2011 Super Bowl Advertising Review

At $3MM a pop, a good Super Bowl ad can make (Monster.com) or break (Pets.com) a company.  So, how was this year's crop?  Overall, I felt there were a lot of ads that were just OK, with some strong entries, and a limited level of misses. 

Let's review the bad ones first: 

Doritos Finger Suck - This just flat creeped me out.  Like I need a shower kind of creeped out.  How it will create additional affinity for their brand via this ad is beyond me. 

Pepsi Max Blond Nailed with Can - This is actually one of two ads for Pepsi Max in which people got hit with cans.  At least the other ad went for the tried and true gag of the hit to the groin. 

Sketchers Shapeups - An ad for a women's product that was basically directed at men.  Come on. 

Groupon Tibet with Timothy Hutton - After playing things close to the vest, this is what they came up with?  Holy cow!  At least with this ad that they now have a worse mistake than not accepting Google's offer.  They were better off spending that $3MM on a sock puppet. 

Now, let's take a look at the good ones: 

Bud Light Product Placement - I felt the overall Bud Light offering was weak, but I did enjoy this ad. 

Bridgestone's Reply All - Still don't understand the connection with tires, but this gave me one of the bigger laughs of the evening. 

Teleflora's Boyfriend Pens Note - Great ad!  Completely targeted to their audience (especially by including Faith Hill), this was incredibly effective as well as funny. 

Etrade - Last year's winner has another strong showing. 

Best Buy with Ozzy - Really effective means of getting out the new technology trade-in policy.  Very entertaining, and very well done. 

Pepsi Max Internal Voice - Elicited a very good laugh.  As much as Pepsi spent (between Max and Doritos), they needed one. 

But there is one standout champion, and it is no contest.   Living Social took on rival Groupon, and developed the ad worthy of all of Groupon's hype.  Benefit driven, clear, and funny as hell.  See for yourself: 

The Decemberists Concert Reivew Milwaukee Riverside Theater

 

We attended The Decem-berists concert in Milwaukee last night, and it was a really mixed bag.  I'm too tired to post the full set list - you can find it elsewhere, but here are some points of review:

•  The venue, the Riverside Theater, was sold as general admission, despite being a old time theater like the State in Minneapolis.  I thought, since everything was GA, that we'd be attending something like 1st. Ave.  Could not have been more wrong.  Hence, by the time we finished our meal and headed to the concert for the curtain at 8:00, the place was packed.  Our seats ended up being 6th row from the back in the balcony.  Why you'd choose to hold a GA show in such a venue is beyond me.  I bought these tickets months ago, and would have gladly paid a premium for good seats.  Fail.  
• Opening act was Mountain Man.  Their high harmonies and sparse accompaniment were beautiful and quirky.  Not my kettle of fish, but enjoyable.  
• The Decemberists were very strong.  There was great interaction between frontman Colin Meloy and the crowd, the band executed very well, and the setlist was fairly strong.  Overall a good effort.  
• Sound in the balcony was beyond horrible.  The hall's acoustics were very bad, and the band's sound crew didn't help by forcing their small stacks into the main level.  I've attended over 100 concerts, and these acoustics were the worst I have experienced.  Had I not known the song, I never would have been able to tell what they were singing.  
• Highlight of the night was an impromptu presentation of In the Air Tonight, complete with the whole urban myth presentation about the song.  Total hoot.  
• Best song had to be The Rake's Song.  All of the bad was on drums save for Meloy and Nate Query on bass.  All were totally into it, and it is the one song that was acoustically the least muddy.  
• Two different couples, both within five rows of us, got into very public arguments with their dates.  This all went down during This is Why We Fight, and unfortunately they were too angry with each other to recognize the irony.  

The bottom line was that the band was good, the sound horrific, and I couldn't help but feel like a chump for driving four hours round trip to sit in the nosebleed seats with the total drunks and the people that couldn't have cared less about what was going on up on stage.  Not a good experience, and not recommended.

Fox Bans Obscene Super Bowl Ad

Adult concepts below.  Keep the kiddos away from this installment.

I'm sure you've heard about the ad that Fox has banned from being broadcast during the Super Bowl.  You haven't?  Well then, YDP reader, prepare thyself to be offended.  Here it is. 

Heaven forbid that such an ad would taint commercial breaks that contain wholesome stuff like yet another Go Daddy ad featuring Danica Patrick in her 17th installment of a faux lipstick lesbian porn episode. 



Gang, I'm not a prude.  Sex sells, and always has.  I get that.  But there is zip wrong about the first ad, especially juxtaposed against the annual Go Daddy nerd titillation. Someone has some significant issues discerning "offensive."  But, more likely, they don't have the guts to take the "politically correct" heat for daring to air a religious message in front of the world's largest TV audience. 

