bleh
February 1, 2004 11:01 PM   Subscribe

Superbowl ad, online at ifilm Is it just me, or did the ads seriously suck this time?
posted by delmoi (53 comments total)
 
err, sorry that's' *ads*, as in most of them. Rather then a single one.

Some of the lamest, IMO:

Bud Light: Barbecue
How ridiculous can we get?

Budweiser: Wrong Lipstick
Trite. I thought it was a car commercial, what does this have to do with beer? What's with the guy's accent?

AOL 9.0: Car
All of AOLs ads were lame, but this one takes the cake.

Pepsi: Thirsty Grizzlies
What's up with anthropomorphizing bears and other woodland creatures for super bowl ads? Clichéd.
posted by delmoi at 11:07 PM on February 1, 2004


What's interesting is that there wasn't a solid campaign firestarter out of all of them. Just continued rehashes of campaigns already in progress, or just plain boring. Think of solid commercials that launched campaigns from previous years:

Terry Tate
Wassap, Frogs, Bud Bowl, Spuds McKenzie
E-Trade Chimp

This years' were all weak commercials of larger campaigns, and none of them were Super Bowl "Big."

Also, the AOL Car commericals were sad ripoffs of the better executed Ratchet and Clank commercials for the Playstation 2. Although I think it's hilarious that AOL got bested by a low-volume PS2 game.
posted by Stan Chin at 11:14 PM on February 1, 2004


Lot's of offensive beer ads. Too bad I never drank Bud in the first place, or I'd be boycotting them about now.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 11:18 PM on February 1, 2004


i really liked the david letterman commercial -- the others didn't make much sense -- cut to the chase or leave the race, asshole.
posted by Satapher at 11:25 PM on February 1, 2004


I thought that the glass shards commercial was cool. shardsoglass.com
posted by woil at 11:29 PM on February 1, 2004


Lot's of offensive beer ads. Too bad I never drank Bud in the first place, or I'd be boycotting them about now.

I am not easily offended, but my dog...assuming Budweiser ads are targeted to their actual demographic, an easy way to tell which men are juvenile, misogynistic idiots is to look at the beer they drink, that "yelling like a ref" one was just appalling, but given their history (like the "skating channel" ad), I shouldn't be surprised. I liked the Clydesdale Donkey though. And the AOL ones were pretty funny.
posted by biscotti at 11:30 PM on February 1, 2004


I liked the McDonald's wrapper as dryer sheet. And the ad where the bride joins all the groomsmen to watch the game and the one groomsmen says, "You're so lucky. I said I wasn't going to cry..."

But on the whole they were nothing to write home about.
posted by McBain at 11:31 PM on February 1, 2004


Oh yeah, I almost forgot:

BaaaAAA! Continue to be enslaved by your Corporate Masters as you feed on the troph of cosumerism you mindless sheep!
posted by Stan Chin at 11:33 PM on February 1, 2004


The yelling at the ref ad was terrible.

As for the cigarette ads, I thought CBS wasn't taking "issue" ads? What a bunch of lying liars. Yeah, the MoveOn.org ad was just so objectionable compared to nipple piercings.
posted by McBain at 11:34 PM on February 1, 2004


Hypocritical network advertising policies are my anti-drug.

that "yelling like a ref" one was just appalling

It was bad on so many levels - showing the worst possible stereotype of women as nothing but "nagging wives" and the idea that somehow drinking some bud will help you tune it out and deal with your wife screaming at you. Just appalling.

The best ads of the night for me personally were some local Oregon car dealer ads that were actually nicely produced that featured a chimp as a car security device to much hilarity. They were better than they sound, it was off-the-wall e-trade style stuff.
posted by mathowie at 11:42 PM on February 1, 2004


I thought the commerical with the donkey was cute.
posted by Cyrano at 11:43 PM on February 1, 2004


Football... right?
posted by Eekacat at 11:49 PM on February 1, 2004


I liked the fed-ex alien commercial,

As far as the yelling ref ad; in every other ad on TV now, white males are always portrayed as stupid, ordered around by their wives, morons, etc. I didn't think the ad was that funny, but it was nice to see this sterotype turned around for once, even if a beer commercial had to do it.
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 12:07 AM on February 2, 2004


Uhh...you mean white males aren't stupid, ordered around by their wives, morons, etc.?
posted by adamgreenfield at 12:13 AM on February 2, 2004


i liked the ford gt40 ad.... vrooooooooooom
posted by zeoslap at 12:20 AM on February 2, 2004


I agree. The ads were atrocious this year. Made me actually want to watch the game in the first quarter.
posted by Mach3avelli at 12:30 AM on February 2, 2004


Well, I can't speak for you Adam =)
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 12:38 AM on February 2, 2004


The Willie Nelson one was great and almost brilliant.
posted by rudyfink at 1:04 AM on February 2, 2004


Which one is the Letterman one?
posted by wsg at 1:07 AM on February 2, 2004


[self disclosure, my household loathes football and all things related to football, but...]

