THE BEST
The hands down best superbowl ad was the Audi vampire spot (click here). I had seen an advertisement in print form for the new Audi A7, touting its new headlights as being the closest thing to simulated daylight ever, and thought that was interesting enough. But to then marry that idea with the curent runaway popularity of, and fascination with, vampires was absolutely brilliant – with the idea that the driver unknowingly is about to kill all of his friends at the party because vampires can’t survive daylight. . . Love it. Not only great rethinking on the headlights, but to hang it on the coattails of something so edgy as vampires, with just the right tone, really well done.
Then Honda really hit a home run with its CR-V ad (here). Knowing that it needs to target the baby boomer generation with ads, getting Matthew Broderick to reprise his role in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off was probably not a bad idea for anyone, but to align it with its current marketing emphasis on spending time away, this really hit the nail on the head for them. So while Audi reached into the what’s hot today, Honda reached back to what was hot when baby boomers were kids to get something to resonate with them.
Downy Unstoppables, here, did something a bit lot Honda in going back to the past, getting Mean Joe Green to to a repeat of his Coke commercial from the ’70s (here) and it’s funny enough, especially if you are a fan of Amy Sedaris, but it seems to be off the mark in terms of target. I don’t think people watching the superbowl want to hear about laundry.
Acura (full length and very funny version here) missed the mark in a similar way with it’s spot with Jerry Seinfeld. While it’s true Seinfeld and Leno are famous for their love of cars, I just don’t buy that they would care about an Acura. I can’t get there. I thought Hyundai made the same mistake (here) with its cheetah spot – very clever, funny, and memorable, but I still think a Prius is faster zero to 60. I’m just sayin.
OK those are the best ads, even if a bit off target.
THE WORST
The worst one was the Chevy end of the world ad (here). I was with them through the entire thing, and even thought the Twinkies were a funny ending, but to suggest that their buddy didn’t survive the apocolypse because he was in a Ford broke one of the basic rules of the game. You never name your competition in a negative way, and suggesting that your competition is why one of your buddies is dead? Ugh.
GoDaddy was also pretty bad.
Overall winner – Audi. No question.
-Ric
Leave a Reply