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"My Favorite 'Super Bowl LII' Commercials"
8 years ago
Having spent most of February 4, 2018 at home, watching "Super Bowl LII" (as well as the 'Pre-Game' and 'Post-Game' shows), I can honestly say that this was one of the more exciting sporting events I've seen in years (considering that my brother Glenn is the bigger sports fanatic of the family).
Seeing the Philadelphia Eagles pull an upset by defeating last year's champions - the New England Patriots - and winning their very first Lombardi Trophy was truly worth staying up for.
Of course, the real reason I'd watched the entire broadcast was to check out the newest commercials they'd debuted. (And, at $5M for thirty seconds of airplay, I thought that these had better be good ads... Little did I know what awaited me on the small screen.)
I'll just mention a handful of spots, and you can look for most of them in "YouTube". I'm not even going to bother with links...
M&M's: "The Wish" (:30): Oddly enough, of all the commercials aired on 'Super Bowl Sunday', this year there was absolutely NO annual spot for Snickers - using the familiar format of having a celebrity fill in for the ordinary human (who doesn't feel quite like himself) before his eats the candy bar. Coincidentally, M&M/Mars filled this empty gap with a spot for their colorful candies, where 'Red' complains about being eaten, and (upon finding a 'lucky penny') wishes he was human... and promptly turns into Danny DeVito! (If you got to write this commercial, what human would YOU have had 'Red' turn into?)
Avocadoes from Mexico: "Bio-Dome" (:30): Looking like a sequel to the Pauly Shore film comedy (although, in this spot, Chris Elliott makes a 'cameo'), a group of scientists celebrate their first day of a two-year project of being enclosed from civilization, with bowls of guacamole - only to discover that they'd left the snack chips outside the dome!
Tide: "It's a Tide ad..." (2:00): David Harbour (of "Stranger Things"), claiming that Super Bowl commercials are so predictable, decides to pop up into some of those spots, mainly to promote Tide detergent - including parodies of ads for fast-food restaurants, car manufacturers, Old Spice, and even Mr. Clean (the latter of which, like Tide, is a Proctor & Gamble product). The football game has been over for a few days, and I'm still wondering where or when David's going to show up in another commercial and simply say "It's a Tide Ad"...
Australia.com: "Crocodile Dundee Reboot" (2:00): Looking like a genuine movie trailer, Danny ("Vice Principals") McBride attempts to fill in the shoes of the original 'Crocodile Dundee' (played by Paul Hogan, who has a non-speaking 'cameo' in this spot). We know that this is a fake ad, and we're all just waiting to find out what product Danny was pushing. As it turns out, it was simply a promotional travel ad for the land 'down under', but the American actor pulled it off so well, now there's talk about making a real reboot of the 1986 movie...
Doritos/Mountain Dew: "Blaze/Ice" (1:00): Probably the most talked-about spot during "Super Bowl LII" were back-to-back ads for two PepsiCo products: a spicy version of Doritos (tortilla chips) and a cool new flavor of Mountain Dew, hyped (respectively) by Peter ("Game of Thrones") Dinklage and Morgan ("March of the Penguins") Freeman - each of whom lip-synchs a fast-moving hip-hop song! My mind is still blown by this... How about YOU?!
There were three unique commercials that aired that all had something in common, beside conveying a message about a serious subject: You never see the product connected with the brand name.
A spot for Toyota showed the odds of a physically-disabled person winning a Gold Medal diminish as he/she prepares for the Winter Paralympics (to follow shortly after the Winter Olympics in South Korea ends), but you didn't see a single Toyota...
Another auto maker - Hyundai - set a scene at an airport, where folks (owning the car) were taken into a Security room, to see a video about how a portion of Hyundai profits from its sales go to cancer research. The payoff of this video is that some of its patients wanted to thank the car owners (in the Security room) 'in person'... and they do, by entering from another room! And, again, no cars appeared in this spot...
Finally, a Budweiser ad without beer? Anheuser-Busch pulled it off, in a special promotional spot, where the employees at one of their breweries replaced the beer with clean, pure water - to be distributed to the victims of 2017's hurricanes and wild fires. A noble gesture, indeed...
