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Features Editor Opinion Piece
At $3.5 million for a thirty second spot, one would think that the various advertisers of Super Bowl XLVI would put more effort into the biggest marketing opportunity of the year. While the game lived up to all of the hype and more, the commercials did not meet the same level of expectation.
An estimated 111.3 million people tuned in to the Super Bowl this year,
shattering the viewership record set by Super Bowl XLV in 2011. While the usual assortment of football
fanatics still make up the core audience of the big game, a growing number of Super
Bowl parties have been inundated with people who solely watch for the
commercials. As the cultural phenomenon
has grown, the creativity and price of the commercials has gone up.
Many car companies bought ad time this year, and they produced some of
the more memorable commercials. Audi had
one of the best, featuring a vampire driving his new car to a secret vampire
party in the woods. Unfortunately for
his friends, he accidentally vaporizes them with Audi’s signature LED
headlights.
Honda’s ad had a flashback to the 1980s, featuring a grown up Matthew
Broderick skipping work to enjoy a day in his CR-V, recalling many scenes from
hit movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Kia managed to combine Motley Crüe, Adriana Lima, and a rhinoceros into
their commercial about a man having the best dream of his life.
One of Chevrolet’s commercials took a decidedly darker tone, showing
the world after the 2012 apocalypse. The
only survivors are drivers of Chevy trucks and a box of Twinkies.
Volkswagen tried to incorporate a reference to last year’s “Vader Kid”
ad, but the connection between a dog working out and the famous Star Wars cantina
scene was lost on many.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi bought ad time, but both soda companies’
commercials came out a little flat. Pepsi featured Elton John as an evil king who
limits his subject’s access to the soda.
Things change when obscure X-Factor contestant Melanie Amaro shows up
and drops John through a hidden trapdoor to the dungeon with Flava Flav.
Coke told a story across three commercials about two polar bears, both
wearing scarves with the Giants’ and Patriots’ colors, watching what appears to
be the Super Bowl in their Arctic home.
One of the bears seems to be suffering through a tough game, but the
overall story was hard to follow with no dialogue.
Dairy company Dannon produced one of the funniest commercials. It showed actor John Stamos teasing a woman
with a spoonful of Dannon yogurt. When
he eats the yogurt, the woman headbutts Stamos and takes his yogurt. The abrupt nature of the headbutt only added
to the humor.
Doritos has become a fixture of Super Bowl commercials in recent years,
and this year purchased time for two spots.
One featured a dog bribing his master with Doritos to cover up evidence
in the suspicious disappearance of a cat.
In the other, a grandmother used her toddler grandson as a human
slingshot to grab a bag of Doritos from the toddler’s older brother.
One of the biggest commercial surprises was the ad submitted by
Skechers shoes. Fresh from last year’s
horrendous Skecher Shape-Ups commercial, this year’s ad showed a bulldog wearing
miniature Skechers running shoes beat the field in a greyhound race while
moonwalking across the finish line. It
was a major improvement over Joe Montana advertising the benefits of Skechers
shoes on his back.
Overall, this year’s ads lacked a memorable standout. There were no Mean Joe Green jerseys,
Orwellian Apple computers, or Doritos Samurai.
While somewhat disappointing, at least you could go to the bathroom before
halftime without worrying about missing anything.
