Super Bowl XLV from Arlington, Texas, is now history and the Green Bay Packers came away as champions over the Pittsburgh Steelers in a well-played game that ended with a score of 31-25. Besides Monday morning quarterbacking, many are talking about the Super Bowl commercials that aired at a reported cost of $3 million for a 30-second spot. There were ads that were clever, snarky, heart-touching, sophisticated, cute, and some were not entertaining.
My favorite was probably the Volkswagon Passat pint-sized Darth Vader ad titled “The Force” that showed a little fella dressed in a Star Wars Vader outfit trying to use the Force on a variety of objects around the house, to no avail. Dejected, he decides to try one last time on his dad’s Passat parked in the driveway. Working his magic, the car responds and the pint-sized Darth Vader’s body language relays his delight, not realizing that with a push of the remote and a tease of the eyebrow, Dad played along from inside the house. It’s a cute commercial that has obviously caught the imagination of many because it has received 15.6 million hits on YouTube.
The Doritos “pug” ad that showed the man taunting the dog with Doritos while standing behind a plate glass patio door was hilarious … the pug slams the door down on the floor trapping the man underneath and eats the Doritos. The “Healing Chips” ad that brought back the fish, the plant, and grandpa was cute. Their other two ads, however, went in a different direction. One had a guy sucking Doritos cheese flavor off a co-worker’s finger, and the other had the same dude ripping off and sucking the Doritos flavor off another co-worker’s pants.
Anything with a Clydesdale in it captures my heart so Anheuser-Busch’s ads rank up there with the best. This year’s offering was called “Wild West – Tiny Dancer” and featured those magnificent horses as well as a Wild West saloon with an outlaw demanding a beer from the empty-handed bartender. The Clydesdales show up just in time to save the day with a fresh shipment of ice cold Budweiser, the outlaw breaks out in the song “Tiny Dancer,” and everyone in the saloon joins in. The authentic Wild West town made a great backdrop, and watching how they filmed it was just as entertaining as the ad itself.
I haven’t heard as much about the Bridgestone Tire ad featuring the beaver titled “Carma” with a “c” — get it? A driver swerves to avoid a beaver in the road just as he is about to drive onto a bridge crossing a river. The terrified beaver wipes his brow in relief at surviving such a close call. Six months later on a dark and stormy evening, the same driver at the same place has a tree dropped across the roadway in front of him by the beaver. The man slams on brakes and stops, getting out of his vehicle in time to see the bridge wash away in the raging river. The beaver, watching from beside the freshly-gnawed tree stump, gives a double-thump heart salute that is returned by the driver. That ad was neat on a couple of fronts and a favorite.
Coca-Cola had several commercials but the border guard ad caught our attention. It showed a remote border crossing with two military men marching back and forth guarding the gate. One offers the other a Coke so in order to pass it to his rival, the border must be temporarily rerouted around the Coke bottle until picked up, and then redrawn as the two share a “Snoopy and the Red Baron” moment.
Other popular ads included the one with the bears who go to McDonald’s as a reward for Junior’s good report card, Pepsi Max First Date suggesting men have one-track minds, Audi Prison Break with Kenny G, and many more. FoxNews.com/ads has all the Super Bowl commercials … the good, the bad, and the ugly … to hold us over until next year when a fresh batch will come out to wow us during the game.