Since the advent of TiVo we have been able to skim through the irritating and useless "sports" part of the program and just watch the ads.

i missed a few, but the ones i saw that were noteworthy were the Clydesdale Donkey, which is the only one i really enjoyed and the Sierra Mist (IIRC) commercials, one of which featured Patton Oswalt whom i like without qualification.

Other than that, the ones i saw left me unimpressed or depressed depending on the moment.
posted by quin at 3:37 AM on February 2, 2004


Ok, in checking the linked site, the FedEx Alien one is pretty cool as well.
posted by quin at 3:50 AM on February 2, 2004


Hehe. Watching on Sky Sports in the UK, I couldn't tell you a single advert that aired during the match, I took so little notice of them. I tend to channel hop over ad breaks, but there isn't much on at 3 in the morning...
posted by salmacis at 3:55 AM on February 2, 2004


were some local Oregon car dealer ads that were actually nicely produced that featured a chimp as a car security device to much hilarity

Sadly, every local market has these... We had them in Ohia last year. Let me guess. Chimp in trunk, hops out and bashes someone with a lead pipe or a tire iron. The real mystery is not the local market where these originated, but how the meme spread to other local markets and why/how small dealers latch onto these ideas.
posted by internook at 3:57 AM on February 2, 2004


Trunk Monkey: thanks to jwz.org
posted by quin at 4:08 AM on February 2, 2004


Most of what passes for media humor these days just seems mean to me. The Frito Lay commercial with the old people slugging it out was just awful. Not to mention the Bud Light "Barbecue" ad.
posted by Irontom at 5:15 AM on February 2, 2004


These were horrible. The only one that was pure genius was the Florida OJ one during the pre-game.
posted by Mick at 5:46 AM on February 2, 2004


I also loved the FedEx Alien one, thought the Bud Donkey one was okay...but I agree that all in all it was an off year.
posted by vito90 at 6:06 AM on February 2, 2004


The Bud Light ad with the horse blew my mind - I said to my wife, "Somebody's gonna get fired for that one."

Of the movie trailers, the one that really excited me was Troy. After that mediocre miniseries about Helen, I'm hoping this one dces the whole Iliad justice.
posted by alumshubby at 6:17 AM on February 2, 2004


. [sic]
posted by Fezboy! at 6:21 AM on February 2, 2004


What struck me was just how *mean* they all were. From dog attacks and screaming wives (Budweiser) to old people tripping each other (Lays), many of the ads had an air of cruelty to them which I can't help but think is somehow related to the current climate of war and fear. There was something vaguely sickening about it all.
posted by mapalm at 6:42 AM on February 2, 2004


Given the quality of the ads, I think the MoveOn.org spot would have been a breath of fresh air.
posted by VulcanMike at 7:05 AM on February 2, 2004


Is nobody going to tell me which one has Letterman in it? Please...?
posted by wsg at 9:09 AM on February 2, 2004


Budweiser: Wrong Lipstick
Trite. I thought it was a car commercial, what does this have to do with beer? What's with the guy's accent?


His name is Dale Earnhardt Jr., and he drives the NASCAR Budweiser Chevrolet.
posted by techgnollogic at 9:16 AM on February 2, 2004


Mapalm, I got the meanness too. Not that I'm a turn-that-frown-upside-down kind of guy, but there was a relentless abuse theme through most of the evening, and more generally a real intolerance vibe (especially between men and women) in an awful lot of the ads.

I want the fake mud-wrestling beergirls and rastafarian dogs back. No, wait. No I don't.
posted by chicobangs at 9:26 AM on February 2, 2004


The Budweiser horse ad--the "barbecue" one--really weirded out everyone in the room. We sat and stared for a few seconds, and then I said, "Did that really just happen?" It's the most baffling thing I've seen in a while.

