The SuperBowl is one of the most watched television events
in America. This makes the day not only incredibly important for the athletes
participating, but also for the businesses placing advertisements throughout
the game. A 30 second commercial during the game will cost companies around $4
million. For this much money just to place the ads, they want to be memorable
and really achieve the goal of reaching the audience. For many watching the big
game is made worthwhile because of the usually creative and fun advertisements,
especially when their team isn’t participating (Go Steelers!).
After watching this years rather dull, unexciting game, I
realized that not only was the game quite boring, but so were many of the
commercials. They were not as fun and captivating as usual, and just a few
hours after the game has ended many of them are already forgotten.
Best Commercials
Even with the overall forgettable commercials, there were
some that stood out. The best had to belong to Budweiser. Every year Budweiser
captivates viewers with their coveted use of the Clydesdale horses in
heartwarming fashion. This year was no different as they continued to pull at
the heartstrings by involving the most adorable puppy that they tagged to be
“best buds” with the horses. There are now such high expectations for the
Clydesdale commercial that there is pressure to live up to previous years, and
Budweiser definitely did that this year once again. Even though Budweiser is
not blatantly advertised throughout the commercial it works because over the
years they have built up an association between the company and the
Clydesdales, and people grow to expect it.
Budweiser won once again with their “Hero’s Welcome”
commercial. With another heartwarming, tearjerker of a commercial, they caught
the attention of millions of people. They recorded the homecoming of a solider
and provided him with a true hero’s welcome hosting a parade entirely in his
honor. This commercial came at the perfect time since the Super Bowl is the
ultimate TV event and just weeks from the start of the Winter Olympics;
Americans have an ultimate level of national pride. Budweiser exemplified being
proud of the country and supportive of those that work to protect it. Overall I
would say that Budweiser once again nailed the Super Bowl advertisements.
Worst Commercials
Although there were a few good commercials, the event was
largely overtaken by disappointing commercials. It was difficult to pick any one commercial to be declared as the 'worst'. Of these commercials, Honda and Geico were some of the worst of the night.
Honda started off as a seemingly serious commercial, with Bruce Willis talking directly to viewers about the need for driving safely. He tells them to hug their loved ones, which alone does not make this commercial all that bad. In fact, this would not have been one of the worst commercials if the company had left it at that. The factor that put them in the worst category stems from attempting to then add humor to the commercial through having comedian Fred Armisen clinging to Willis throughout the advertisement.
Additionally Geico reached for worst commercial of the night. The insurance company used their latest talking animal spokesperson, the pig, opting away from their traditional gecko. The only reason this commercial was remembered is because of how tiring and used up the Geico pig commercials are. The attempt to make this commercial humorous did not turn out in Geico's favor and instead caused viewers to immediately turn it down upon seeing the talking pig.
Best Use of Humor
T-Mobile commercials had the best use of humor for the situation. Two of their commercials followed professional football player, Tim Tebow, poking fun at himself while talking about the advantage of being contract free. Anyone who pays attention to football, and even many of those who don't recognize Tebow as the quarterback who made a big impact a few years ago and cause the 'Tebowing' trend to go viral. Tebow is now without an NFL contract and throughout the two commercials talked about all the advantages of being contract free, with the ability to be a rock star, solve world peace, ride a bull, and deliver a baby. It worked well to show Tebow's since of humor about not having a contract and to poke fun at himself.
Ethically Questionable
This year I did not find many commercials that were very ethically questionable. The closest one that was somewhat questionable was the Butterfinger commercial. This commercial showed a couple at peanut butter and chocolate going through marriage counseling. They used the solution of bringing in a third party (butterfinger) to make things better. This attempt at humor really did not come across very successfully.
Environmental/Sustainability Related
There essentially were no commercials for any environmental/sustainable products or encouraging this kind of behavior directly. The closest would be for Alex and Ani. This commercial encouraged America to get back to the many closing Main Streets and restart them. It goes around the basis that Main Street is part of us and America. The reason this is environmentally related is because Alex and Ani products are all eco-friendly.
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