Doritos "Sling Baby"
For the past couple of years the Super Bowl commercials have scored high in my book. They have been funny, clever, and memorable and have also had a good strategy behind them. This year was different. I’m not going to give the commercials a high score. Food and beverage (F&B) is usually where the commercials shine the most, but this year there were only 6 F&B companies who spent millions for multiple :30 or :60 ads, compared to 12 different auto companies.
In my opinion, Dannon and Budweiser had the best commercials, but they weren’t my favorite.
Budweiser’s “Eternal Optimism” spot was well directed and had a nice, positive message, for which I would give it a field goal. I liked the fact that it focused on multiple events in American history, instead of the narrow focus of Budweiser’s other spot, “Return of the King”, which focused solely on the end of Prohibition. Dannon’s spot, “The Tease”, was one of the best because they capitalized on the fast-growing trend of greek yogurt and made the spot funny, instead of going in their traditional, lifestyle-focused direction. Dannon scored a touchdown for jumping on an opportunity and taking a risk with a new, more humorous direction.
My favorite F&B commercial was Doritos’ “Sling Baby”. It was funny, cute and clever but didn’t go overboard on any of those aspects. “Sling Baby” gets a touchdown with a two-point conversion from me. I also really enjoyed their other spot, “Man’s Best Friend”, which was submitted to a contest by a Doritos fan.
Surprisingly, Coca-Cola’s polar bear spots didn’t live up to their hype. I was excited to see what they would do with the bear watching the game “live”. Unfortunately the ads weren’t very memorable or funny and I think Coca-Cola should have differentiated the teams by more than just color, since both teams are red and blue. I found myself thinking more about which bear went with which team rather then what was happening. For the confusion and the let down from such a strong player like Coca-Cola, they get a quarterback sack.
Pepsi didn’t have a very good showing either. With a funny, but unoriginal poke at Coke Zero with “Checkout” they wasted their money on something we’ve already seen. Their other spot, “King’s Court” was more a chance for Elton John to wear some crazy clothes than anything else. Pepsi gets a 5-yard penalty for being lazy.
Anheuser-Busch’s other brand, Bud Light, was featured along with their new “Platinum” product line, which is supposed to be their new classy beer. However, a yellow flag will be thrown because the ads were straightforward and boring when they could have easily had more pizzazz and style, which would have still fit the new product. We will have to see if this strategy pays off for them.
Even though the commercials may have been full of penalties, the game itself turned out to be an exciting Hail Mary touchdown of a game that will certainly be remembered long after this year’s commercials are forgotten.
What were your favorites?! We want to hear your thoughts!