Naturally, Hollywood wanted to hype their latest flicks - even if some of them won't be released until the end of 2018. Of the nearly one dozen promos airing during the big game, these are the five films I'm looking forward to seeing, later this year...
"Skyscraper" with Dwayne Johnson
"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"
"Solo: A Star Wars Story"
"Mission Impossible: Fallout"
"Avengers: Infinity War"
Of course, no list of "Super Bowl" ads would be complete without a few spots with fauna in them (although, the only Clydesdale horse I saw was in one of those Tide ads)! Here are my 'faves'...
Geico: "Manatees" (:30): Airing during one of the 'Pre-Game' shows (even though it had debuted a week or so earlier), I'd found it amusing to see a bunch of these native Floridian sea cows floating about in an aquarium... with each manatee wearing a 'tee' (such as "I'm With Stupid!"). Funny concept, but will it really help you save 15% or more in car insurance?
TaxAct: "Dog Walker" (:30): The title human character figures out a way to save money through his occupation, in various unique ways. And the dogs look cute, too!
U.S. Bank: "No Dogs Allowed" (:30): Of course, the sponsor that also has the Minneapolis stadium ("Super Bowl LII" takes place in), has a charming ad about a dog owner, who feels sorry for his pet - when he's not permitted to enter certain public places. So, the person takes out a loan to buy a new home in the suburbs, where his dog can roam free in its front yard... Naturally!
Trivago: "Hamster Wheel" (:30): The star for the online travel service ads has a dual role: as the usual spokesperson, leisurely seated in a den, and as a costumed hamster, running in a giant wheel - and going nowhere (just like customers who use the competitor's service)...
Yellow Tail: "Big Game Surprise" (:30): The CGI Kangaroo is back in another short spot for the Australian table wine, this time at a celebratory party (complete with a noise maker). BTW, do you think that the 'Yellow Tail Kangaroo' might be the next corporate critter to get a bad rep for being popular amongst youngsters (just like 'Spuds McKenzie' for Bud Light, and the Camel cigarettes spokesmorph)? Only time will tell...
Seeing the Philadelphia Eagles pull an upset by defeating last year's champions - the New England Patriots - and winning their very first Lombardi Trophy was truly worth staying up for.
Of course, the real reason I'd watched the entire broadcast was to check out the newest commercials they'd debuted. (And, at $5M for thirty seconds of airplay, I thought that these had better be good ads... Little did I know what awaited me on the small screen.)
I'll just mention a handful of spots, and you can look for most of them in "YouTube". I'm not even going to bother with links...
- - - - - - - - - -
FUNNIEST COMMERCIALS M&M's: "The Wish" (:30): Oddly enough, of all the commercials aired on 'Super Bowl Sunday', this year there was absolutely NO annual spot for Snickers - using the familiar format of having a celebrity fill in for the ordinary human (who doesn't feel quite like himself) before his eats the candy bar. Coincidentally, M&M/Mars filled this empty gap with a spot for their colorful candies, where 'Red' complains about being eaten, and (upon finding a 'lucky penny') wishes he was human... and promptly turns into Danny DeVito! (If you got to write this commercial, what human would YOU have had 'Red' turn into?)
Avocadoes from Mexico: "Bio-Dome" (:30): Looking like a sequel to the Pauly Shore film comedy (although, in this spot, Chris Elliott makes a 'cameo'), a group of scientists celebrate their first day of a two-year project of being enclosed from civilization, with bowls of guacamole - only to discover that they'd left the snack chips outside the dome!
Tide: "It's a Tide ad..." (2:00): David Harbour (of "Stranger Things"), claiming that Super Bowl commercials are so predictable, decides to pop up into some of those spots, mainly to promote Tide detergent - including parodies of ads for fast-food restaurants, car manufacturers, Old Spice, and even Mr. Clean (the latter of which, like Tide, is a Proctor & Gamble product). The football game has been over for a few days, and I'm still wondering where or when David's going to show up in another commercial and simply say "It's a Tide Ad"...
