Super Bowl Ad Review: The Good, The Bad and The Awkward

The day after the Super Bowl: a day full of clean up, hangovers and buzz about the ads. This year had some crowd pleasers, heart warmers, snoozers and a complete gross out. Below is a recap of the hits, the misses and the absolute horrors.

 

The Good  

Taco Bell “Viva Young” 

Taco Bell gives a great story line with this ad featuring a group of seniors ditching their retirement home for a wild night. They relive their younger days to the tweaked lyrics of “We Are Young” and end the crazy night the traditional way: with some good old Taco Bell.

 

M & M “I Would Do Anything For Love”

Rocking a recognizable and popular 90′s hit, this ad featured a good choice for a cameo (Naya Riveria from Glee) and continued the epic saga of the red M & M fending off women trying to eat him. We sympathize with poor Red but still laugh as he fends off getting shoved in an oven, placed on a cake and licked from behind.

 

Calvin Klein “Concept” 

Women everywhere stopped in their tracks when this ad came on. The men have the football game, so the women needed something….. and that something is male model Matthew Terry in his little Calvin Klein undies.

 

Hyundai “Stuck” 

Hyundai hit the perfect mix of clever, funny and relatable with ad. Most drivers know how it feels to get stuck behind an unwanted vehicle, and Hyundai created a clever and funny ad that related back to their product. The satisfaction of passing that overloaded truck or awkward motorcycle is something we can all relate to.

 

Budweiser ”The Clydesdale Brotherhood” 

No Super Bowl would be complete without a Budweiser Clydesdale ad. This one really tugged on our emotions by creating a bond from birth to adulthood with the horse and owner. Budweiser was smart by utilizing this ad in their social media by allowing fans to name the baby Clydesdale. What’s your choice?

 

The Bad 

Coke “Coke Chase” 

What do Arabians, show girls on a tour bus, cowboys and a motorcycle gang all have in common? They’re in a dessert on an epic chase to see who can get to the Coke first! Probably not your first or even 100th guess. Coke threw us all for a loop with this nonsense story line of an ad.  Who really cared who won the Coke race? This ad definitely fell short of what Coke could produce for a Super Bowl ad.

 

Pepsi NEXT “Pepsi Party” 

Pepsi NEXT decided to go with an overdone concept with their “Pepsi Party” ad. The ‘throwing a party and not getting busted because the product is so amazing’ scheme is so overused we all knew what was going to happen in the ad from the first few seconds. The events at the party were lackluster and the ad really wasn’t that funny or creative. Try harder Pepsi NEXT.

 

Volkswagen ”Get In. Get Happy”

Of course a German car gives you complete happiness and a Jamaican accent. Umm, excuse me? The Volkswagen ad featuring a very easy going, Jamaican accented man on a bad Monday in a cubicle was just too out of left field to leave a good impression. Pretty sure nobody could even figure out what the ad was about until midway through; which by then it was way too late. And the slogan “Get In. Get Happy” just doesn’t quite work…. at all.

 

The Awkward 

Go Daddy “The Perfect Match” 

Who knew one kiss could freak us out so much. The beauty and the geek ploy is not something new, but this ad took it to the absolute extreme. We all knew within the first 2-3 seconds what was about to happen, and we could do nothing to stop it. Viewers around the world were grossed out by one of the noisiest, weirdest, wettest kisses in ad history. Not only was the context strange, the kiss itself was just incredibly awkward and gross.

 

Samsung “Next Big Thing” 

This ad is the perfect example of how a good idea can go so terribly wrong. Cameos are good, but using an overwhelming amount (Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd AND Lebron James) can bring the ad from interesting to overdone. Puns can also be good, but this ad literally goes from pun to pun and begins to get cheesy. Plus, this ad goes on, and on, and on…. viewers begin to wonder when is it going to end? Never a good thing.

 

Doritos “Goat 4 Sale”

This ad was funny, but it left many viewers slightly confused. There’s a goat, and Doritos, and a man…. and then we’re just not sure what is really going on. Once you see it a few more times it begins to click, but this one is just not half as clever as their 2012 ad with the dog bribing the owner or the snow globe in the snack machine.

 

 Question: What was your favorite?