How in a homophobic society like America, football and its tight, tight shiney pants, worn by men with titles like “Tight End,” and “Wide Receiver,” who battle for control of a “ball” became popular is beyond me.
Of course, it is not as confusing as the military’s policy of forcing us to take group showers in basic training.
While I suppose it still technically is, it’s hard to approach the Super Bowl as a sporting event these days. It’s a whole lot of things, but a sporting event seems somewhere down the list. Everything else is more intriguing. It vies with July 4 as the high point of the U.S. cultural-bonding calendar (at least the secular calendar). The role of ads is pretty interesting too: it’s still normal advertisement (they still really hope the ads lead you to buy their products), but they’ve morphed into a sort of “super bowl of advertising” where marketing teams have to compete with each other to produce something that will be dazzling enough to compare favorably with the other entrants. Fascinating spectacle all around.
I’m in Mexico watching the game on ESPN International with the B-team of commentators. So I won’t be getting the Tim Tebow ad. Can anyone tell me the quick way I could see it online?
I would like to point out that volohk.com takes you to a website that begins:
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Focus on the Family pulled a brilliant fakeout by running a completely innocuous politics-free ad with Mrs. and Tim Tebow. A real public relations success in the post-Dobson era.
It’s certainly become a major American holiday. We had planned to have dinner out tonight at a neighborhood restaurant. Both choices we tried were failures–they close on Superbowl Sunday. Ended up in a sports-ish bar where the smoke and the TV’s and the noise weren’t too bad. Interesting cultural experience.
Audi’s vision of eco-facism was really horrifying. I think it was supposed to be amusing, seeing people arrested and roughed up for using light bulbs, sitting in a hot tub, using plastic bottles and bags.
Nice that the Saints won, but the ads were forgettable.
The Dodge ad though, was particularly craven. An unabashed appeal to the pathetic, emasculated man – are you a pathetic slob, too spineless to change your job or stand up to your girlfriend? Don’t change anything, just buy a car! At one time guys objected to the idea that muscle cars and SUVs were compensation for insecurity about manliness (or penis size), but now the carmakers are building their marketing around it…
John Armstrong: Ads: Google had the best-executed, but Kia really nailed it for most fun.
The funny thing about Google’s is that it wasn’t even produced for the Super Bowl, and had a much smaller budget than most Super Bowl ads. It was part of a series of “search stories” that they produced for YouTube a few months ago; they just reused the most popular one as their Super Bowl ad.
I too was horrified by the Audi “Green Police” spot. I drive an A3 and I don’t want to be associated with that crap. It could have worked as satire if the Green Police were a little more villanous, but the ad seemed to expect us to root for the Green Police (and take their side vs. the “real” police at the end.)
The game was great. The conventional wisdom on the SB has been “lousy game, watch for the commercials” but for the last few years the reverse has been true.
Ads sucked mostly, but the Samurai/ninja Dorito ad was damn funny.
The Charger ad was funny, despite the humor-deprived souls who like to imagine it as some sort of deep social indictment. Same with the green police. These were jokes people, stop taking yourselves so seriously. The sea levels aren’t going to rise because of so-called irresponsible behavior displayed by actors in a commercial aired during a sporting event, and neither will women be tossed into the kitchen in their burkhas to wash their husbands’ wife beaters in the sink.
Halftime show struck me as something that probably only worked if you were there in person. It just didn’t work for TV.
I have to echo the above comment re the Tim T. ad. Much ado about nothing. From the description I had read (which came from 2nd-hand reports based on statements from Focus on the Family), it was ‘supposed’ to be much more controversial. The actual ad was–to my eye–completely innocuous, and I have to believe that if (for example) Planned Parenthood had been able to preview the actual ad, there would have been no objections at all. At All. Huge congrats (on a purely political level) to Dobson for getting maximum mileage out of a tame ad. Impressive.
I’m their age and use to love them, but the Who were one big embarrassment tonight – couldn’t sing, couldn’t move. Retire guys, you’ve already blemished your position in rock history, don’t destroy it altogether.
Green Police ad (will people remember it for what it advertised? doubt it) was supposed to be serious, just made me horrified — they’re going to come after me for incandescent light bulbs, throwing away batteries, not always composting, or keeping jacuzzi water at the wrong temperature? This is the stuff of satire — or at least it used to be.