Australia.com: "Crocodile Dundee Reboot" (2:00): Looking like a genuine movie trailer, Danny ("Vice Principals") McBride attempts to fill in the shoes of the original 'Crocodile Dundee' (played by Paul Hogan, who has a non-speaking 'cameo' in this spot). We know that this is a fake ad, and we're all just waiting to find out what product Danny was pushing. As it turns out, it was simply a promotional travel ad for the land 'down under', but the American actor pulled it off so well, now there's talk about making a real reboot of the 1986 movie...
Doritos/Mountain Dew: "Blaze/Ice" (1:00): Probably the most talked-about spot during "Super Bowl LII" were back-to-back ads for two PepsiCo products: a spicy version of Doritos (tortilla chips) and a cool new flavor of Mountain Dew, hyped (respectively) by Peter ("Game of Thrones") Dinklage and Morgan ("March of the Penguins") Freeman - each of whom lip-synchs a fast-moving hip-hop song! My mind is still blown by this... How about YOU?!
- - - - - - - - - -
SERIOUS COMMERCIALS There were three unique commercials that aired that all had something in common, beside conveying a message about a serious subject: You never see the product connected with the brand name.
A spot for Toyota showed the odds of a physically-disabled person winning a Gold Medal diminish as he/she prepares for the Winter Paralympics (to follow shortly after the Winter Olympics in South Korea ends), but you didn't see a single Toyota...
Another auto maker - Hyundai - set a scene at an airport, where folks (owning the car) were taken into a Security room, to see a video about how a portion of Hyundai profits from its sales go to cancer research. The payoff of this video is that some of its patients wanted to thank the car owners (in the Security room) 'in person'... and they do, by entering from another room! And, again, no cars appeared in this spot...
Finally, a Budweiser ad without beer? Anheuser-Busch pulled it off, in a special promotional spot, where the employees at one of their breweries replaced the beer with clean, pure water - to be distributed to the victims of 2017's hurricanes and wild fires. A noble gesture, indeed...
- - - - - - - - - -
MOVIE TRAILERS/SNEAK PREVIEWS Naturally, Hollywood wanted to hype their latest flicks - even if some of them won't be released until the end of 2018. Of the nearly one dozen promos airing during the big game, these are the five films I'm looking forward to seeing, later this year...
"Skyscraper" with Dwayne Johnson
"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"
"Solo: A Star Wars Story"
"Mission Impossible: Fallout"
"Avengers: Infinity War"
- - - - - - - - - -
ANIMAL COMMERCIALS Of course, no list of "Super Bowl" ads would be complete without a few spots with fauna in them (although, the only Clydesdale horse I saw was in one of those Tide ads)! Here are my 'faves'...
Geico: "Manatees" (:30): Airing during one of the 'Pre-Game' shows (even though it had debuted a week or so earlier), I'd found it amusing to see a bunch of these native Floridian sea cows floating about in an aquarium... with each manatee wearing a 'tee' (such as "I'm With Stupid!"). Funny concept, but will it really help you save 15% or more in car insurance?
TaxAct: "Dog Walker" (:30): The title human character figures out a way to save money through his occupation, in various unique ways. And the dogs look cute, too!
U.S. Bank: "No Dogs Allowed" (:30): Of course, the sponsor that also has the Minneapolis stadium ("Super Bowl LII" takes place in), has a charming ad about a dog owner, who feels sorry for his pet - when he's not permitted to enter certain public places. So, the person takes out a loan to buy a new home in the suburbs, where his dog can roam free in its front yard... Naturally!
Trivago: "Hamster Wheel" (:30): The star for the online travel service ads has a dual role: as the usual spokesperson, leisurely seated in a den, and as a costumed hamster, running in a giant wheel - and going nowhere (just like customers who use the competitor's service)...
Yellow Tail: "Big Game Surprise" (:30): The CGI Kangaroo is back in another short spot for the Australian table wine, this time at a celebratory party (complete with a noise maker). BTW, do you think that the 'Yellow Tail Kangaroo' might be the next corporate critter to get a bad rep for being popular amongst youngsters (just like 'Spuds McKenzie' for Bud Light, and the Camel cigarettes spokesmorph)? Only time will tell...
NatashaArts
~natashaarts
awww that budweiser one sounds so sweet <3
