Feb 3, 2008

First Half Impressions


I hope the rest of America loves that Tide Stain Stick spot as much as I do. My fear is the tonality is sophisticated enough that they may find it "weird." But I hope I'm wrong- success would do a lot to convince big advertisers that Americans are ready for that level of messaging

Audi wins for most memorable image, though I did have to explain to the Tadpoles that "there was this famous movie in the 70s called The Godfather and there was a famous scene where..."

Didn't get the connection between Naomi, the dancing lizards and SoBe until 15 minutes later when they sponsored the halftime show and I realized that a lizard (gekko? chameleon?) was part of their logo.

Game is very close and exciting. Puts the commercials into perspective. Makes it hard for ad bloggers to take bathroom breaks...

More later.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

i thought the tide stain spot was badly executed. it took ages to realize what was really going on. and the stain CGI was far less than ideal. a creatively good idea let down by the execution IMHO.

i'm guessing Clydesdales "Rocky" will take the now-long-forgotten USA TODAY poll tomorrow.
or Bud Light "cheese" or the Bridgestone one with the imminently-dead squirrel.

it has to be childishly simple to work on The Big Game. which is why i never took the top spot. sniff!

Alan Wolk said...

The Tide Spot is a repurpose of one that won at Cannes last year. I wonder if it wasn't a cut-down from a :60.

I was thinking the Coke balloons spot had a good shot at top USA Today spot. But I'm never very good at guessing these things.

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

My top vote (duh) is for Charlie, but Tide's 2nd place (maybe 3rd) is even more impressive to me b/c of the category. OK, 6th, agree CGI could have been better but when you think what you're watching is for P&G...I bet there's a lot of talking shirts in offices across America today.

Anonymous said...

I liked the Clydesdale spot too.
And I thank them for the fun of producing it and running it.
Not that I would ever buy their beer,
being a beer snob and a Pilsner Urquell und Spaten drinker.
The folks I watched the Super Bowl with liked the Bridgestone commercial, but I can't see them out shopping today with a plan to put a Bridgestone tire in their cart.
But truth is there is no better media buy than the Super Bowl.

Alan Wolk said...

@Tom: Thanks for commenting. I had heard about the Clydesdale spot in detail before the game and I suspect that ruined it a bit for me- I knew just where it was going and all. I was more touched by the NFL spot about the guy bagging groceries who played the oboe who was now on the Texans.

But it definitely would not be the Super Bowl without Clydesdales.

As for advertising vehicles, I'm curious what the numbers are for a closely fought game like yesterday - do people actually use the commercial breaks to go to the kitchen/bathroom because the game itself is so compelling?

Anonymous said...

agree with tom. it's funny how we hear the same chorus each year lamenting what a waste of money the commercials are. it's a huuuge audience actively engaged with their television receptor device. that's getting increasingly rare.

i toiled for years on the premium domestic lager beverage he disparaged. and getting a spot on the game was about as thrilling as it gets, adwise. instant fame!

Anonymous said...

I love the Tide spot...

.. did it run before the Superbowl? Because it won in Cannes LAST YEAR. Was it yet another proactive brief from Saatchi that P&G wanted to see how it did in Cannes first?

Anonymous said...

Two things I remember beyond the Coke balloon spot: no ED spots and what the hell was the connection to the brand with that dog drinking water? Man's best friend maybe? Totally went over my head.