The Top Ads of Super Bowl XLV?

Another possibly Super Bowl has come and gone. The game was ugly early on and I feared a blowout. Yet many around me didn’t seem to mind, due to an overabundance of Steelers haterade. But Pittsburgh regrouped at the half and made it competitive, failing pull ahead of the Packers on the final drive. We solute Green Bay’s championship, although we continue to be amazed that such a small market manages to field a team in this media dominated environment.

Speaking of media, the Super Bowl has become a family event due to the big spend advertising – an entertainment spectacle, beyond football, in its own right. And, for the second year in a row, my favorite spot was a light hearted car commercial. While I bestowed top honors upon Kia in 2010, 2011 belongs to Volkswagen. And, as with Kia last year, a large part of of VW’s success is due to picking the right soundtrack. “Black Beetle” (above) features a cover of Ram Jam’s Black Betty… although, surprisingly, doesn’t actually feature the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle it advertises. My honorable mention awards go to VW (again) for the well done Young Vader spot (aka “The Force”) and Best Buy’s “Bieber & Ozzy” 6G pre-announcement from the future.

Regarding the $800 Motorola Xoom Android tablet narrative… well, it’s obviously been done before. And better. Wether this was an Apple homage, attack, or both, I wasn’t overly impressed. Yeah, we’ve become an iWorld and no longer Think Different. But this ad didn’t resonate in our group.

Lastly, even though I found their commercials to be mostly silly, Pepsi Max stuck in my head (given my love for Coke Zero) and is a product I intend to track down. And, boy, did the movie previews not get my juices flowing.

TiVo has once again crunched the numbers, from 37,000 DVRs, to declare their top ten ads of Super Bowl 45:

This information was prepared using aggregated, anonymous, second-by-second audience measurement data about how TiVo subscribers watched the game, and was determined by not just the most viewed commercials, but also the most engaging ads throughout the game. The most engaging ads are determined by looking for spots with the biggest bump in viewership relative to the surrounding 15 minutes of programming, offering a true reflection of change in viewership.

1. Snickers   “Logging”
2. Best Buy   “Bieber and Ozzy”
3. Pepsi Max    “Love Hurts”
4. Volkswagen Passat  “The Force”
5. Doritos   “The Best Part”
6. Teleflora    “Help me Faith”
7. Doritos   “House Sitting”
8. E*Trade   “Tailor”
9. Cruze Eco  “Misunderstanding”
10. Bridgestone  “Carma”

If you missed any of the commercials, or just want to catch them again, hit HuluFanhouse, or YouTube. What were your favorites?

15 thoughts on “The Top Ads of Super Bowl XLV?”

  1. “We solute Green Bay’s championship, although we continue to be amazed that such a small market manages to field a team in this media dominated environment.”

    The NFL owners practice a form of sane socialism among themselves that levels the playing field.

    “The game was ugly early on and I feared a blowout.”

    I don’t begrudge anyone their viewing pleasures, and I know the game is the big media event of the event of the year, but last week’s New Yorker piece on the grim future of those you watched on the field of battle is worth a read…

  2. Yah, I played rugby for a few years… it can be brutal, and I blacked out once after taking a massive head-to-ear hit, but the lack of helmets could actually be a plus. Seems like helmets have become a weapon and provide a sense of invulnerability.

  3. Apparently you read the article in the Post about Roman numerals being too hard to read. :) I loved how the argument was made that our kids are so poor at math that we should do away with them because they are hard…

  4. Sorry, I didn’t mention, but I was talking about later in the article where you don’t use the XLV like in the title. I just find the whole thing humorous that someone would write an article about that as if it matters.

  5. I like variety, and obviously used both numerical representations. Roman numerals probably aren’t too difficult to master (as us old timers can attest to), but there’s little practical value. As a guy with two degrees in education, I’d rather we focus our energies on developing problem solving skills. Not that anyone asked. :) And, I agree, who needs a news article on this? Perhaps its the turmoil in Egypt that’s too complex for us.

  6. I agree VW had the top commercials this year.

    Here are some shots of the actual 2012 beetle: http://goo.gl/GvBqu I think it looks great and will sell well.

