SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL BLOGGING

First of all, this was a pretty weak and uninspired effort on behalf of the advertisers. Call it the lingering Janet Jackson effect, but nobody seemed too interested in making “edgy” commercials this year. I don’t think any of these ads will ever rank among the all-time great Super Bowl spots.

Anyway, on to the comments:

• I thought the best commercial was one which aired well before the start of the game: Ford’s ad for the F350s which showed a biker gang terrified of a roadhouse with a row of F350s parked out front. It made me laugh.
• Ameriquest’s commercials were also very good and presented its message very clearly. They will probably take some heat for the cat/spaghetti sauce one. The convenience store “you’re being robbed” commercial was also laugh-out-loud funny.
• The Lay’s commercial where the kids toss back MC Hammer was pretty good too.
• The FedEx ad mocking all the other Super Bowl ads was inspired, but flat.
• The Quizno’s “talking baby” ad brought back unpleasant memories of Baby Bob. By the way, CBS, you owe me one half hour of my life for watching one episode of that show–what did I ever do to you?
• I didn’t get the point of the CareerBuilder.com ads. At any rate, would somebody please inform them that (a) chimpanzees aren’t monkeys, and (b) monkeys are only funny when they’re wearing fezzes?
• The NFL Network “Tomorrow” ad was hilarious, and whoever NFL Network’s ad agency is, they’re underpaid, because their commercials are consistently great.
• Historically, there have never been so many good commercials in service of such a loathesome product as Bud Light. However, this year’s Bud Light ads were as watery and flavorless as, well, Bud Light. You could see the end of the “dream girls” ad from a mile off, and I wanted to deep-fry that cockatoo.
• That ad for countertops or whatever with Ditka, McMahon, and the Fridge was a great idea (spoofing those unbearably fatuous Nike/Tiger Woods ads) but it needed more than three guys in it to work.
• I didn’t like the Diet Pepsi P. Diddy ad. It reminded me too much of a mid-90s Bud Light spot. And since when was Sean Puffy Puff P. Combs Daddy Diddy (gad, that sounds like something Ned Flanders would say) that much of a fashion icon anyway? (Outside of his own mind, that is . . .)
• Oh, and when the Bud Light cockatoo gets out of the deep-fryer, I’m tossing the musical Pepsi bottles in.

On the whole, I can’t believe I missed a rare TV showing of Koyaanisqatsi for these lousy commercials. The game wasn’t even worth mentioning, either.