Super-bowl post-game commercial thead

[Bob Cole]

Hi Mark,

Didn’t see all of them, but agreed about the Bud Lite fever dream spot. I disagreed about the Chevy Silverado spot – found the bull date kinda gross. I loved Cheerios with Gracie, and thought Armisen in the Willis spot should get the Chaplin Award for best silent acting.

Did you observe a tendency toward ultra-macho spots at the Super Bowl? But they make the more nuanced spots stand out.

Overall, the score was Commercials 54, Game 7.

Bob C

[Jeff Breuer]

I would like to point out that the award winning Doritos spot “Time Machine” was made here in Phoenix for $200. Great to see local talent hit a big spot like that.

Overall I was a bit underwhelmed in this year’s spots. I noticed a lot of flag waving. Appealing to patriotism and charities, which sometimes rubs me wrong. I love corporations supporting that stuff but sometimes it just feels like they want to buy some sympathy for their million dollar spots. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the pessimist in me.

jeff

[Mark Suszko]

Not so much a macho thread this year, IMO. Some isolationist rubes completely misunderstood the Coke spot where they showed our “melting pot” America by having the Star Spangled Banner being sung in many different languages, and they are apparently up in arm in the chat rooms today. I don;t know that there were any other spots that generated a huge buzz this year, positive or negative.

[Mike Cohen]

Commercials that I have retained 12 hours later, without the internet to help:

Radio Shack 80’s clearance sale. I am somewhat shocked that Radio Shack has managed to stay in business after all this time. It seems kind of like JC Penney in that it is trying to stay relevant. It used to be you went to Radio Shack for a free battery (Grandpa made sure each family member had a free battery card), cheap electronics (Realistic), cordless phone batteries, disco balls and parts for science fair projects. Since the late 90’s, no matter what you went in for, they tried to sell you a cell phone and were generally unable to identify anything else you were looking for. It will be interesting to see if a facelift can save this chain.

The Muppets – I think they were advertising an SUV, though obviously they have a movie coming out. Do the Muppets pay Chevy, or does Chevy pay the Muppets?

Note, the Muppets also helped with the Puppy Bowl.

Bob Dylan – weird – don’t think he has spoken this much in years.

Transformers 4 teaser – looks about as bad as the previous one.

ok I need to look at the internet…

[George Goodman]

First off, I think you’re right about Hyundai. They totally hit the mark with the protective dads. It felt authentic, it related to the product better than any other ad, and it was speaking directly to their target. This one is a grand slam in my opinion. I’m not even a dad and I still loved it. They totally went the opposite of huggies making dads seem incompetent, so I love that too.

Also, the bull date was the first commercial to get a laugh from me. So points there. Can we also talk about how Chevy does a great job keeping the look of their commercials consistent? From the first image of every single one, I knew it was them.

I, like Jeff, am kind of rubbed the wrong way by advertisers grabbing on to things like patriotism and disease. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I understand now, after doing some reading, Chevy is raising some money for cancer, but I was pretty infuriated after watching the commercial because that’s not what I got from it. I basically just heard/saw “celebrate breast cancer survivors with us.” It felt like a robot trying to manipulate peoples emotions.

Bud light was just off the mark. They made some what aesthetically pleasing commercials – but so what? It’s still a watered down beer that people either buy or don’t. I don’t think they done anything short of some branding. Probably not worth that price tag in my opinion. Also, I thought their attempt at humor was pretty weak, but I did like Arnold saying, “tiny tennis.”

Ya, a little underwhelmed overall as well.

Let’s not forget the Puppy Bowl though. Subaru was awesome with their dog tested dog approved campaign. Here’s one of the many awesome ones!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Sc0h97kLY

Also, here’s a link to a bunch of the Super Bowl commercials:

https://www.nj.com/super-bowl/index.ssf/2014/02/super_bowl_2014_watch_all_the_ads.html

“|_ (°_0) _|”

Sincerely,

George

[Mark Suszko]

It’s my opinion that the advertisers did too many pre-game reveals of the spots, which took away much of the mystery and anticipation once the spots appeared in the game. The mystique of appearing just in the game is part of the expensive draw.

[Jeremy Doyle]

[Mark Suszko] “It’s my opinion that the advertisers did too many pre-game reveals of the spots, which took away much of the mystery and anticipation once the spots appeared in the game”

Agreed. My favorite were the T-Mobile ads featuring Tebow in their no contract push. I saw them days before the big game, but I still laughed when they came on.

Jeremy Doyle
https://www.jeremydoyle.com

[Jeff Breuer]

[Mark Suszko] “It’s my opinion that the advertisers did too many pre-game reveals of the spots, which took away much of the mystery and anticipation once the spots appeared in the game.”

I liken it to opening Christmas presents before the big day. When I was a kid wouldn’t peek even if I had the chance because I loved the thrill of the big day. The anticipation is all part of it, like you said Mark.

[Rich Rubasch]

I can’t stand it when someone says a spot was done for $200. Let’s exaggerate shall we? Most of them were shot on Red. Did the actor’s not get paid? Crew? Did anyone get lunch? Location fee? Not to mention post and color grading and then final mastering. Audio work?

Please.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com

[Mark Suszko]

I once won a local award for a spot where the only cost was a (recycled, 4-pass) $20 betacam tape… but yeah, we didn’t figure the cost of the studio, my crew, or my producing, writing, and editing time into it… mainly because in those days, we were totally on a “revolving fund” system, where clients only paid for expendables, and the studio infrastructure and staff were all “free”, subsidized by the state so that any state agency that needed video done, could have it done, without the costs of private-sector production inhibiting it. And we had business wall-to-wall on that system. We don’t exactly have that anymore; we DO have a rate card, but some things are still “on the house/all you can eat”, others ARE on the rate card, but the rates are waaaay less than the actual “street price”. We were never created to be a profit center or revenue generator, but to provide a service. Still, I do like to brag that my good friend in another agency spent a grand on a spot and entered the same competition where I won with the “20-dollar spot”. His revenge is that I still use his as on-air program filler sometimes, but mine was more ephemeral, and is gone to the ages.