Dewb: I too was horrified by the Audi “Green Police” spot.I drive an A3 and I don’t want to be associated with that crap.It could have worked as satire if the Green Police were a little more villanous, but the ad seemed to expect us to root for the Green Police (and take their side vs. the “real” police at the end.)The Dodge Charger ad seemed clever for a split second before the “hey, wait a minute, that’s pretty misanthropic” synapses kicked.An unpleasant counterweight to the misogynist “your tires or your wife/life” Bridgestone ad.Overall a pretty terrible performance in the automobile category.I thought the Kia “sock monkey, robot, et al go to Vegas” ad was charming, though.The game was great.The conventional wisdom on the SB has been “lousy game, watch for the commercials” but for the last few years the reverse has been true.
you REALLY missed the point of the Bridgestone ad. Instead of giving up his tires, he gave up his hot wife. It was supposed to be a sacrifice.
1. The game was good. I didn’t think Manning choked at all; he had a couple of drops and really made only two bad throws all game. Well done, Saints.
2. The officiating was good. After Steelers-Seahawks, good officiating is appreciated.
3. The ads were better than the last couple of years. I’d go so far as to say they were, on the whole, non-sucky (with several exceptions, but it wasn’t the parade of suck we’ve seen in some recent years.)
4. I didn’t watch The Who, and I love their music. I haven’t really watched a halftime show since MTV ran a Beavis and Butthead episode opposite a Super Bowl halftime. (It was on in my house, but the folks in the house played cards during halftime.)
5. I won’t use any trademarked slogans the NFL has ever laid claim to in describing a football game. You do that, you deserve to have “your” phrase ignored.
I’ll give Audi a pass on the “green police” ad. I’m sure it was an attempt at humor that missed the mark.
As I was watching the game at a local theater (The Rockland Strand, a wonderful place to watch the game on the big screen), and was more worried at the various people in the audience cheering the ‘green police’.
Shawn Levasseur: I’ll give Audi a pass on the “green police” ad. I’m sure it was an attempt at humor that missed the mark.As I was watching the game at a local theater (The Rockland Strand, a wonderful place to watch the game on the big screen), and was more worried at the various people in the audience cheering the ‘green police’.
I think the ad was intended to be funny in an absurd “Gee, this is so ridiculous, it could never happen” sort of way.
What was scary, at least for me, was that it didn’t seem that absurd a leap. That being said, I did laugh.
R. Nebblesworth: The Dodge ad though, was particularly craven. An unabashed appeal to the pathetic, emasculated man — are you a pathetic slob, too spineless to change your job or stand up to your girlfriend? Don’t change anything, just buy a car!
I loved that ad! I’m gonna buy a Charger, if my wife lets me.
The ad I didn’t like: actually, I don’t know they were selling but the point was their customers were really smart. There are clips of one guy going through life, doing smart things, until finally, he’s on safari in the Serengeti “using [his] knowledge of veterinary obstetrics” to deliver a tiger cub.
A tiger cub. In Africa. I’m not buying your grotty disposable razor or whatever, plus you fail biology and geography forever.
I’m still trying to figure out what the Audi commercial creators were thinking. It seems to me the message was “Curry favor with a fascist police state by buying our product!” Really? Sending a message that the green movement is linked to a police state, but by buying this green product, you’ll appease them? I’m pretty sure that’s how *not* to sell a green product, or any product for that matter. Making an ad that can be viewed as a political message against your product seems like it should be up there with “don’t kill children or dogs in your commercial” in the rules of what not to do in a commercial.
I had forgotten the Green Police ad, but now that Cheap Trick song will be in my head all day.
I love the e-trade baby ads–the one last night was very good.
I am a life-long hoosier; I was a football player in my youth.
I thought the Colts did fairly well, their tackling was horrible, though. It was a good clean game. Ironic that a Purdon’t grad was MVP and an IU grad took back the pick-6.
I am glad for NOLA–what a great lead-in to Mardi Gras…where ya’at?…
In highlights I saw a nice short TD run by a small, extremely quick running back whose name I don’t know. He had some other nice runs too. He didn’t run as beautifully as Gale Sayers (has anyone?), but was still fun to watch.
… Let’s see: the failed 4th-down conversion? The onside kick? The two-point conversion play and challenge? Brees’s 2d-half drives? Manning’s interception?
I think some people must watch the commercials and then stand in the kitchen eating cheese dip during the game.
Didn’t watch the game but I heard that the football team from the city that got flooded out after they decided to spend $300 million to build a new sports stadium rather than fix the levies won the Super Bowl so I guess congratulations are in order.
Very good game. Nice to see fairly evenly matched teams in the Super Bowl for a change, instead of a typical blow-out. I think that the difference was in the coaching. Glad to see success for NOLA after so many decades. Maybe the Curse of the Dome is finally lifted.
Liked the Mini-Kiss ad.
