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Brand Bowl XLIV: You Spent $2.8 Million and This Seemed like a Good Idea? Well, Betty White Is Always a Good Idea
We meant to bring you the Super Bowl commercials with a gay flair (or fumble) in real time, but Hulu did not cooperate. Still, we have the worst and the best here for your viewing pleasure. As a bonus, you don't have to put up with all that football in between. You can also follow my snark on Twitter. Two ads irritated me on the broadcast. The first was the Motorola ad. Megan Fox naked, and people lose their minds. Even the stereotypically dressed and flouncy gay guys. They can't even keep their wrists from being limp while they slap each other. Real Nice. I'll keep my iPhone. The other ad was much worse to me, even if it was about a straight guy. FLO.TV, which markets a portable digital television service, managed to build an entire commercial around questioning a man's masculinity. They called it "Injury Report" and it was really painful. At what point is mocking a sensitive man's masculinity, down to calling him out as skirt wearing, going to stop being the joke? Why can't the Justin Suarez's of the world be allowed to be happy?. I hate that the two anti-gay ads came from technology companies, who have historically been the most progressive of corporations. What about the Tim Tebow ad that everybody was losing their minds over? Turns out it was pretty mild. If it wasn't for Focus on the Family hiding their virulently anti-gay, anti-choice nature behind what was really a sweet ad on the surface, I might have enjoyed it. What worked? Well, Betty White for Snickers was great. I love her as a trash-talking football player. The Simpsons went topical, with Mr. Burns losing his money, and everything else he owns. His mansion flies off into the sky, and Patty & Selma picked up Smithers in the yard sale. He's seen doing their nails later, which is sad, but not out-of-character. I liked it. What did you guys think? Which ads worked for you, and which ads made you yell at the television? Submitted by on Mon, 2010-02-08 11:36. |
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Were they better than Snickers in 2007?
Tebow ad
Abject failure on its surface. Uncompelling, unfunny, sends the weird message that throwing your mother to the ground as a joke is acceptable and amusing.
Its success was, as with the ManCrunch ad, the pre-broadcast publicity. More people undoubtedly checked out the FoF website as a result of the stories about the ad rather than the ad itself.
Tebow
I've been saying that boy is
I've been saying that boy is gay for about 2 years now, if not longer. LOL!
There's this clip on youtube of one of his teammates, who was also his roommate at the time kissing Tebow on the cheek. It looks very intimate. LOL!
Here's the YT link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEmStZeXPe4
My Favorite
My favorite was the Google ad. It was just so simple, yet moving.
The Doritos ads all made me laugh out loud with their complete randomness, though none of them was truly great.
"It's weird. It's just different. It's not men. It's just him. It's only him." - Ianto Jones
The Google ad
was definitely my favorite too. It was the lone "Hey, grow up and learn stuff and do stuff because it's cool" ad in a sea of "Growing up sucks! My life sucks! My wife sucks! I need expensive toys to make up for it!"
"Go, or go ahead and surprise me." -- Rufus Wainwright
Two words: Betty. White.
Two words: Betty. White.
She is everywhere these days, and she ROCKS. The Snickers commercial kicked some serious ass.
Megan Fox ad? Stupid (although she is way hot). Doritos ad with the little kid: awesome. Coke ads? Not so much. Tebow a closet case? Probably. The ad? Uncompelling, happy and upbeat, disguising a dark, sinister underside (i.e., flamingly homophobic Focus on the Family website).
I didn't mind the FloTV ad so much as I've seen others did, but it strikes me as much more misogynist than homophobic.
Frankly, with all the guys roaming around in their underwear, I hardly see how the ManCrunch ad would've been off-base.
Loved The Commercial
Agreed NC Guy
I agree.. nice quick recap. The one that was disturbing to be was the Pittsburg Steelers player (I think his name is ImaOompaLoompa... or something like that) as the Ground Hog. Just disturbing.
