Taking Cue from Apple, Nissan Murano Ads Highlight Usability

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While the Murano strikes us as exceptionally dull at first sight, here's a low-key ad that does a nice job of highlighting its merits. (Very Apple.)

The spot broke during the Super Bowl. Understandably, nobody paid it much mind; it's a bit mellow for such a high-tension time of year. But in normal daytime TV context -- between a Pampers ad and maybe a soothing Advil spot -- it would probably work quite nicely.

Hey, guess who made it? The ever-addled folks at TBWA\CHIAT\DAY.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 6-08    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Good, Super Bowl 2008, Television



Because Some of Them Needed a Big Ol' Platter of Common Sense.

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Jaffe Juice pointed us over to this video of a super-talky Miller High Life employee dropping knowledge about this year's Super Bowl ads. Among his observations:

"Unibrow aside, would you wanna date a woman who smelled like nuts? Cashews in particular."

"If you're looking for work, it helps if you're a lizard."

We love how he can never seem to remember the brand name for all those beer ads he mentions.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb- 5-08    
Topic: Good, Opinion, Super Bowl 2008, Video



Super Bowl XLII Most Viewed Game Ever

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While some debate the quality of commercials which appeared during Super Bowl XLII, the game itself was intriguing enough to capture 97.5 million viewers making the game the most viewed Super Bowl of all time according to Nielsen. The next most viewed game was the 1996 Super Bowl which had 94.1 million viewers.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 5-08    
Topic: Research, Super Bowl 2008



Even on AOL, Charlie Brown's Only as Good as Third Place

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AOL just now released its results for the top-ranked ads in its 6th Annual AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll, sponsored by Verizon. Here's the top five:

1. Budweiser Clydesdale/dalmatian ad
2. Bridgestone squirrel spot
3. Coca-Cola's Balloons
4. Life Water's Thriller
5. E-Trade's talking baby spot

"Advertisers bring their 'A' games to the Super Bowl commercials, and Budweiser scored an impressive victory this year as the best of the best," gushed GM Derrick Heggans of AOL Sports. Nothing new there.

Gotta say we're glad the Coke Balloons spot made it into somebody's top five. But what'd we tell you? There's no beating Rocky. Maybe next time, Charlie Brown.



Collective Intellect Tracks Super Bowl Blog Buzz

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Here's some Super Bowl buzz research from Collective Intellect:

- Pepsi generated the most "share of voice" (22 percent) in blog posts during and after the Super Bowl. This includes the Sobe spot that gave us WTF Syndrome.
- eTrade's ads produced the "most positive sentiment" across .com advertisers. (If by "positive sentiment" they are referring to the talking fetuses that haunted us in our sleep.)
- The Ice Breakers spot generated most negative sentiment. Well ... no shit.

Download the report, complete with handy-dandy graphs, and bars that go both up and down.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Super Bowl 2008



Obama Girl Introduces MediaCurves Super Bowl Ad Survey

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Looky, Looky! It's Obama Girl, aka Amber Lee Tettinger...and her curves... introducing the results of this year's MediaCurves Super Bowl commercial study. And we thought all she did was Barely Political Work., Hmm.

This particular study, which surveyed 2,400 Super Bowl viewers (eat that, USA Today!), declared the FedEx Pigeon ad the best commercial of the year. Following FedEx were Budweiser's Clydesdales commercial, Coke's balloon commercial, Diet Pepsi's Head Bob, Bridgestone's Squirrel, E-Trade's baby, Bud Light's Caveman and others.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Research, Super Bowl 2008



Last Night's Super Bowl 'Debacle' A Bit Rosier in the Morning

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Oh how the morning after brings clarity to the prior evening's dalliances. After having obsessively consumed over 40 ads, analyzing them and then writing about them all within a three to four hour period, we sat down this morning with a cup of coffee and did what ad people to the morning after: we watched the game again. Or, to clarify, we fast forwarded through the game and watched the commercials

We laughed. We smiled. We grinned. We even enjoyed that Will Ferrell commercial. And, we bathed in the beauty of Coke's beautiful balloon ballet. In the heat of the battle, people can be harsh and in some cases, we were. But from the perspective of the average viewer not hunched over a computer or in front of a conference room screen, most of the ads weren't so bad.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Opinion, Super Bowl 2008



Budweiser Clydesdale Dalmatian Spot Wins USA Today Ad Meter Poll

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That bastion of scientific accuracy otherwise known as the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter has crowned Budweiser's Clydesdale Dalmatian commercial the highest scoring ad.

We don't disagree but are saddened Coke's It's Mine beautiful balloon ballet didn't take top spot. It did, however, place 7th which is pretty good.

Rounding out the top 10 were FedEx's Pigeons, Bridgestone's Critters, Doritos Rat (an ad from last year, no less), Bud Light's Fire Breather, Bud Light's Wine and Cheese, Diet Pepsi Max's head-bobbing Nod, Planter's uni-brow woman (WTF?), Tide to Go and Sobe Life Water's Naomi Campbell/Dancing Lizards.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Research, Super Bowl 2008



Increasingly Disconnected Bob Garfield Weighs In On Super Bowl

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If you want a seriously retarded re-cap of this year's Super Bowl commercials, be sure to check out Bob Garfield's video in which he thinks one of the Bridgestone commercials was homophobic, an extremely tame Victoria's Secret commercial somehow compels guys to go home and masturbate, the cartoonish heart in that Careerbuilder commercial as well as the "blood curdling scream" in Audi's Godfather spot will "scare the wits" out of children, Diet Pepsi Max is somehow marketed as a drug, McDonald's somehow shouldn't make people aware it's behind the Ronald McDonald House and that it's impossible for two people of opposing political parties to put aside their arguing for a day and relate to each other like human beings.

Seriously, Bob. Life really isn't as bad as you paint it. Didn't you see Coke's beautiful balloon ballet? OK, so this year's Super Bowl wasn't a stellar one ad-wise but it was not the debacle you paint it.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Bad, Strange, Super Bowl 2008



Adrants On-the-Fly Post-Super Bowl Reflections

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Big conclusions:

- The Pats have spoiled what may have been a historic football streak. Can you say performance anxiety? Somebody could have made a killing selling warm crying towels in the locker room after game time.
- No matter how exciting a game is, shouting "GO BARACK" in the AdGabber Super Bowl chat room will result in a half-hour-long political death match.
- "Plaxico Burress" sounds like it belongs on a big pharma's drug pipeline.
- Bud Light failed to impress. Well, this was all right.
- The question of the night: Who thought the SalesGenie ads were racist? We didn't much notice -- but then again, we were also sharking Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts after that racist tee fiasco.
- eTrade spots: Latent trauma or the quiet mark of an Ally McBeal fan?
- Coke dives into the Super Bowl -- traditional Pepsi territory -- and accomplishes two goliathan tasks: mending American politics for :60 over Jinx (have you got a better idea?), and recapturing America with "Balloon". The AdGabber chat room is screaming (or rather, furiously typing) "Charlie Brown! Did you SEE CHARLIE BROWN!" for the next 10 minutes -- a cheer only seconded by "BANANAS!" when, for some reason, the Super Bowl camera guys take a few wistful shots of some browning bananas on the sidelines.

Good game. Last-minute crowning glory for the Giants? Very The Art of War.

"It was the art of bad football," snarled twinzdad6 from the AdGabber chat room.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 3-08    
Topic: Opinion, Super Bowl 2008