiat spot seemed to be a success. It took what used to be a more "feminine" car to a "hot and sexy" car that even men might take a double take. On the car of course, not the sexy Italian model in the spot.

But the lesson here is that sex, dogs, babies and monkeys seem to still be what people react to the most; which as one of the panelists mentioned, is just a crutch for those of us attempting to release real, original ad work. One of the examples used as a success was Audi's "Vampires" spot which we will discuss later in the week.

Would love to know your thoughts so feel free to comment on this post! After all, the Super Bowl happens once a year so watch and review while they're hot!

Sincerely,

A Patriots fan advertising geek (so yes, I thank advertising for saving the Super Bowl for me)