The Budweiser Clydesdale was predictable. I didn't get at all the Etrade ads with the surprised animals. Very Odd.
Thank you, good sir.
Polamalu
...or I think that's how you spell his name. He's famous for his hair. It wasn't as good as his shampoo commercial, but it was still a reference on the hair, plus the fact that groundhog day had only just happened & "Punxatawney Polamalu" got to predict 6 more weeks of football or something like that. :)
I thought it was pretty funny, myself.
The E-trade ads
They were pop culture references on a very popular internet meme. The "Dramatic Chipmunk" clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw
It's very popular w/ internet forum postings... particularly football ones.
I liked..
I liked the Doritos ad that had a woman answering the door for a date, she invites him in, introduces him to her son, then leaves the room. While she's gone the date tries to eat one of the little boys Doritos and the boy slaps him and says "put it back" then gets in his face and says "keep your hands off my mama, keep your hands off my doritos"
I mainly liked it because the little boy was so darn cute haha. Some people around the interwebz have been pointing out that when he slaps the guy and says "put it back" you can see the actor playing the date mouthing the words as well.
Betty White was totally my second favorite.
http://www.twitter.com/valorieryann
Favorites
Ha!
That wasn't Lil' John. That was T-Pain.
That commercial was hilarious, though! :)
d'oh! thanks
Betty White and Abe Vigoda
And then there's Abe Vigoda! He's not even a year older than Betty -- it would be great to see a little more of him too.
Motorola ad
"The first was the Motorola ad. Megan Fox naked, and people lose their minds. Even the stereotypically dressed and flouncy gay guys. They can't even keep their wrists from being limp while they slap each other. Real Nice. I'll keep my iPhone."
If I were you, I wouldn't post that opinion on any of the gay blogs. You'll have your ass handed to you... as I just was. Apparently, overused offensive stereotypes are people too; and I should just get over myself. So now I'm officially a self-loathing gay. Not that I didn't expect that response from the Gay P.C. Police.
*sigh*
We have smarter readers
My favorite was the Dave Letterman/Leno/Oprah Commercial
It was completely unexpected and beautifully simplistic. I have stopped watching NBC after the Conan disaster, and Dave just said it all perfectly!! It was awesome!
The video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcEx767TIas
While the Betty White and Doritos commercials were funny, I don't understand where the $3 mil went for the other commercials.
Kitty
I gotta get inside of you, so when will that be? ~George Michael - Too Funky
Fair to call the Flo.TV ad anti-gay?
They didn't make fun of gay people in the ad, or at any point call him gay. They are basically calling him a woman, for being forced out shopping with his female companion. So, if anything I'd say it's anti-feminist, so find it offensive for that reason. It's like those black-Friday ads that would drive me nuts, where they would say "You know where SHE will be this Friday", or "The sales we have for HER." Why it's assumed that SHE will be the one out doing the shopping....
I was confused about the Tebow ad. I thought that his mother almost got an abortion and then changed her mind. So, watching the ad I thought you can't call that a "miracle"!! But, my friend google explained to me my mistake, so I get it now. I still don't like it, but I get it.
I loved the Doritto's bark-collar ad.
"To being an us for once, instead of a them" - Jonathan Larson
Hate stew
Although it's kind of
Although it's kind of redundant to argue shades of hate, I have to say I agree with Jamie.
I found the Flo.TV ad to reek of sexism, not homophobia. That is, of course, unless you are coming from a place of already associating gay men with women, in which case, that's just a whole heaping mess of meatheadness.
That's just it though
My favorite comment I've seen so far
Talk about contradictions
If you hate being with women and don't want to do anything remotely gay, how are you ever supposed to get laid?
Kitty
I gotta get inside of you, so when will that be? ~George Michael - Too Funky
EXACTLY!!!!
Ouch!
