Your specific thoughts on 2004 SuperBowl Advertising for my radio segment...

[Kosta]

Apologies for starting a new Superbowl commercials thread - I am after a specific short-term response here so I hope this is ok if I can be indulged for a few hours.

As some of you know I am a Marketing professor at a University in Melbourne, Australia. I also do quite a lot of media work in the area.

While I watched the SuperBowl as always (great game), we do not get the advertisements here in Australia. On a major radio station I do a short weekly radio segment focussing on marketing - and this Tuesday morning (my local time) on the show I would like to discuss the Superbowl advertising process. I know the background, costs, structure, who advertised, etc, but what I would like to know from the American's on this board is what ads they actually liked (or thought were effective) and why? And also any other trends you noticed...

Please post or PM me. I need responses before Monday 6PM Eastern USA time to meet my deadline.

Thanks very much in advance
Kosta

PS - if you want to listen to the radio segment.. www.3aw.com.au is the address and I am on some time after 7.15PM ET in the USA on a Monday night

[Tasan]

Low brow humor was the theme for the day it seemed. None of the odd, thoughtful commercials of the past really. Donkey farts and beastiality.

The two I liked were the NFL Network's and the Mastercard/Simpsons one. NFL Networks had Jerry Jones and Bill Parcels singing, along with several other NFL starts that didn't make the Super Bowl. The Mastercard spot was just the same yada yada Priceless stuff, but with Simpsons characters and a little "twist" if you will at the end.

[Kosta]

Thanks Tasan. We get the "priceless" campaign here so that will resonate well. Interesting that both Visa and MasterCard advertise as did all three "erectile-dysfunction" drugs. Seems like companies don't want to leave the field open for rivals.

[Suicane75]

Low brow is how I would describe it as well. It seems to me like the commercials more and more try to be a 1 line joke instead of a quality, funny concept. If that makes any sense.

[Suicane75]

Oh, the AOL High Speed were the only ones I really chuckled at, and I despise AOL.

[gstelmack]

Well, here in America with the MTV generation taking over advertising and everything else, low-brow and 1-liners is what you get. It's getting to the point that even if I'm willing to let my daughter watch the TV show, I'm nervous about all the ads that come on in between. Even at the movies you can get horror previes before family movies. Come on!

As for the Super Bowl, there were some memorable ads. The Budweiser / Donkey one was pretty well thought out (Donkey always dreams of being a Clydesdale, and they show it practicing pulling an old farm cart with a 6-bottle pack in it, getting long hair implants around the feet, etc, then going for its interview). I also enjoyed the NFL Network "Tomorrow" ad, singing the song from Annie with a whole bunch of players/coaches that didn't make the Super Bowl with the tag line something along the lines of "Tomorrow we're all undefeated". Mastercard's "priceless" commercial with the Simpsons was pretty good (Homer buying lots of stuff, then getting the "Going home to spend time with the family: priceless" line a bunch of times while he's at Moe's). And the Pepsi bears was great (bears disguised as mountain men go to convenience store for Pepsi, write a check, and show a Driver's License with a picture of a beared mountain man for ID).

But there were not nearly as many laugh-out-loud productions like we had during the heydey of the Internet boom. No "running with the squirrels" competitors...

There's usually a web site that grabs all these and has them for viewing, I'm sure someone here will remember the URL. You should check them out if they get it up in time.

[WussGawd]

Actually, overall, I thought this might have been the worst batch of commercials I've seen at a Super Bowl in a long time.

I liked the Mastercard/Simpsons one. Thought it was a great spin on their long-running campaign.

Budweiser's spot with the donkey who wanted to become a Budweiser Clydesdale really struck me funny.

To me the best of the day might have been the NFL Network commercial with Jerry Jones & Bill Parcells leading a bunch of NFL stars in "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie.

On the other hand, I think I could probably lead a richer, more fulfilled life if I *never* saw another pharmaceutical ad, and would be positively ecstatic if the words "erectile disfunction" were never uttered again outside of cable television or PBS.

[Ksyrup]

I thought the anti-smoking ad (with the "shards o' glass" pops) was the best ad.

The NFL Networks commercial with Jerry and Parcells had me thinking one thing - is this the point when Warren Sapp officially turns into Biz Markie? He's always looked a little like him, now we know he sings like him, as well.

[Draft Dodger]

link to most (all?) commercials, for reference.

http://ifilm.com/?sctn=collections&pg=superbowl2004

oddly, the one I really liked was the Subway one (not during the game, but during the post-game show). I HATE the "It's ok, I had Subway" commercials as much as I hate any commercial where a man is raised by wolves. But this one was actually well done, and, maybe it will signify an end to that lousy campaign. the AOL ones were pretty well done, and I liked the FedEx one (not as much as the "DOOMED" one though). The glass pops one was good too - but I tend to like those anyways.

my wife and I both took issue with the stereotype thrown out in the "Yelling Like a Ref Commercial" (where a ref learns how to ignore coaches screaming at him by ignoring his wife screaming at him).

the Budweiser Horse Fart one was completely stupid (and unoriginal - do they think we haven't seen Seinfeld?).

also didn't like the H&R Willie Nelson doll commercial. I'm sure he had to ok that, but it's still kind of painful to see them make fun of a man who absolutely got fleeced by fucking up his taxes.

and a special note to Mitsubishi - because I actually have a life, I have no desire to go to your website to view the end of a commercial. Thanks.

