Top 5 Super Bowl XLV Ads
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
The biggest night in advertising is finally over. With over an estimated 100 million viewers, who according to a recent Nielsen poll mostly watch the game to see the ads, it is no wonder why companies fork out millions of dollars for thirty seconds of airtime and choose to premiere their best ads. There were some surprising developments this year; Pepsi chose not to run an ad this year and focus on other campaigns and after a short hiatus auto manufacturers are back. It was no surprise that Budweiser had a lineup of very funny inspired ads but there were a few other companies that seemingly came out of nowhere with great, memorable ads. To celebrate all the great work that was done to make some very clever and memorable commercials I have put together a top five list of my favorite Super Bowl XLV commercials. (Although Budweiser consistently produces brilliant ads I opted to leave them out of the list because I wanted variety.)
5. Hyundai’s “10 Years Strong Featuring Brett Favre”
Hyundai’s ad featured Brett Favre laughing off the fact that he will probably never retire. The ad, set in the year 2020, shows a locker room press conference where an elderly Favre is receiving an MVP award and mentioning that he will probably retire. I particularly enjoyed this ad because it is clever, effectively speaks about Hyundai’s warranty, and proves that absolutely nobody takes Favre seriously when he claims he is going to retire…not even himself.
4. Homeaway.com’s “The Griswolds”
In this ad/short film from Homeaway.com, a vacation house rental company, Chevy Chase reprises his role as the iconic road tripper Clark W. Griswold from the Vacation movies in this spot from Homeaway.com criticizing the poor service and high costs of staying at hotels. They aired a thirty second spot during the game that served as a trailer urging people to visit their site to view the whole 15 minute short film. I really enjoyed both the ad and the sponsored short film. I’ve been a fan of the Vacation movies as long as I can remember and I was very happy to see an ad give nods to the movies and effectively portray the iconic characters. They managed to deliver their brand message without alienating the viewer and making it all about the brand.
3. Snickers Candy Bars’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry”
This ad aired in the first quarter and was the first impressive ad I saw while watching the game. This short spot featured Betty White and Abe Vigoda getting tackled while playing a game of backyard football. Although a Snickers bar probably isn’t the best thing to eat for energy while playing a high impact sport they were able to deliver their message quickly and humorously. The only thing more shocking than seeing the elderly get tackled in the mud was the realization that Abe Vigoda is still alive.
2. Cars.com’s “Timothy Richman”
This cars.com commercial narrated key moments and accomplishments of the fictional genius Timothy Richman. His exploits include extinguishing a house fire as a baby, successfully delivering the birth of a baby Bengal tiger, and saving the lives of an entire cheerleading squad with his knowledge of tornadoes. The ad ends with Richman’s lone obstacle in life; buying a car, which was naturally made easy with the help of cars.com. I really enjoyed the narration and storytelling in this clever ad and the dialogue seemed to be directly taken out of the script of Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tennenbaums”, one of my favorite movies.
1. Google’s “Parisian Love”
Google’s 50-second spot creatively told the story of a guy trying to get laid but eventually falling in love in Paris. I considered this ad to be the best for many reasons; first it was very effective storytelling that was conveyed only using screen shots of someone using Google. Instead of telling a story about Google they managed to tell someone else’s story using Google making it a memorable, relatable experience centered around their brand. Also, it was a very simple and straightforward ad but also managed to be humorous, sentimental, and genuine all at the same time, by carefully choosing content they were able to grasp a wide range of emotion and surprise the viewer in a short amount of time. Lastly, it had to be incredibly inexpensive to produce. Brilliant storytelling, effective message, and inexpensive production made this my top ad of the Super Bowl this year.
If you disagree or think an ad was missing let us know in the comments section below.