But, overweight guys walking through a field without pants was scary (and, what they were advertising was a mystery – Exhibitionists International (?)), and, the “casual Fridays” with undressed workers is the thing nightmares are made of — I expect to soon read about someone trying that in a real work place and arguing that since it was shown on TV, it must be OK.
The ad for the US Census was, at best, pointless and showed no talent in concept or execution. Being married to Jamie Lee Curtis isn’t sufficient to show qualifications. [Personal observation - have all the living Presidents appear on a public service announcement asking for everyone to cooperate in the census would be more effective than celebrities who are so famous that no one recognizes them, especially when they appear and sound lame].
For $2.5 Mill for a 30 sec ad, you’d expect that those paying for it would demand something entertaining and showing at least modest talent. Apparently not. Some of the ads were good, but, most were mediocre, and several were terrible. However, at least for ads for commercial products/services I can refuse to buy their products or services. No such choice with the census.
I agree. There should be a basic logic behind a commercial, even one that’s supposed to be funny. The message here is “our Audi is environmentally friendly, so you, person who cares about the environment, should buy it” That’s a fine message, but it doesn’t make sense to illustrate this by showing that your product would be approved by a frightening “green police,” because your target audience is the people who care about the environment; i.e. the green police.
It may be an attempt at humor, but here is a police officer taking someone away for selecting a plastic bag, and helicopters and spotlights shining through someone’s window at night for not composting — those are frightening images, the type that summon up a generation of dystopian popular media. We are conditioned to react against a government that started with good intentions but has gone horribly wrong, and are more likely to identify with the ordinary people, not the authorities.
So there’s little satisfaction that the Audi driver gets out of the roadblock smiling because he’s passed this latest test of greenness. A year later, he will be saying, “first they came for the plastic bag users, but I was not a plastic bag user, so I didn’t say anything…”
History Punk: How in a homophobic society like America, football and its tight, tight shiny pants, worn by men with titles like “Tight End,” and “Wide Receiver,” who battle for control of a “ball” became popular is beyond me. Of course, it is not as confusing as the military’s policy of forcing us to take group showers in basic training.
The fact that you interpreted those terms in a sexual way say alot more about you, then it does about anyone else.
I don’t imagine that advertisers spend $Ms for Super Bowel spots without first test marketing the spots to see that they elicit the desired response from a sample audience. That said, it is hard for me to imagine that Green Car ad producing a net gain in sales for Audi. Why would anyone want to buy a product that conjured to mind that dystopic vision?
Are there ads that are huge turn offs to great numbers of viewers/listeners/readers, but successful from the sponsor’s point of view because they speak to a small target audience and encourage them to buy the product? I’m sure there must be, but none come to mind.
History Punk: How in a homophobic society like America, football and its tight, tight shiny pants, worn by men with titles like “Tight End,” and “Wide Receiver,” who battle for control of a “ball” became popular is beyond me. Of course, it is not as confusing as the military’s policy of forcing us to take group showers in basic training.
Repeal 16-17: The fact that you interpreted those terms in a sexual way say alot more about you, then it does about anyone else.
Something tells me your sarcasm detector is broken.
Perhaps it is mentioned above, but the Audi ad would have been a good one for an SUV (as a kind of heck to the green police). As an ad for a “green” car, it is just creepy.
It looks like only candidates for “best ad” are there, not all the ads. I thought to have another look at some of the few ads I did see and other’s that I didn’t see.
What were those godaddy.com ads about; who was the target audience for them; and what is godaddy.com about? I went to the website to see, which I suppose served their purpose, but I still don’t get it. Perhaps if I spent more time there, I would, but should an ad require so much, if any, effort to understand what it is about, moreover the nature of the product or service. Is godday.com so well known to everyone but those of us who aren’t au courant need not be told? What reaction is the ad supposed to draw other than puzzlement or indifference?
I’m surprised no one has commented on that ad with the kids pledging allegiance to the flag of “one nation under debt,” which I saw twice in short succession. Who put up the dough for that one, is it a Tea Bag Party thing? (Are Tea Bag Party types unanimous in opposition to rising national debt?)
I’m surprised nobody has yet commented on what is probably the first Super Bowl ad to make even an oblique reference to masturbation (the kid in the locked bathroom in the Motorola ad with Megan Fox).
I’d be willing to bet you a beer that it’s not the first masturbation reference in superbowl ad history. I’ll have to owe you a beer if I’m wrong. Either way, I’m not going to research the question, but I’d welcome anyone else to do so :)
I notice that fellow conspirator Randy Barnett is still afraid of comments on his threads, and has posted on the Audi “Green Police” ad.
I agree with Prof. Barnett that the ad isn’t going to win Audi any awards for positive brand promotion. However, it’s saving grace is that is rescuscitates interest in the best Cheap Trick song of them all.