Cowards.     

A Vikings Fan's Report from Behind Enemy Lines

It has been amazing being a Minnesotan, especially a Vikings fan, living in Green Bay during this Super Bowl run.  I’ve learned a lot about the people of my new home; some confirming, but most enlightening.   

Here are my observations, fresh from behind enemy lines.  

• We know Packer fans are fanatical.  But have you ever really talked to one?  Odds are good that they know an encyclopedic amount about football.  Men, women, kids, doesn’t matter.  And not just about the Packers.  This city knows a shocking amount about the NFL.  It’s astonishing.  Remind me not to join a fantasy football league while I'm here.  
• While this city wants to win the game (check that, there’s a palpable feel that they’re going to win), there is an overarching aura of pride that will gracefully (and correctly) accept this season for what it was – an improbable and incredible run for a team decimated by injuries.  
• Added corollary: there are no detractors here.  None in the media, none on your street, none at work.  Zero.  It is like living in a state full of Sid Hartmans. 
• I’ve counted just about every Sunday, and the ratio those wearing Packers attire to church is one in six (that ratio will likely be destroyed this Sunday).  As a retailer in the region, I can attest to the popularity of green and gold apparel, accessories, anything. I've been in retail most of my career, and I've never seen anything like it.  
• The economic activity of what has transpired these past playoff weeks is massive.  If you retail anything in Green Bay - liquor, food, clothes, gear, beads at the gas station, you name it - your numbers are up a missive amount from the same time in the previous year.  As we're privately held, I can't get into work details, but trust me when I say the impact this team has had on our financials these past weeks is shocking.  You've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday?  Suffice it to say if the Packers win, it will likely lead to a Green Sunday.
• Those unfamiliar with Green Bay assume that since it is an NFL franchise city, it must be significant in size.  You couldn't be more wrong.  Green Bay is 105,000 people soaking wet.  Imagine your own example of a city of similar size, then imagine plopping your favorite NFL franchise smack dab in the middle of it.  That explains a lot of the pride and fanaticism.  

The bottom line to all of this is that, yeah, Green Bay fans are certifiable, they're also loyal (win or lose), learned, and while it is hard to admit, endearing.  I know that will likely get me kicked out of the Jared Allen fan club, but it's the truth.  

As a Vikings fan, watching the whirlwind of what happening all around me, I can't help but be a little green as well.  

Unfortunately, my green is from envy.    

Thanks for Firing Me

Five years ago today I was called into the office of my boss and fired pretty much because CMO’s can do that kind of stuff. At the time it was unfair, uncomfortable, and borderline illegal. 

And it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to my career. 

Here’s to blessings in disguise.

Dads Get No Advertising Respect

In the latest article from eMarketer, dads bemoan the fact that ads are not speaking to or directed at them:

Few dads in the Yahoo! study felt ads in many consumer goods categories spoke to them, despite being the primary or shared decision-maker. For instance, 66% of dads felt ignored by apparel advertising, yet 57% of dads claimed they are the primary decision-maker and an additional 37% shared decision-making in the category. With child and baby care, 57% of dads felt alienated by ads, yet 80% were either primary or shared decision-makers.

Surprised?  You shouldn't be.  Watch your TV tonight and see how the middle aged white male is treated in commercials.  He's always the clueless idiot, the bumbling fool, the butt of the joke.  Women, kids, minorities, or anyone else is rarely reflected in a poor light. This has been happening for years.  My wife and I now keep note of it, and call out the "men are dumb in commercials" examples when we see it.  It happens at least once every commercial block.

This tactic, while politically safe, is serving to drive a wedge between advertisers and a significant share of their potential customers.

Al Gore Grasps at Straws

Our esteemed ex-Vice President claimed in his latest blog post that the recent heavy winter weather activity was caused by, wait for it, global warming.   

Last week on his show Bill O’Reilly asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?” and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.  As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming:

In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”  “A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.”

This is quickly becoming a pathetic exercise for the Goracle.  Basically any weather that isn't absolutely average is because of man's burning of fossil fuels.   

The man is in the middle of his Wizard of Oz moment, with a normal (albeit hard) winter tugging at the curtain of global warming and revealing the charlatans behind.  He's watching his integrity, reason for adulation, and even his personal fortune erode with every additional inch of snow that falls.   

I was thinking about this demise as I was snowblowing my driveway this morning for about the 10th time this year (a personal record).  While I'm sure it is painful for him, it's still insufficient for the fraud that he's perpetrated (and continues to push) on the world. This tool is due for a significant comeuppance.  Like maybe shoveling my driveway.

Annual "Hunting with Kin" Trip

We just returned from our annual hunting trip to the bayou. The ducks didn't cooperate as much as we would have liked, but I'm not sure we had a better time. Here are some photos: