2012 Super Bow Ad Review - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Maybe I'm getting old, but yesterday's Super Bowl commercials felt a lot more tame than I remember them being.  I seem to recall there being a lot more clunkers in the offering in previous years as well, whereas this year's installment is just kind of blah. 

However, that being said, there's still plenty to review, so onto the recap (BTW, my HTML is kind of funky, and the titles of each commercial below are links the the actual ad):

The Good

5) TeleFlora - Give and You Shall Receive: Simple message, right in time for Valentine's Day, and leveraging that advertising tried and true method of using sex to sell.  Good work, and money well spent.

4) Fiat - Italian Girl: Like the TeleFlora ad above, this ad also executes extremely well

3) Geico - Middle School Girls: This one was during the pre-game, and was not a dedicated Super Bowl ad, but it is incredibly well done.  "Ew.  Seriously?  So gross..."

2) Dannon Oikos - Stamos Head Butt: Aligned extremely well to their target audience, the message and methods used were extremely good.  Another case of money very well spent.

1) Doritos - Dog Bribe: Hilarious.  Funniest commercial of the night

Honorable mentions include the Kia Motley Crue ad and Audi Vampires

The Bad

4) Go Daddy - .co Girl Paint: This whole faux-lesbian porn thing is so old.  It must work for them, as they do it every year.  Poor nerds...  I purposefully did not link to this crap

3) H&M - Beckham Underwear: They easily dropped $3MM on that ad.  Assuming they get a 50% gross margin on their underwear, they need to sell $6MM in underwear just to break even on the commercial.  Good luck with all of that.  It is well known that in a recession folks might still buy clothes (what other folks can see), but the last thing they'll buy is underwear (what other folks can't see).  These underwear might be cool, but Mr. and Mrs. America are going to continue to buy their tighty-whities from Wal-Mart until things get a lot better.

2) Corporado Clothes - Old Navy: Parody ad that was neither cute nor funny.  The only redeeming pact for Old Navy was the use of the logo in the last :03.  Kiss $3MM goodbye, folks.  Their agency should be fired immediately.

1) Tax Act - Pool Pee: Just disgusting.  Tax software and a kid peeing in the pool.  To borrow a quote, "Ew.  Seriously?  So gross..."

The Ugly

4) Samsung - Urlacher Parade: What the hell was that?

3) Hyundai - Rocky Song: And the message here was...?

2) Cars.com - Guy with Two Heads: Creepy and weird.

1) Chrysler - Halftime in America: I do not need a presidential campaign ad in my Super Bowl.  This is the most overt shot of what I predict will be a long salvo of "things are great!" messages that will be concocted over the next 9 months to buoy the Obama administration.  It began with his State of the Union speech two weeks ago, continued with the release of the jobs report last week (fun with numbers), seeped into at least one GE ad last night (gee, I wonder why?), and was overt in this Clint Eastwood ad.  Get used to this folks.  This is what politics looks like in 2012.

Louisiana Duck Hunting Trip Recap

We conducted out annual Yankee invasion of north Louisiana last weekend, and got together with our Southern kin to close out the waterfowl season for the year.  We've been doing this for eight years now, and I absolutely treasure these times together.  This year was no different as these photos can attest.

First, we'd like to introduce the latest member of the Yellow Dog Patrol:

The whole crew was there.  Here's a look at some of them:



And despite it being a down year at that end of the flyway, we managed our biggest bag ever.  Here's some of the birds that will eventually find their way into Cousin Terry's famous gumbo:

We could not have had a better time, and we can't wait for the next adventure. 



Yellow Dog Update

Exactly 24 hours after I thought I would have to put her down, my dog is nearly back to her old self. We still don't know what happened (all tests have been negative, and we've literally bought every one we could), but we don't care as long as she's better. 

I've seen the power of prayer and positive thought time and time again in my life, and this is another example. Thank you all.

Dog Update

Our situation here is pretty much horrible right now. 

Yesterday was a very good day - the dog got stronger throughout the day, was extremely interested in eating, and was turning into her old, perky self right before our eyes.

When I got up this morning, all of that had changed.  She is now barely able to move.  Eyes are sunken like she's in distress.  She's panting and drooling.  Not good at all. 

I shot the following video of her condition to share with the vets to cut down on the amount of back and forth:



I'm going to feed her a pain med this morning in the hopes that she's just suffering from some post-operative pain.  I think this is wishful thinking on my part, as her current condition is pretty much the same one that kicked this whole process off on Tuesday morning.  But I have to try.

We're running out of options.

Post Surgery Update

Surgery found nothing.  Not a damn thing.  Her intestines were somewhat discolored and her duodenum was distended (both had biopsy samples taken), but everything checked out.  The doctor even cut into her healthy stomach just to make absolutely positive that there was nothing in there. 

The dog is now recovering at the hospital and we're hoping we get her back today.  In the mean time, I've lost a lot of faith in our doctors - they were "in a meeting" for three hours after surgery and just could not break away to call me to update me on the dog's status until after the meeting ended.  Are you freaking kidding me?  Beyond their completely oblivious bedside manner, I have this horrible feeling that I was talked into having my buddy hacked open for no damn good reason. 

So what next?  Good question.  Our current docs have no ideas, other than wait for the biopsies to come back.  And while a clear result is what we're pulling for, it will leave us with not much more we can do other than hope she gets better. 

This whole situation sucks.  

Yellow Dog Update

I spoke too soon as the dog took a turn this morning.  We're back to doing surgery.  I should know more by noon today.

Minnesota Wild Suffer Worst Choke in Their History

Last night the Wild entered the 3rd period with a 4-1 lead; a lead that is nearly insurmountable in the NHL.  Despite giving up a goal with 10 minutes left in the game, they were able to kill off the period down until about the 3:00 mark.  Things looked good.

That's when the wheels came off. 

Completely.

The team proceeded to give up three goals within that short time frame to go from a two point win to a zero point loss.  It was capped by the worst goal ever given up by Josh Harding, and one of the worst goals I've seen given up regardless of the goalie.

This team was on the bubble for a playoff berth coming out of the All Star break.  They needed a hot start and some critical points in order to propel themselves into the post-season.  Unfortunately, with this start, they now have some serious soul searching they'll need to conduct.

They also may want to get their golf clubs ready, because come spring, these guys will likely be as far away from a hockey rink as they can be.

Yellow Dog Update

The yellow dog was definitely feeling better last night, and actually was pretty interested in some kibble and water.  She took both without any difficulty. 

As of this morning, she's improved substantively since yesterday morning.  She has far more energy, seems like she's hungry (and after not eating for nearly two days, it is understandable), and her tail is wagging much more.  She still has a lot of noise from her belly, and is still not herself, but her improvement is remarkable nonetheless.

We'll still take her into the vet today, but will ask if a delay in cutting her open might be warranted.  More updates soon.