If you knew the history of Barnett and trolls, you’d close comments too. He decided it wasn’t worth it to try to moderate them anymore, and nothing of value was lost.
Daniel Chapman: If you knew the history of Barnett and trolls, you’d close comments too. He decided it wasn’t worth it to try to moderate them anymore, and nothing of value was lost.
Professor Barnett has been more plagued by trolls than Professor Bernstein, who for the most part allows comments, knowing full well that there will be a fair number of clearly out of bounds ones? With Professor Bernstein, it is his Israel-related threads that are most certain to get raucous; what posts of Professor Barnett’s draw the unwelcome commenters? (Professor Barnett and neurodoc didn’t exactly hit it off when the latter told the former that judging from her medical records, his client Angel Raich’s physical problems paled in comparison to her mental ones.)
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History Punk says:
How in a homophobic society like America, football and its tight, tight shiney pants, worn by men with titles like “Tight End,” and “Wide Receiver,” who battle for control of a “ball” became popular is beyond me.
Of course, it is not as confusing as the military’s policy of forcing us to take group showers in basic training.
February 7, 2010, 7:17 pmPeteP says:
lame and overblown, as usual.
February 7, 2010, 7:19 pmMark N. says:
While I suppose it still technically is, it’s hard to approach the Super Bowl as a sporting event these days. It’s a whole lot of things, but a sporting event seems somewhere down the list. Everything else is more intriguing. It vies with July 4 as the high point of the U.S. cultural-bonding calendar (at least the secular calendar). The role of ads is pretty interesting too: it’s still normal advertisement (they still really hope the ads lead you to buy their products), but they’ve morphed into a sort of “super bowl of advertising” where marketing teams have to compete with each other to produce something that will be dazzling enough to compare favorably with the other entrants. Fascinating spectacle all around.
February 7, 2010, 7:32 pmLaura Victoria says:
I’m in Mexico watching the game on ESPN International with the B-team of commentators. So I won’t be getting the Tim Tebow ad. Can anyone tell me the quick way I could see it online?
February 7, 2010, 7:36 pmfreethrow says:
http://bobmccarty.com/2010/02/07/tim-tebow-super-bowl-ad/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tim-tebow-super-bowl-ad
February 7, 2010, 7:45 pmjccamp says:
Most Politically Incorrect Ad Award -
Dodge Charger, Man’s Last Stand
Misogynous. Gas wasteful and unGreen. Irresponsible behavior.
Funny. Almost sad, but funny.
February 7, 2010, 8:23 pmLaura Victoria says:
Muchas Gracias, Freethrow. Sounds like I’m missing out on lots of other ads. The Banamex ads don’t produce the same thrills.
February 7, 2010, 8:27 pmAnonsters says:
I would like to point out that volohk.com takes you to a website that begins:
February 7, 2010, 8:30 pmAnonsters says:
And that Larry Solum has added “Libertarian Theories of Law” to his Legal Theory Lexicon.
http://lsolum.typepad.com/legaltheory/2010/02/legal-theory-lexicon-libertarian-theories-of-law.html
February 7, 2010, 8:49 pmDoh-San says:
People actually still watch the Stupor Bowl?
Bread and circuses, people. Bread and circuses.
February 7, 2010, 9:07 pmOren_ says:
I don’t think it can be bread and circus unless the government is paying for it.
February 7, 2010, 9:22 pmJohn Burgess says:
Laura Victoria: You can go to this CBS site for all the ads.
February 7, 2010, 9:35 pmrpt says:
Focus on the Family pulled a brilliant fakeout by running a completely innocuous politics-free ad with Mrs. and Tim Tebow. A real public relations success in the post-Dobson era.
February 7, 2010, 9:37 pmleo marvin says:
What a waste of Charles Barkley.
February 7, 2010, 9:49 pmGeoff says:
It’s certainly become a major American holiday. We had planned to have dinner out tonight at a neighborhood restaurant. Both choices we tried were failures–they close on Superbowl Sunday. Ended up in a sports-ish bar where the smoke and the TV’s and the noise weren’t too bad. Interesting cultural experience.
February 7, 2010, 9:58 pmRoger the Shrubber says:
I thought the Who actually pulled it off. It felt like they were teetering on the brink of geriatric disaster, but they pulled it off.
February 7, 2010, 10:07 pmChrisTS says:
Is it over yet?
February 7, 2010, 10:08 pmAllan Walstad says:
I noticed The Who ended up with “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
February 7, 2010, 10:13 pmJim says:
Did anyone else see the irony in the “Green Police” car ad?
