SuperBowl XLVI was aired last Sunday, and it cost approximately $3.5 million for a 30-second slot. There were a couple of good commercials, but the majority were not as impressive as last year's, and many were average at best. This year, many of the advertisements features cars and technology. There were far less food items, beer, and some brands produced less commercials this year. (I think GoDaddy and Doritos featured more last year.)
My favourite advertisements this year were those by Chevy, Samsung, and the Coca Cola Polar Bears. The Volkswagen, Doritos, and Acura slots were a disappointment. I've listed my least favourite commercials at the end of this article. Directly below are a few of the commercials that were average or good.
Chevy:
Chevy aired a few commercials during the SuperBowl. Two were Chevy stunt commercials, and they also aired two additional ones. In one, the Chevy pick-up is the only vehicle to survive the end of the world with references to other end-of-the-world and zombie films. In the other, a graduate's parents reveal a gift car, but the prank is on him as the car belongs to the neighbour.
Chrysler:
Clint Eastwood narrates "It's Haftime in America", which parallels the difficult economic times with the Chrysler company to give a message of hope and strength. (This is similar in format to the Eminem commercial from last year.) However, I was not the only one to think that the message sounds very much presidential-campaign. Many feel that president Obama and Chrysler were working together in order to produce this advertisement. It was a little bit too patronising and political for me, but it was emotional and consisted of a good use of imagery.
Doritos:
The brand follows up with the popular pet commercials from last year and produced a few different commercials for the SuperBowl. One depicts blackmail (in the form of Doritos) by covering up the missing pet cat. Another features a young child and a baby who takes the Doritos with his grandmother's help.
Volkswagen:
The company were responsible for the Star Wars theme in last year's SuperBowl, and this year's features a Golden Retriever losing weight to chase after a Volkswagen, then a cut to the Star Wars Cantina where we see shots of the Darth Vader and the Cantina characters discussing the commercial. Not as good as last year's, and the cut between the different scenes is awkward. (They mention last year's successful commercial at the end.)
Bud Light:
The slot features a Rescue Dog (Weego) that knows how to fetch beer on demand.
Budweiser:
The company use the prohibition era to advertise their beer.
Coca Cola:
Coca Cola produced a series of animated commercials featuring the Polar Bears. The Polar Bears acts like football players with the Cola bottle as the football.
Samsung:
Samsung's commercial for their new mobile phone ridicules queues standing outside of stores (Apple, anyone?) to grab the latest technology. The commercial kicks off further with The Darkness singing to the crowd on the street with shots of the product's features.
Acura:
This advertisement features Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, and other characters from Seinfeld. There's not too much advertising for the product, though, so it's not really memorable product placement. The advertisement features Jerry attempting to cut the queue by bribing another customer (George from Seinfeld) in the showroom.
Pepsi:
This commercial features Elton John as a king, and he watches auditions and provides the soft drink for those he likes.
H&M:
David Beckham sells clothes for the brand, but he's nearly naked. I do not feel that this was good product placement.
There were a few commercials that I found particularly annoying: Cars.com, Honda, M&Ms, and the Kia sandman commercial.
Cars.com:
A man walks into a showroom with his conscious, who sings about how much he wants the car. I found this commercial to be highly annoying with the signing.
M&Ms:
The commercial features a female-voiced brown M&M, and others think that she is naked. It features the red male M&M stripping off the red coat and dancing. If this was meant to be funny, it did not get any laughs from me.
Kia:
This commercial's message is 'the dream car', following the dreams of a couple to dream of the Kia when the sandman visits. I just found this commercial to be a little bit dull and the pacing to be off.
Honda:
This commercial stars the actor of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In the commercial, he pulls a sickie and ends up driving around town and enjoying himself, in a parody of the movie. Perhaps if I was a fan of the movie, I would have found it funny, but I've never liked the film, and I found the character to be a little too annoying.
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