Superbowl Commercials & Show

Lionel Ritchie Ameritrade was cute. Danny DeVito as the red M&M  human incarnation was pretty brilliant (uncanny resemblance).

I liked the Mass Mutual before kick-off - other than that - eh... nothing that good - agree that Lional was cute and DeVito M&M was as well - but I'm waiting for the wow.

Now you are thinking about Tide for every commercial. Pretty smart marketing

hah - Old Spice jingle - Tide bottle in hand.

cure auto insurance. Guess that's only playing in the NY/NJ market? Pretty obnoxious but funny.

I like The Voice commercial - but then, I like the Voice

it was cute. Winner is creator of Tide commercials. Every one that comes on, you are wondering if it's Tide. Brilliant

Justin was good, actually more like "fine". But Loved, loved, loved the purple lights and symbol in the city. Beautiful tribute to Prince. 

Yes, Tide seems to be the winner tonight.  Justin was ok - think something was off with his mike - but yes - purple lights & tribute were lovely.

Tide 

"All Apologies" in the T-mobile ad with the babies?

WTF?

dumb T-mobile ad.

Eli and Odell- funny.

Was that NFL Dirty Dancing commercial kind of a self-sendup? Was it a wink? I liked it.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/Ad-Meter/2018/02/04/eli-manning-odell-beckham-jr-dirty-dancing-nfl-ad-super-bowl/305341002/

Eli and Odell win over Tide in my house - very funny.

F the overhyped commercials, how about the game?

Underdog team led by backup QB, eking out desperation 3d and 4th down conversions throughout game including amazing trick pass play to said QB  (sort of mocking identical but failed trick play by adversary)  beats hated but greatest team of all time, led by ancient 40 yer old QB still playing at elite level WHO ALMOST PULLED IT OUT, in offensive outburst for the ages.

it was a great game. Thread was about the commercials though. Feel free to start one in sports about the game.

It was definitely funnier but I can’t get past the brilliance of the Tide campaign

soorlady said:

Eli and Odell win over Tide in my house - very funny.

I will take the counter position on the Tide ad. They were not set up with enough subtlety. So it wasn't like what the subsequent ads were was hidden. As a result it was just annoying. 

On the other end of the spectrum -

Dr. King's "Drum Major Instinct" sermon used to sell pick-up trucks?

I can imagine a SNL sketch where some dim-witted ad agency person proposes that in a meeting.  I can't for the life of me comprehend why the decision was made at the very top to spend millions of dollars to tell the world you're the type of company that would do that.

Agree. Maybe it could have been done more subtly, not showing a product and perhaps coming from the entire company instead of one brand. But that still would have been odd. 

When I see things like this, and I think about the person who came up with the idea, I don't know if my reaction should be "what idiot thought this was a good idea?" or "wow, that is one persuasive person."

nohero said:

On the other end of the spectrum -

Dr. King's "Drum Major Instinct" sermon used to sell pick-up trucks?

I can imagine a SNL sketch where some dim-witted ad agency person proposes that in a meeting.  I can't for the life of me comprehend why the decision was made at the very top to spend millions of dollars to tell the world you're the type of company that would do that.

nohero said:

On the other end of the spectrum -

Dr. King's "Drum Major Instinct" sermon used to sell pick-up trucks?

I can imagine a SNL sketch where some dim-witted ad agency person proposes that in a meeting.  I can't for the life of me comprehend why the decision was made at the very top to spend millions of dollars to tell the world you're the type of company that would do that.

Agreed. That spot was beyond tasteless. Someone should be fired for that awful ad.

apparently the right wingers on Twitter were deeply disturbed by the diversity/equality message of the T-mobile ad. I complained about the use of Nirvana music and realized I was responding to right wing loon Dana Loesch. So I quickly added that unlike her I was cool with the overall message. 

Also they were bent out of shape that the NFL rejected the Amvets ad asking people to stand for the national anthem. The NFL suggested "please stand for veterans" but Amvets refused. Another phony outrage. Amvets had to know the league wouldn't accept an ad that was implicitly criticizing itself. 

drummerboy says:  "On the other end of the spectrum - Dr. King's "Drum Major Instinct" sermon used to sell pick-up trucks?"

Well, OK, but...  Call me ignorant, but I had not heard, or did not remember hearing, that speech before, and I was blown away by it.  At least the ad showed people using the product in ways that would fit in with the speech.  Anything to get those words out there.

agreed. Raising Awareness to the words in that speech was great even though the commercial itself was just meh. I didn’t find it bad just not great.

You have to laugh when you see such brilliance next to such stupidity though. The ad with the sheet ghost for TurboTax or some other tax planning? It was like a toddlers work up against a master. Some were just so stupid.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of TurboTax but I didn't like their commercials.

Ads not as amusing as they used to be.  Saw a lot of babies and dinosaurs, so you can guess the target audience.

I missed the Clydesdales!

In a word the ads were underwhelming. A few smirk-worthy entries but nowhere near the creative (or shock) level of prior years...

Google Pixel commercial with the guy prepping for a job interview, reflecting on his daughter growing up, dropping her off at college...the college moment was filmed at Seton Hall.

That's all I wanted to say.

I missed the game. Who won?