February 7, 2010, 10:13 pmKevin Frost says:
A scary vision of things to come…
February 7, 2010, 10:18 pmNunzio says:
Peyton Manning choked. Again. Tom Brady is better.
February 7, 2010, 10:28 pmEMB says:
Someone should dub it with an overdone “Nazi Obama is destroying America” voice-over, could be pretty funny.
In other news, apparently Chocolate Rain is among the best things the internet has to offer…
February 7, 2010, 10:32 pmjccamp says:
I just watched it – green police – and here’s the link.
You picked the wrong day to mess with the eco-system, plastic boy.
February 7, 2010, 10:32 pmU.Va. Grad says:
When Tom Brady actually wins something without his coach cheating, this might hold more weight.
February 7, 2010, 10:34 pmProfane says:
LAMEST. ADS. EVER.
And Manning choked big time.
February 7, 2010, 10:34 pmkarrde says:
Surprise ending, alright. The Saints started behind, came back, and took a few gambles that really paid off.
About the ads…I was surprised at how tame the Tebow ad was.
If I hadn’t known beforehand (and didn’t go to the proffered website), I wouldn’t have guessed that there was an abortion message in it.
I was also surprised that the around-halftime ads were almost all CBS selling itself. Were they short on buyers for that segment?
February 7, 2010, 10:44 pmDaniel Chapman says:
I laughed out loud at the commercial with Dramatic Prairie Dog, Numa Numa, and Chocolate Rain.
February 7, 2010, 10:47 pmCharles N. Steele says:
Audi’s vision of eco-facism was really horrifying. I think it was supposed to be amusing, seeing people arrested and roughed up for using light bulbs, sitting in a hot tub, using plastic bottles and bags.
There’s nothing funny about it.
February 7, 2010, 10:54 pmJP Martin says:
Good game. Good ads.
February 7, 2010, 10:54 pmArchitect says:
I should have said this during the last open thread-
How come the post cant be numbered, so I can keep track of where i left of reading…?
February 7, 2010, 11:25 pmJohn Armstrong says:
Ain’t no aints no mo! Geaux Saints!
Also, Bob Irsay and his whole family still suck.
Ads: Google had the best-executed, but Kia really nailed it for most fun.
February 7, 2010, 11:25 pmR. Nebblesworth says:
Nice that the Saints won, but the ads were forgettable.
The Dodge ad though, was particularly craven. An unabashed appeal to the pathetic, emasculated man – are you a pathetic slob, too spineless to change your job or stand up to your girlfriend? Don’t change anything, just buy a car! At one time guys objected to the idea that muscle cars and SUVs were compensation for insecurity about manliness (or penis size), but now the carmakers are building their marketing around it…
February 7, 2010, 11:25 pmArchitect says:
DR Leo Marvin !?
February 7, 2010, 11:37 pmJonny B says:
WHO DAT!
February 7, 2010, 11:37 pmMark N. says:
The funny thing about Google’s is that it wasn’t even produced for the Super Bowl, and had a much smaller budget than most Super Bowl ads. It was part of a series of “search stories” that they produced for YouTube a few months ago; they just reused the most popular one as their Super Bowl ad.
February 7, 2010, 11:45 pmDewb says:
I too was horrified by the Audi “Green Police” spot. I drive an A3 and I don’t want to be associated with that crap. It could have worked as satire if the Green Police were a little more villanous, but the ad seemed to expect us to root for the Green Police (and take their side vs. the “real” police at the end.)
The Dodge Charger ad seemed clever for a split second before the “hey, wait a minute, that’s pretty misanthropic” synapses kicked. An unpleasant counterweight to the misogynist “your tires or your wife/life” Bridgestone ad.
Overall a pretty terrible performance in the automobile category. I thought the Kia “sock monkey, robot, et al go to Vegas” ad was charming, though.
The game was great. The conventional wisdom on the SB has been “lousy game, watch for the commercials” but for the last few years the reverse has been true.
February 7, 2010, 11:54 pmAlan K. Henderson says:
Doritos and circuses!
February 7, 2010, 11:58 pmG. May says:
Good game, been a Saints fan most of my life.
Ads sucked mostly, but the Samurai/ninja Dorito ad was damn funny.
The Charger ad was funny, despite the humor-deprived souls who like to imagine it as some sort of deep social indictment. Same with the green police. These were jokes people, stop taking yourselves so seriously. The sea levels aren’t going to rise because of so-called irresponsible behavior displayed by actors in a commercial aired during a sporting event, and neither will women be tossed into the kitchen in their burkhas to wash their husbands’ wife beaters in the sink.
Halftime show struck me as something that probably only worked if you were there in person. It just didn’t work for TV.