Well, almost. Even more baffling is how the marketers of Levitra seem to think that Mike Ditka is somehow a good way to get people to think about boners. I'm sorry, no. Mike Ditka is pretty much the anti-boner. Although I do like the little flame logo that they've chosen. During every ad, we crowed, "Levitra! It'll set your dick on fire!"
posted by Skot at 9:43 AM on February 2, 2004


Agree with most of this. The ads have been declining in quality for years, though I kind of liked watching the waves that the Cadillacs make. Cruelty theme was very off-putting (Daily Show had an Ed Helms piece a couple of months ago about ball-busting humor, so I suppose the first Bud Light ad was along those lines. How does Anheuser-Busch come up with the stupidly humorous + schmaltzy Donkey-who-wants-to-be-a-Clydesdale combinations?

Snow volleyball wasn't too bad.

Does anyone else wonder how often the IBM-Linux kid gets beat up in school?
posted by palancik at 9:52 AM on February 2, 2004


The Budweiser horse ad--the "barbecue" one--really weirded out everyone in the room.

Sometimes knowing the people in the ad helps. For me, the guy on the date looked liked the actor whom played, Budrick "Bud" Franklin Bundy. If you had watched the show, it would have been a typical date for Bud. Adding Stan Chin's comment, nostalgia sells too.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:07 AM on February 2, 2004


Watching Kerri and Misty play volleyball was pretty funny at the end. But of course, that's not really why I'm watching it over and over and over.
posted by alumshubby at 10:19 AM on February 2, 2004


Even more baffling is how the marketers of Levitra seem to think that Mike Ditka is somehow a good way to get people to think about boners.

Weren't there a few different boner drugs being plugged? And didn't one of them have a disclaimer that went something like, "erections that last more that four hours should be attented to..." That pretty much got a "No shit!" look from every guy in the room.
posted by Cyrano at 10:33 AM on February 2, 2004


The disclaimer I noticed was something like "Levitra has not been tested for multiple attempts."

attempts? I don't know what else you'd call it, but something about that is...oogie.
posted by jpoulos at 10:46 AM on February 2, 2004


Volleyball in winter, amusing, but definitely more interesting for reasons posted above.

Subway's "When we said you can be bad, we didn't mean it that way" ad.

Sierra Mist's continuing campaign with the man and his dog.

The Ford GT, though it's a Ford company commercial more than an actual commercial for a $140,000 car... the pace car for a company... actually Ford, along with Toyota, are the only active car companies working on hybrid engine programs (Toyotas being further ahead).

FedEx' alien was fun, as well.

But yes, the game was much more exciting than the commercials, for once. Actually, that's unfair.. the game was excellent even if the commercials were stunning.
posted by linux at 11:15 AM on February 2, 2004


I had no idea what levitra even was. I guess there's some law that says if you say what a drug does, you have to give all the information about it, like in the Cialis ad. With their 'flame' logo, I almost thought it was for women (looked a lot like a vagina) but then why mike ditka.

----

That said, the Ford GT ad (not a GT40) was sweet. Mostly because the car itself was sweet, and all the ad did was show it off. Technicaly that ad was part of the pre-game show, however.
posted by delmoi at 11:24 AM on February 2, 2004


I thought the Bud Ref/Wife ad was one of the best. Go figure. The Bud Donkey ad was also good, as was the Simpsons Mastercard ad. The Glass Freeze Pops ad was a good shot at the recent Philip Morris PSA ads, and I thought the "they grow up so fast" premise of the carding PSA ad was clever.

By far the worst of the worst was the Gillette "Angel By Your Side" ad. Who the fuck were they trying to kid? It looked almost like a parody of a bullshit commercial - like the Geico "hairclub" parody where the guy talks about his tennis game improving because of his hair - but no, sadly they were serious. Also unforgivable was the Pepsi Hendrix ad. Fuck you, Pepsi. Ditto Stan Chin on the AOL ads. The Sierra Mist ads were stupid. The Willie Nelson ad could have been brilliant, but it was bland. I have a feeling the doll's answers were funnier before H&R asked for them to be toned down. I can't believe they're still running those stupid 7up Guy ads.

In conclusion, I want a Ford GT.
posted by tirade at 11:31 AM on February 2, 2004


By far the worst of the worst was the Gillette "Angel By Your Side" ad. Who the fuck were they trying to kid?

