$2.7 million gets you what?

For our inaugural post, Krystal and I have teamed up to rant and rave about a select few Superbowl commercials. Hopefully you haven't forgotten about all of the ads by now, but if you have we've posted a few to jog your memory.

Bud Lite Firestarter/Fly



K: What a way to poke fun of all the empty promises there are floating around in the consumer industry. The flying commercial vaguely reminds me of "Red Bull gives you wings" series. This is certainly one of the more humorous and memorable commercials that came out of this rather abysmal collection of Super Bowl commercials.

A: I like the idea of making fun of empty promises, however, the ultimate promise is that Bud Lite tastes good, and I have to say that promise is very empty. Plus, I'm beginning to feel about Bud Lite ads the same way I felt after I heard "All that she Wants" by Ace of Base on the radio the 407th time in two weeks (circa 1992).


Sales Genie/Panda




K: What were they thinking? First crisis, they wasted their $2.7 billion on a campy and sub par commercial. Second crisis, even for a sub par commercial it reeked of Esurance graphics and horrible plot writing. I was very glad when it was over.

A: Thank you for the Esurance reference. I’ve never been a fan of their advertising either. Getting back to the Sales Genie ad: were the semi-offensive accents necessary? Are cartoons really the way to reach sales executives looking for leads? Who exactly is their target market? I’m still puzzled by it.

Bridgestone Squirrel



K: More than likely with all that screaming going on the driver would have crashed the car into a nearby tree. This spot annoyed me with the screaming.

A: Although I disagree and thought this was one of the better commercials, I have to say at the end I had no idea what product was being advertised. I thought it was a JEEP commercial, who also did a spot with singing animals (including the wolf that eats a bird and spits it back out in the end).

Gatorade/ field growing



K: Boring. Why waste words on this one?

A: Ditto. I was totally unimpressed and still don’t understand why they’re marketing a non-sports drink with sports related imagery.

Fed Ex Pigeons

K: One of my favorites. Ingenious, hilarious, and special effects worthy of the super bowl. I love the use of GPS and night vision on the pigeons as well. I enjoyed the concept and the clever humor.

A: It fit with their corporate identity and also entertained me. They hit the spot with this ad.

E*trade Baby

K: Absolutely love it. Well that's not entirely true. I loved everything before the baby spit up. The use of the webcam covered up the special effect with the baby's mouth film edits. The follow up commercial really hit an accord with me because of the line, "I really underestimated the creepiness [of the clown]."

A: I hated this almost as much as the Sales Genie commercials. Anything that doesn’t involve diapers or baby food shouldn’t use babies, especially ones that talk. I hated the Quizno’s ads with a talking baby. I really liked the E*trade commercial with the whole family gathered around the computer with the man about to buy his first stock online with his family cheering him on. Much closer to the target market, and a much better commercial overall.