February 8, 2010, 12:15 amSome dude says:
Actually that ad was the opposite of ironic.
February 8, 2010, 12:25 amrpt says:
Very perceptive on Tea Party weekend. Palin=Bush II redux. From faux cowboy to faux populist. Crawford to Wasilla.
February 8, 2010, 12:35 amreadery says:
Who dat won da Super Bowl?
February 8, 2010, 12:42 amjosh bornstein says:
I have to echo the above comment re the Tim T. ad. Much ado about nothing. From the description I had read (which came from 2nd-hand reports based on statements from Focus on the Family), it was ‘supposed’ to be much more controversial. The actual ad was–to my eye–completely innocuous, and I have to believe that if (for example) Planned Parenthood had been able to preview the actual ad, there would have been no objections at all. At All. Huge congrats (on a purely political level) to Dobson for getting maximum mileage out of a tame ad. Impressive.
February 8, 2010, 1:14 amrpt says:
Josh:
I don’t believe Dobson runs FOTF any more. This is the work of the newer and somewhat less abrasive management.
February 8, 2010, 1:23 amgeorge says:
I’m their age and use to love them, but the Who were one big embarrassment tonight – couldn’t sing, couldn’t move. Retire guys, you’ve already blemished your position in rock history, don’t destroy it altogether.
February 8, 2010, 1:25 amJeff Walden says:
Green Police ad (will people remember it for what it advertised? doubt it) was supposed to be serious, just made me horrified — they’re going to come after me for incandescent light bulbs, throwing away batteries, not always composting, or keeping jacuzzi water at the wrong temperature? This is the stuff of satire — or at least it used to be.
February 8, 2010, 1:35 amCareless says:
you REALLY missed the point of the Bridgestone ad. Instead of giving up his tires, he gave up his hot wife. It was supposed to be a sacrifice.
February 8, 2010, 1:51 amcfoster says:
Wasn’t having the Who perform in the 2010 Suprebowl like having Josephine Baker perform the Charlston at the 1968 Superbowl?
February 8, 2010, 2:07 amDave N. says:
I have to agree with RPT for once. FOTF received maximum political mileage for an ad so tame Planned Parenthood couldn’t be against it.
I also have to agree with most of the posters here that the Audi “Green Police” ad was really kind of creepy.
Great game until the interception made it 31-17. Until then the Colts were down, but not out.
February 8, 2010, 2:12 amJohn R. Mayne says:
1. The game was good. I didn’t think Manning choked at all; he had a couple of drops and really made only two bad throws all game. Well done, Saints.
2. The officiating was good. After Steelers-Seahawks, good officiating is appreciated.
3. The ads were better than the last couple of years. I’d go so far as to say they were, on the whole, non-sucky (with several exceptions, but it wasn’t the parade of suck we’ve seen in some recent years.)
4. I didn’t watch The Who, and I love their music. I haven’t really watched a halftime show since MTV ran a Beavis and Butthead episode opposite a Super Bowl halftime. (It was on in my house, but the folks in the house played cards during halftime.)
5. I won’t use any trademarked slogans the NFL has ever laid claim to in describing a football game. You do that, you deserve to have “your” phrase ignored.
February 8, 2010, 2:19 amleo marvin says:
Is there any other?
February 8, 2010, 2:34 amShawn Levasseur says:
I’ll give Audi a pass on the “green police” ad. I’m sure it was an attempt at humor that missed the mark.
As I was watching the game at a local theater (The Rockland Strand, a wonderful place to watch the game on the big screen), and was more worried at the various people in the audience cheering the ‘green police’.
February 8, 2010, 4:24 amJim says:
I think the ad was intended to be funny in an absurd “Gee, this is so ridiculous, it could never happen” sort of way.
What was scary, at least for me, was that it didn’t seem that absurd a leap. That being said, I did laugh.
February 8, 2010, 6:47 amMalvolio says:
I loved that ad! I’m gonna buy a Charger, if my wife lets me.
The ad I didn’t like: actually, I don’t know they were selling but the point was their customers were really smart. There are clips of one guy going through life, doing smart things, until finally, he’s on safari in the Serengeti “using [his] knowledge of veterinary obstetrics” to deliver a tiger cub.
A tiger cub. In Africa. I’m not buying your grotty disposable razor or whatever, plus you fail biology and geography forever.
February 8, 2010, 6:58 amJust Dropping By says:
cfoster wins the thread!
February 8, 2010, 9:01 amD says:
Did anyone see Toyota’s new slogan from their recall commercial during the Superbowl?
Image: Toyota’s new Slogan
Disclaimer: this is a parody.
February 8, 2010, 9:10 amEdit: Found a blog that claims to explain the origin of tag-line.
