Jackassalope

Super Bowl Ads

I was definitely let down by the Super Bowl ads this year. I don't expect the best advertising of the year. I don't even expect to be rolling in laughter in 30-second intervals. But I do expect that for the amount of money being shelled out for each spot, they should at least write a script that makes sense and has a payoff.

Take the SOBE dancing lizard/football player train wreck. Can someone please tell me what the hell that was about. The ad made no sense, it wasn't funny, and there was no payoff in the end. And to think they paid millions of dollars for that spot.

The Doritos ads were funny, but inconsistent. The crystal ball Doritos ad started out great, but the second half where the dude hits his boss in the balls, and then that weird guys screams in his face just got creepy. Their other ad where the dude bites a chip to make magical things happen had no payoff what-so-ever. He gets hit by a bus. Really? That's all you got. At least give me a rhyme or reason for the magical chips.

The majority just seemed like they were half baked and half-assed. Miller's 1-second ad had the strongest storyline of the bunch, and it was only 1-second long - the story line being that they didn't want to shell out the cash and get lost in the shuffle, which has created great buzz for pennies on the dollar.

Maybe advertisers are putting too much pressure on themselves, or maybe they are relying too heavily on consumer contests for their ideas. Great ideas can come from random places, but if you're going to have an average Joe write your ad, you should at least give it a once-over for clarity.