[Fonzie]

The "truth" shards o'glass commercial struck me as the best overall - a clever parody of the tobacco industry's display of conscience.

I also liked the Simpsons/Mastercard commercial for the same reasons posted above.

The FedEx/alien commercial was well done.

My wife and I also took issue with the "yelling like a ref" commercial." Totally unnecessary.

I hated the Mike Ditka Levitra commercial in which they use the "baseball is to football as limp weiners are to hard weiners" analogy. They seemed to assume that it'd be OK to slam baseball during a football game, failing to recognize that a fair number of people who watch the Super Bowl are in fact also baseball fans. By doing so they probably alienated (or at least annoyed) a good chunk of their market.

Which doesn't include me.

Really.

[Fido]

There's usually a web site that grabs all these and has them for viewing, I'm sure someone here will remember the URL. You should check them out if they get it up in time.http://www.ifilm.com/?sctn=collections&pg=superbowl2004

Sould be work safe.

[Draft Dodger]

http://www.ifilm.com/?sctn=collections&pg=superbowl2004

Sould be work safe.

I wish I'd thought of that!

:)

[cthomer5000]

I thought the Bud Light "beastiality" commerical was pretty f'in stupid. How they decided to make that spot is beyond me.

I absolutely hated the AOL commericals.

I thought the NFL network commerical might have been the best of the bunch (and the 5 females I was with all agreed).

As usual, the "Truth" anti-smoking spots were well thought-out and executed.

[Fido]

The "truth" shards o'glass commercial struck me as the best overall - a clever parody of the tobacco industry's display of conscience.
To me the best part of this is that they direct you to shardsoglass.com and that site does exist very nice touch IMHO.

Personally I got the biggest kick out of one of the ED drug adds. Not intended to be funny, but the legalese at the end contained something along the lines of "erections lasting longer than 4 hours, while not uncommon should receive immediate medical attention"

[Draft Dodger]

To me the best part of this is that they direct you to shardsoglass.com and that site does exist very nice touch IMHO.

Personally I got the biggest kick out of one of the ED drug adds. Not intended to be funny, but the legalese at the end contained something along the lines of "erections lasting longer than 4 hours, while not uncommon should receive immediate medical attention"

sure, you think it's funny, but I wasn't laughing when my wife immediately interrupted the game to drag me to the ER...

[Abe Sargent]

I can't imagine why the Staples commercial with the pastries and the Supply Master who hands out supplies for money and runs the company like a Don didn't get more attention. I thought it was brillant. Other than that, it was the "Tomorrow" NFL Network as the only other good commercial.


-Anxiety

[MikeVic]

The Simpsons one didn't make me laugh, or express any other kind of emotions... so I wouldn't consider it good. I also had no idea what the "monkey on the back" car commercial was all about.. with all the monkeys at the end.

The Shards O' Glass was good. As was the grizzly bears. I laughed at that one. The end of the horse fart was funny, I thought... where some other guy says: "Cool! A rocket-powered sled!" It made me laugh for some reason. :D I liked the end of the Willie Nelson one also. Where they show Don Zimmer asking the doll whether he should "charge this guy," or something similar to that.. we all know how that ended up. :D

NFL Networks and Donkey one were also funny. There wasn't really anything as memorable as Terry Tate or the Zebra ref, though.

[MikeVic]

To me the best part of this is that they direct you to shardsoglass.com and that site does exist very nice touch IMHO.


I checked the site right after the commercial ended, and was surprised that it existed. :D

[MikeVic]

I can't imagine why the Staples commercial with the pastries and the Supply Master who hands out supplies for money and runs the company like a Don didn't get more attention. I thought it was brillant. Other than that, it was the "Tomorrow" NFL Network as the only other good commercial.


-Anxiety


Forgot about that one too... it was pretty good.

[clintl]

My overall impression is that unlike the last few years, when I thought the advertising agencies were trying too hard and not succeeding, this year I thought they stopped trying. There were a few entertaining ads, but for the most part, it was an astonishingly uninspired display.

[Celeval]

My take on the top 5 and bottom 5:

(Top)
1. "Tomorrow" - NFL
2. "Busted Music Downloaders" - Pepsi
3. "Wrong Lipstick" - Budweiser
4. "Soap in your Mouth" - Chevrolet
5. "Yelling like a Ref" - Budweiser

HM: The Staples one with the supply guy. Liked it.

(Bottom)
5. "Bear in the Game" - Charmin : Eh.
4. "Alien Shipping" - Fedex : Funny if there were 4-5 commercials. 1, eh.
3. Any - AOL 9.0 : Maybe it's because I haven't seen the show.
2. "Mike Ditka" - Levitra : Sorry, you don't down-talk baseball.
1. "SeeWhatHappens.com" - Mitsubishi

[Kosta]

link to most (all?) commercials, for reference.

http://ifilm.com/?sctn=collections&pg=superbowl2004



Thanks for the link.

Is there any way that you can download and save those ads from this site or can you only play them?