Creative advertising?(Editorial)

Every year the Super Bowl features the ultimate showdown of football's best, at least in theory. This year, the matchup resulted in a less-than-exciting game. Some have expressed similar feelings about the other major event that occurred on the same day: the so-called Ad Bowl.

During most major television events, viewers use commercial breaks to get off the sofa and fetch some snacks, make a phone call, or perform other quick tasks. But, the Super Bowl is different. The supersized viewing audience remains glued to their seats so they don't miss the most creative or humorous 30-second spot airing that night. And the following morning, the talk around the water cooler (in addition to the most exciting plays on the gridiron) is about the best and the worst of the Super Bowl commercials.

Anticipation, as always, was high--and with good reason: This year, each 30-second spot cost $2.6 million, or more than $86,000 a second. So, did Madison Avenue deliver? In my opinion, the ad execs, for the most part, hit their marks with some memorable moments--more so than last year. Without question, Anheuser-Busch is a company that knows what it is doing when it comes to Super Bowl ads. Once again, the firm used one of two tried-and-true formulas (humor and sentiment), and this year, its efforts paid off big, as Bud commercials captured the top three positions in national polls. The biggest crowd-pleaser was a funny CG spot in which crabs are shown worshipping a cooler full of beer (see "Cool Commercials," pg. 28). In second place was the newest spot from the Clydesdale series featuring a stray dog that, with a little ingenuity (and some digital enhancements), gets to ride on the famous horse-drawn wagon. Capturing third place was the Autodesk Smoke-finished spin on the game Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Indeed, animal themes are typically well received. This year, the 3D Blockbuster Carl and Ray commercial with the "mouse" was praised for building strong brand awareness- and it was humorous to boot! Two other talking-animal commercials--Bud Light's gorilla ad and Taco Bell's chatting lions--were also cute and funny, but not very original. Nevertheless, originality was not totally absent in the offerings. I found the cartoon-styled HP motorcycle ad enticing and unique, and thought that Coke's "niceness" spin on the video game Grand Theft Auto (using CGI, of course) was refreshingly different.

Like always, in addition to the good, there were the bad ... and the ugly. By this I mean the GoDaddy and the CareerBuilders spots. In the past, I was pulled into the CareerBuilders ads featuring a professional guy whose best efforts are thwarted by his coworkers, who are constantly "monkey around." But when the company places the office in the jungle, the appeal is lost in translation. As for GoDaddy, all I can say is that it ...