R. Nebblesworth says:
Hmm well maybe I went overboard on the Dodge ad…
February 8, 2010, 9:30 amAnderson says:
it’s hard to approach the Super Bowl as a sporting event these days
Too bad for you, because that sure as hell looked like a sporting event to me, last night.
… Re: the Who, Daltrey’s voice is really in bad shape. Though better than Entwhistle’s … for now.
February 8, 2010, 9:31 amTheNino85 says:
Game was kinda boring, as always.
I’m still trying to figure out what the Audi commercial creators were thinking. It seems to me the message was “Curry favor with a fascist police state by buying our product!” Really? Sending a message that the green movement is linked to a police state, but by buying this green product, you’ll appease them? I’m pretty sure that’s how *not* to sell a green product, or any product for that matter. Making an ad that can be viewed as a political message against your product seems like it should be up there with “don’t kill children or dogs in your commercial” in the rules of what not to do in a commercial.
February 8, 2010, 10:04 amSmooth, like a Rhapsody says:
I had forgotten the Green Police ad, but now that Cheap Trick song will be in my head all day.
I love the e-trade baby ads–the one last night was very good.
I am a life-long hoosier; I was a football player in my youth.
I thought the Colts did fairly well, their tackling was horrible, though. It was a good clean game. Ironic that a Purdon’t grad was MVP and an IU grad took back the pick-6.
I am glad for NOLA–what a great lead-in to Mardi Gras…where ya’at?…
February 8, 2010, 10:52 amarch1 says:
In highlights I saw a nice short TD run by a small, extremely quick running back whose name I don’t know. He had some other nice runs too. He didn’t run as beautifully as Gale Sayers (has anyone?), but was still fun to watch.
February 8, 2010, 10:53 amAnderson says:
Game was kinda boring, as always.
… Let’s see: the failed 4th-down conversion? The onside kick? The two-point conversion play and challenge? Brees’s 2d-half drives? Manning’s interception?
I think some people must watch the commercials and then stand in the kitchen eating cheese dip during the game.
February 8, 2010, 10:55 amDJR says:
Huh. Funny what you can learn at the V.C.
February 8, 2010, 11:00 amThorley Winston says:
Didn’t watch the game but I heard that the football team from the city that got flooded out after they decided to spend $300 million to build a new sports stadium rather than fix the levies won the Super Bowl so I guess congratulations are in order.
February 8, 2010, 11:12 amwfjag says:
Very good game. Nice to see fairly evenly matched teams in the Super Bowl for a change, instead of a typical blow-out. I think that the difference was in the coaching. Glad to see success for NOLA after so many decades. Maybe the Curse of the Dome is finally lifted.
Liked the Mini-Kiss ad.
But, overweight guys walking through a field without pants was scary (and, what they were advertising was a mystery – Exhibitionists International (?)), and, the “casual Fridays” with undressed workers is the thing nightmares are made of — I expect to soon read about someone trying that in a real work place and arguing that since it was shown on TV, it must be OK.
The ad for the US Census was, at best, pointless and showed no talent in concept or execution. Being married to Jamie Lee Curtis isn’t sufficient to show qualifications. [Personal observation - have all the living Presidents appear on a public service announcement asking for everyone to cooperate in the census would be more effective than celebrities who are so famous that no one recognizes them, especially when they appear and sound lame].
For $2.5 Mill for a 30 sec ad, you’d expect that those paying for it would demand something entertaining and showing at least modest talent. Apparently not. Some of the ads were good, but, most were mediocre, and several were terrible. However, at least for ads for commercial products/services I can refuse to buy their products or services. No such choice with the census.
February 8, 2010, 11:13 amDJR says:
TheNino:
I agree. There should be a basic logic behind a commercial, even one that’s supposed to be funny. The message here is “our Audi is environmentally friendly, so you, person who cares about the environment, should buy it” That’s a fine message, but it doesn’t make sense to illustrate this by showing that your product would be approved by a frightening “green police,” because your target audience is the people who care about the environment; i.e. the green police.
It may be an attempt at humor, but here is a police officer taking someone away for selecting a plastic bag, and helicopters and spotlights shining through someone’s window at night for not composting — those are frightening images, the type that summon up a generation of dystopian popular media. We are conditioned to react against a government that started with good intentions but has gone horribly wrong, and are more likely to identify with the ordinary people, not the authorities.
So there’s little satisfaction that the Audi driver gets out of the roadblock smiling because he’s passed this latest test of greenness. A year later, he will be saying, “first they came for the plastic bag users, but I was not a plastic bag user, so I didn’t say anything…”
February 8, 2010, 11:15 amRepeal 16-17 says:
The fact that you interpreted those terms in a sexual way say alot more about you, then it does about anyone else.