    The audi commercials with Kenny G were pretty funny too.

  7. Wow, the new Beetle looks sharp. A cousin to the Audi TT? I’d like to see a rear spoiler, though.

    I wasn’t paying close enough attention to that Audi commercial the first time around, had to bring it up on YouTube to understand it. Was clever, especially given Mercedes later ad, but maybe too complex (like those Roman numerals).

  8. You know why Snickers had the top ad? Because most people, like me, rewound it in hopes of figuring out who were the “celebrities” in the ad! I really like those Snickers ads in general (and, FYI, they do the same gimmick in other countries), but this one was a bit of a headscratcher.

    Overall, ads were rather disappointing — many weren’t very imaginative and quite a few weren’t even new ads. Coca-Cola was very solid overall and Korean car companies were present, but the brand that really, really dropped the ball was Bud/Bug Light.

    Most memorable movie ads were Battle:LA and Transformers 3, some were solid (Thor), and some weren’t so clear on explaining the movie (looking at you, Cowboys & Aliens — going to be a fun flick, but ad didn’t sell the movie very well).

    Other than “The Force” ad for VW, Doritos hit a good note with “House Sitting”. And Eminem was a big winner in my book — a funny ad (Brisk) and a very poignant Chrysler/Detroit ad (whatever one may think about Chrysler cars, Eminem’s past & present efforts to help his hometown are commendable).

    Moto’s ad was OK, but not very hard-hitting. Audi’s ad was very interesting in the beginning & grabbed attention, but the payoff wasn’t there. Camaro’s ad was good though.

    P.S. Don’t know about Steeler’s “haterade”, but they’ve won a couple of rings already in recent past, so it’s nice to see Packers get some hardware so all the fans could completely forget about Favre mess.

  9. Yeah, I had to rewind the Snickers ad too. The folks I was with said it was Rosanne, and I was like really? She’s old and thin, needed to check again.

    Speaking of the people I took in the game with, they also dug Eminem’s Brisk ad. For pure humor, well done, the Doritos finger linking ad was the best. For foul, crude humor I chuckled at the Mini Countryman’s “Cram it in the Boot” gameshow ad. Was surprised the powers that be let that, and the “nice rack” spot, run.

    I agree that the ads weren’t as compelling as a whole this year.

  10. Totally missed on Rosanne — only figured out who it was from reading TiVo’s blog.

    Finger-licking ad was very, very wrong, lol!

    What did you think of the two daily-deal ads (Living Social and Groupon)? LivingSocial was wacky, but Groupon was pretty strange — I bet a lot of people got offended.

    P.S. Here’s a Russian Snickers ad — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1IPLZC-P_8

  11. my best moment was Roseanne getting hit by the log. Yes, I am normally not vindictive but just her voice alone leads me to like the spot. :)

  12. I only saw the Cuba Groupon ad “live” (caught the Tibet one on their webpage today) and saw Living Social. Neither appealed to me, not sure either generated much more interest or traffic in their services. Probably not the best use of funds…

  13. I liked the Beetle ad as well, and agree the Beer ads ALL missed the boat. Personal favorite was probably the Eminem Chrysler ad actually.

    The Motorola Xoom ads were lame.

    My wife looked down and missed the guy wiping his fingers on his pants in the Doritos ad, so when the other guy started smelling them she thought it was even an even more disgusting reference than intended…

    Great game though.

  14. Dave Z thanks for reminding me of the Mini Countryman ‘boot” ad – I laughed at that one but people were talking and i didn’t catch it all. worth a look if you like … well … goofball humor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDnVE58Z9VA
    Groupon and that one w/ the baby being thrown at a window (?!?!?!) were jaw dropping misses. ouch.
    good ball game though.

  15. Good commentary.
    2 quick additions:

    #1 interesting to note that in the :30 version that has aired since the Super Bowl Eminem does not appear in the Chrysler ad. SOng is still there but he doesn’t appear.

    #2 Saw a GIANT Mini Countryman billboard in Times Square, but nothing to do w/ the “…in the boot” ad. Back to AWD / snow & ice.

    Cheers

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