It was beautifully filmed, but I started laughing once I realized it was actually just a Gillette commercial and not Gillette telling us something Vitally Important about Peace or something. I kept hoping they'd do a punchline or twist or something in the last few seconds to make it ironic/funny/whatever, but no...they were dead serious.
posted by biscotti at 12:26 PM on February 2, 2004


We went out and ran errands instead of watching the superbowl or the commercials. One of my girlfriend's co-workers, when told of our plans, expressed incredulity that we wouldn't even stay home just to watch the ads. Somehow not even wanting to watch the corporate sales pitches was just shy of inconceivable to her, which is odd considering that is our least favorite part of the TV experience.

Are we as a culture really all that brainwashed that many of us would sit through 3 hours of a sport we hate just to see the sales pitch in between? Since this thread has been almost entirely about the commercials with but a mention or two of the game, It is possible that we are. Never mind.
posted by jester69 at 12:54 PM on February 2, 2004


Are we as a culture really all that brainwashed that many of us would sit through 3 hours of a sport we hate just to see the sales pitch in between? Since this thread has been almost entirely about the commercials with but a mention or two of the game, It is possible that we are. Never mind.

They're usually clever, inventive, and funny short clips. Yes, they're selling something, but there's nothing wrong with that. Surprise, surprise, but when that many talented artists and writers work that hard to catch our attention for a few seconds, or make us laugh, the results are often going to do so. Are we really that brainwashed as a culture that anyone who enjoys an ad must be instantly labelled a lemming?

P.S., This thread is about the commercials, not the game.
posted by tirade at 1:10 PM on February 2, 2004


On Preview: tirade intercepts my thunder and runs it back for a score. I comment for posterity anyway.

You could have just said, "Is this something you need a television to understand? Because I do not own one," jester.

Brainwashed? Yes, if it makes your dick feel bigger to call it that, sure whatever. To the corporate brainless masses, these hypnotic sales pitches have become integral to our pop culture because for the last decade they have been really entertaining and hilarious. The bastards.

Are they using their daft abilities for humor to sell their product? No shit, that's pretty obvious to everybody.

Unfortunately, some of us cool kids are forced to sit through this horrifying sales presentation and violent game just to talk about it with our colleagues at the water cooler the next morning. Oh what a world, what a world.
posted by Stan Chin at 1:14 PM on February 2, 2004


Are we as a culture really all that brainwashed that many of us would sit through 3 hours of a sport we hate just to see the sales pitch in between? Since this thread has been almost entirely about the commercials with but a mention or two of the game, It is possible that we are. Never mind.


Uh, this thread is about the superbowl commercials, not the game. Who watches the superbowl that hates football anyway?
posted by techgnollogic at 1:23 PM on February 2, 2004


Stan. I do own a television, and I watch it.. My point was that there is, to me, something odd about watching 3-4 hours of TV just to see the commercials. There is something even odder that not to do so is seen as weird or strange by our acquaintances.

Perhaps I didn't phrase what I was saying well, but I stand by my observations. Anyone not from the U.S.A. want to comment? Does the idea of watching 3 hours of sport just to see the adverts sound odd to you?

Technologic: Sure, some people actually like the football. That isn't the group I was talking about. It was suggested to us as just short of mandatory to watch the game, even though we dislike football, just to see the commercials.
posted by jester69 at 1:34 PM on February 2, 2004


jester69: It's not really that odd. I mean the idea of it is, but the process of doing so isn't all that strange. The Super Bowl is treated like a holiday in this country... people getting together, eating, drinking, etc. So it's fairly likely that many people would participate in those parties but not really be all that interested in the game and perhaps moreso in the commercials.

But what the hell was up with that Charmin commercial?
posted by Witty at 3:14 PM on February 2, 2004


actually, where i live, we pay to see award winning ads from the uk. it's shown in a theater, it costs as much, plays as long. it plays for about a month. it sells out every showing.

this was the year that killed the superbowl ad.
posted by kid_twist at 5:33 PM on February 2, 2004


The iFilm site doesn't work for me (Safari 1.1 w/ PithHelmet) so here are links to just the 200Kps Quicktime versions.
posted by nicwolff at 9:18 PM on February 2, 2004


Gillette ad spoof: They really shouldn't let people with nasty cocaine withdrawal depressions write copy. It may sound ok initially, but sooner or later you may become a target for public ridicule. (Quicktime)
posted by svale at 10:35 PM on February 2, 2004


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