Superbowl XL and commercials
Posted By RichC on February 6, 2006
I’m at a quandary as to comment on the actual game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks? Do I opine on the performances, or lack there of, from either team — or just focus on the individual achievements? I suppose I could eulogize about Seattle or reflect on the mediocre performance of the superstar status players? Maybe neither team really has superstar players? Seeing the emotional Bill Cowher with his family and their exuberance was perhaps a highlight of this game, but in my opinion the 21 – 10 Steeler victory was less than stellar. The game wasn’t a standout Superbowl and the slow pace wasn’t helped by the several required referee booth reviews. At time I even felt that the ABC announcers Al Michaels and John Madden were stumbling for call analysis as close decisions were decided at a painfully slow pace. (Congratulation to John Madden; he was just voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame) All in all, it was a tepid end to a long NFL season.
Although the game is why most of us watch the Superbowl, the halftime show and commercials are becoming as important for some as the game itself. (they are a marketer’s delight) I found myself checking out each commercial, wondering which would capture the conversation around the watercooler on Monday morning?
Early results suggest that the winner might have been the “pre-hysterical” (as Professor Bill Ward states) FedEx spot featuring a caveman crushed by a dinosaur.
My wife appreciated Unilever’s Dove ad, where young girls struggle with self-image issues, but her favorite product Diet Pespi, IMHO had a couple of the ‘loser’ ads as did Burger King. I’m not too convince the marketing for Ameriquest was poignant as I kept trying to figure out what there ads had to do with their business, but I did get a charge out of the mother and daughter in a hospital room visiting dear old dad as the buzzing fly was zapped.
Dotcom’s still bought a few ads — I think most liked the Careerbuilder.com chimp ads. GoDaddy.com probably did the most ‘risque’ ad of the bunch when it produced a spoof on the Janet Jackson Superbowl fiasco. I’m not sure what it has to do with their product, the oxygen mask for an aging executive was a great touch.
Gillette could have done something more creative to introduce their new five-bladed razor; it is basically a rework of a two, three and four bladed razor ads of the past — whoopee. Motorola stumbled as well in my opinion in marketing their PEBL phone … what’s with the meteor becoming a pebble? Celebrities were used in a few ads, including one for the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Aleve which used Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy. It was so-so.
The motor city did their part as the Detroit, auto companies, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Corp., had pretty good ads. Ford promoted their ‘green’ ad with “Kermit thee Frog,”while GM went creative with a baby Hummer H3. Honda and Toyota were there, but were lukewarm as I know they had ads but can’t hardly recall them. (Ridgeline and Civic I think???)
But the winner is … according to me 🙂 … drumroll please …. the Sprint ad demostrating the crime deterrent of its phones. I thought it was hilarious.
All in all … Superbowl XL could have been better … but then that would have required the Bengals to have won a couple of more big games. Congratulations Pittsburgh.
I’ve been wanting to be able to incorporate a series of short video clips in my blog. Some clips have most likely been spotted on the internet before, others might be new and a few I’ve recently encoded. Instead of ‘forwarding’ to friends I thought I would share them here.
As we move forward with alternative energy and ways to displace petroleum as a primary fuel, I believe it is important to encourage industry and the country to explore a variety of option. The old adage of “placing all your eggs in one basket” apply to the predicament of what energy source we should consider. Personally, I believe we’ll eventually move towards hydrogen as a portable energy source, but see the road long and complicated. Even if we eventually adopt hydrogen fuel cells, I believe there will be combinations of petroleum and biofuels for many years to come. On my blog, I try not to overly focus on politics, but since the last two posts detail politicians (
U.S. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the underdog to acting leader Rep. Roy Blunt becomes the new majority leader today in a 122 to 109 vote. He will replace the Texan Tom DeLay in hopes to clean up the scandal-rocked house.
Boehner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended Moeller High School and received a bachelor’s degree in business from Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1977 and worked as a businessman.
President Bush will use his State of the Union address this week to stress a package of energy proposals. He will continue to talk about our nation’s development and implementation of fuel-saving technologies. Front most in the President’s vision is hydrogen. He believes that eventually Americans will be filling their fuel-cell cars at hydrogen stations and eventually it will replace petroleum providing us near limitless supplies of clean burning fuel. (hmm … probably not in my lifetime?) 
Saturday morning, January 27, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger and seven astronauts prepared for a cold morning ride into space at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; they didn’t launch. Those of us patiently waiting on Cocoa Beach, including yours truly, were disappointed when we heard the word of the postponed flight. Chilled to the bone I climbed back in my rented convertible and headed back to Orlando where my wife was taking the Florida State Pharmacy boards. I was irritated not only because I didn’t have winter clothes, but because I took the early drive just to corner a spot on the dune to set up my tripod and SLR with a long lens. (I recall, I also had our ‘giant’ video camera — by today’s’ standards — hung on my shoulder.)
Lumbriculus what????