February 8, 2010, 11:40 amSonicfrog says:
The Green Police. Hey, before it was revealed to be an ad for Audi, I thought it was promo for California.
The Dorito Barking Dog was the best ad by far.
February 8, 2010, 11:56 amGordo says:
And the Emperor Peyton’s death star was once again destroyed.
February 8, 2010, 12:19 pmneurodoc says:
I don’t imagine that advertisers spend $Ms for Super Bowel spots without first test marketing the spots to see that they elicit the desired response from a sample audience. That said, it is hard for me to imagine that Green Car ad producing a net gain in sales for Audi. Why would anyone want to buy a product that conjured to mind that dystopic vision?
Are there ads that are huge turn offs to great numbers of viewers/listeners/readers, but successful from the sponsor’s point of view because they speak to a small target audience and encourage them to buy the product? I’m sure there must be, but none come to mind.
February 8, 2010, 12:50 pmFedya says:
Something tells me your sarcasm detector is broken.
However, you might like this photo
February 8, 2010, 1:17 pmFedya says:
Perhaps they should have portrayed the “Green Police” as demon sheep….
February 8, 2010, 1:34 pmMike Keenan says:
Perhaps it is mentioned above, but the Audi ad would have been a good one for an SUV (as a kind of heck to the green police). As an ad for a “green” car, it is just creepy.
February 8, 2010, 1:57 pmneurodoc says:
It looks like only candidates for “best ad” are there, not all the ads. I thought to have another look at some of the few ads I did see and other’s that I didn’t see.
What were those godaddy.com ads about; who was the target audience for them; and what is godaddy.com about? I went to the website to see, which I suppose served their purpose, but I still don’t get it. Perhaps if I spent more time there, I would, but should an ad require so much, if any, effort to understand what it is about, moreover the nature of the product or service. Is godday.com so well known to everyone but those of us who aren’t au courant need not be told? What reaction is the ad supposed to draw other than puzzlement or indifference?
I’m surprised no one has commented on that ad with the kids pledging allegiance to the flag of “one nation under debt,” which I saw twice in short succession. Who put up the dough for that one, is it a Tea Bag Party thing? (Are Tea Bag Party types unanimous in opposition to rising national debt?)
February 8, 2010, 2:27 pmptt says:
Am I the only person who thinks the Tebow ad sends a strong, though subtle, pro universal health care message, at least for pregnant women?
Odd coming from FOTF.
February 8, 2010, 2:27 pmYosemite Sam says:
I’m surprised nobody has yet commented on what is probably the first Super Bowl ad to make even an oblique reference to masturbation (the kid in the locked bathroom in the Motorola ad with Megan Fox).
February 8, 2010, 4:55 pmDaniel Chapman says:
I’d be willing to bet you a beer that it’s not the first masturbation reference in superbowl ad history. I’ll have to owe you a beer if I’m wrong. Either way, I’m not going to research the question, but I’d welcome anyone else to do so :)
February 8, 2010, 5:28 pmGordo says:
I notice that fellow conspirator Randy Barnett is still afraid of comments on his threads, and has posted on the Audi “Green Police” ad.
I agree with Prof. Barnett that the ad isn’t going to win Audi any awards for positive brand promotion. However, it’s saving grace is that is rescuscitates interest in the best Cheap Trick song of them all.
February 8, 2010, 5:28 pmDaniel Chapman says:
If you knew the history of Barnett and trolls, you’d close comments too. He decided it wasn’t worth it to try to moderate them anymore, and nothing of value was lost.
February 8, 2010, 5:35 pmmariner says:
leo marvin:
And there was a lot of him to waste.
Allan Walstad:
I noticed that, too. I only wish it were true.
Dave N.:
To each his own. I thought that was the moment the game became great!
Now that the Saints have gone marching in [to Super Bowl history] I can go back to not giving a $%^&* about football.
February 8, 2010, 7:19 pmneurodoc says:
Professor Barnett has been more plagued by trolls than Professor Bernstein, who for the most part allows comments, knowing full well that there will be a fair number of clearly out of bounds ones? With Professor Bernstein, it is his Israel-related threads that are most certain to get raucous; what posts of Professor Barnett’s draw the unwelcome commenters? (Professor Barnett and neurodoc didn’t exactly hit it off when the latter told the former that judging from her medical records, his client Angel Raich’s physical problems paled in comparison to her mental ones.)
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March 30, 2010, 7:20 pmair filter reviews says:
I love Megan Fox, I think she is really sexy!
July 17, 2010, 1:33 am