Kia Ad
My favorite ad was the Kia ad. Maybe it is that I really like monkeys. The robot doing the robot was another part of this ad I loved. It had a fun and creative edge to it more than most of the ads. The Heavy's song was great too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJqs3D2vv4IMy second favorite was the Betty White ad. Further reason for her SNL hosting gig.
I actually disagree with Ed and think the Megan Fox ad was fun. I didn't understand the whole gay slap part (for that I will concede to Ed) but otherwise it at least had more creative thought than the other ads that were out there this year.
I mean seriously, was there any ads other than these three that had original thoughts?
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We all come into this world with our little egos equipped with individual horns. If we don't blow them, who else will? -Yo Gabba Gabba
So....
Blushing
i blush at the drop of a hat dear heart. It's from my southern roots...
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We all come into this world with our little egos equipped with individual horns. If we don't blow them, who else will? -Whole body?
But is it a whole body blush?
And do you blush at the drop of pants as well as a hat?
Whole body blush
Ed-- Dude! That one even made me blush. Yes, I'm Southern, but it takes a LOT to get a rise out of me.
And knowing Addison's Southern heritage, I'm sure he not only had a whole body blush at your last post, but had to grab the smelling salts as well.
And seriously-- thanks for the visual on that. Nothing hotter than a dude turning rosy from head to toe ;-)
Well...
I am a married "lady" so i will avoid that question and just flutter my fan and giggle. LOL!
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We all come into this world with our little egos equipped with individual horns. If we don't blow them, who else will? -Spoken like a true Southern girl
Oh my goodness!
I appreciate all the attention, boys! Trust me since we are venturing on buying a new home and adopting a kid, he has no worries about me stepping out on him. But considering the avatars I am dealing with shouldn't I be all a flutter?!
And um yes, flutter is the new innuendo...
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We all come into this world with our little egos equipped with individual horns. If we don't blow them, who else will? -Flutter your fan?
Oh and Ed...
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We all come into this world with our little egos equipped with individual horns. If we don't blow them, who else will? -Betty White=Awesome
Like most people I loved the ad with Betty White. It was definitely my favorite. The Doritos ads were pretty good too. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the beer ad that parodied Lost--I don't really follow the show but the ad was still hilarious to me.
According to some poll they took the least popular ads were the Godaddy ones. I am glad that other people are as sick of those stupid ads as me.
I noticed a couple of trends in the ads--one was the use of gopher-like animals (they were everywhere!). The other was an obsession with 'manliness'. Of course you get the whole 'man' thing every Super Bowl but it felt especially emphasized this year. I suspect it may have something to do with the recession and the fact that men are losing jobs faster than women. Hence the pathetic attempts to augment one's manliness with portable TVs and pants.
Also the ad where the little girl's toys go on a roadtrip was cute.
Volkswagen
I loved their commercial as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR7JJmkUC_8
I can't be the only one who grew up playing "punchbug". The part where the kid yells "black one" and punches gramps in the junk.... My friends & I repeated that part like 5 times laughing just as hard each time. The end w/ Stevie Wonder was brilliant as well!
Coke!!
no one else is showing love to the Coke ad.
and MAYBE im also doing it sicne I work for the company as well.
I love seeing ads from my employer.
just sayin.......
"Fate won't compromise"
Simpsons on Coke?
If you mean the Simpsons one, I loved it, but I loved the Simpsons. My favorite part being Milhouse's "SORRY COKE!" at the end.
And this will lead me to a Simpsons rant. Not to the quality of their current episodes story-wise, but in terms of their animation. It's nice seeing this commercial which obviously used the animation company who did the movie - which was beautiful. However, since the switch to HD last season, the animation has just gone to shit. I've been watching the show for so many years, it becomes almost grating to watch one of my favorite shows display sush poor quality. Characters regularly go off-model now (which if you listen to the commentary on the dvd's was a big problem they worked to resolve in the first couple seasons of the series. Now it just seems lazy that they bother to let the show look the way it does.
End Simpsons rant, loved the coke commercial!