BuzzSugar

Buzz In: What Were Your Favorite Super Bowl Ads?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:30:26 -0800

The fun of the Super Bowl may be behind us (go Steelers!), but the ads will remain, at least for a little while. Not all of last night's ads had me laughing out loud, but there were a few I particularly liked - and I'm curious to know which ones caught your eye (besides the movie trailers - we're talking about those over here).

My top tier includes Hulu's "evil plot to destroy the world" ad with Alec Baldwin, Teleflora's offensive talking flowers (seriously, folks? Don't send me flowers in a box from now on!), Pedigree's giant pets, and cars.com's David Abernathy, boy genius ad (which reminded me a little of a Wes Anderson movie, though I was also oddly put off when I found out it was for cars.com). Others that made me laugh - maybe more than they should have - were SoBe's 3-D lizards, the Doritos crystal ball (which topped USA Today's ad meter), and the Denny's thugs. The dating Budweiser clydesdales made me "squee" a little, and of course I got a laugh out of Conan's Swedish ad. And even though it's basically a repeat from last year, I'm so glad the E-Trade baby has a friend.

What about you? Which ads had you chuckling or "awww"-ing long after they left the screen?

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2008 Super Bowl Commercials: Five of the Worst

BuzzSugar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:33:55 -0800

This year's mixed bag of Super Bowl commercials included some cute, funny ones and others that were baffling, bad or downright offensive. Seriously, how did the SalesGenie panda spot make it on TV at all? It's just wrong. To see what else made my "worst of 2008 Super Bowl commercials" list, read more.

Pandas thing, SalesGenie:

More and more viewings of this commercial only manage to confuse me further. Why do some of the pandas have this outrageously offensive accent but the all-knowing guru panda (who wears a turban and pink lipstick?) does not? Why are there baby pandas at the end? Was their panda marriage re-ignited by SalesGenie? How is it possible that this commercial made it on the air? So very puzzling.

Planters: "Perfume"

So, girls who aren't pretty can only get the boys if they rub cashews on their skin. Gross. Weird. Not funny. Also, the Dell ad for Product Red had basically the same premise, but that guy wasn't offensively ugly - just vaguely nerdy and normal-looking. I love me some double standards.

Bud Light Carlos Mencia: "Picking Up Chicks":

What did I learn from this ad? That chicks love foreigners? That white boys should fake accents so they can stare at women's boobs? That women don't like it when people make derogatory comments about their thighs? And that's all supposed to make me want beer?

Bridgestone: Richard Simmons "Headlights":

Richard Simmons generally gives me the creepy feelings in the tummy, but when there's a seemingly evil person speeding a car toward him - also, get out of the road, Richard Simmons! What are you doing? - it's downright crazy-making.

Garmin: "Napoleon"

This one wasn't bad so much as baffling and obscure. The reason Napoleon always kept his hand in his jacket was because that's where he kept his GPS device? Um, OK. But if you're a mapping company, is Napoleon really the leader you want promoting your product? Sure, go ahead and follow him; not my fault if you end up dead at Waterloo.

2008 Super Bowl Commercials: My Five Favorites

BuzzSugar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:29:51 -0800

The commercials that aired during this year's Super Bowl were pretty hit-or-miss, but the ones that "hit" really made me laugh or, in the case of the Wall-E spot, made me grow a little misty-eyed. After the jump, check out my five favorite Super Bowl spots - from talking stains to talking babies - and tell me which ones you liked as well. To check them out, read more.

Bud Light: Ability to Breathe Fire

I have rarely been a fan of Bud Light commercials in the past, but some of their Super Bowl spots this year were pretty funny. I laughed out loud when I first saw this guy sneeze fire, which is just a hilarious concept.

Etrade: Bobo the Clown

Yeah, talking babies, when done poorly, are creepy and just wrong. Something about this little guy's adultish nuances and average Joe chatter just cracks me up, though. And this Bobo the Clown spot is infinitely funnier than the other E-Trade baby one in which he ends up puking. That's just gross.

Coca-Cola: Coke Floats

Get it? "Coke floats"? I love these silly, whimsical Coca-Cola ads. Not only is this a funny concept, but it's beautifully made. Also, Charlie Brown wins! It's so satisfying.

Tide: Talking Stain

Not only does a shirt stain talk in this Tide commercial, it shrieks in another language. Awesome. Also, the stain babble could be your new ringtone, which is just wonderfully absurd.

Wall-E Trailer

OK, first off, this trailer has Toy Story's Woody and Buzz Lightyear debating the virtues of Wall-E ("I hear he even goes to infinity." "But not beyond.") while tucking into a gigantic bowl of popcorn. Then there's Wall-E himself, making friends with a vacuum cleaner, accidentally sucking up a cricket, and then making a mess trying to save his little buddy. What's that? Crying? Me? No, no, it's just onions. Onions. Right.

Did This Year's Super Bowl Commercials Live Up to the Hype?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:30:00 -0800

Super Bowl Sunday is the one time of the year I don’t get up to stick more leftovers in the microwave or throw my clothes in the dryer during the commercial break. Last year I thought that overall the ads were pretty underwhelming. This year, it seemed hit-or-miss. Some spots, like the talking E-Trade baby, were great, while others (SalesGenie's panda bears with the terrible accents, say) were really unfunny.

What did you think? Did this year’s ads live up to your expectations?

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GM Robot Commercial Less Suicide-y for the Oscars

BuzzSugar — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:40:24 -0800

Apparently, between this year's Super Bowl and last night's Oscars, the clumsy General Motors robot has gotten some counseling. GM originally aired a commercial during the Super Bowl that even made me uneasy: While working on a car, a robot drops a screw and gets fired. After a series of "worse" jobs, robot throws itself off a bridge in despair before waking up and realizing it was just a stress-induced dream, due to GM's quality-obsessed culture.

This definitely didn't jive with suicide prevention groups, and understandably so. As a result, GM edited the spot for the Oscars to remove the suicidal ending, which is nice, but now it's "that commercial that used to have a robot suicide and now doesn't."

For more on the controversy and to see the original commercial and the edited version, read more

According to an article in USA Today:

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention...said the spot may encourage people to consider suicide as a solution to their problems. The group demanded that GM apologize, not air the spot again and remove it from its website.

"We wouldn't see this ad around cancer or heart disease," says Robert Gebbia, executive director. "Why's it OK to make fun of mental illness or depression?"

The point was obviously taken, though not so much as to remove the ad altogether. How do you guys feel about GM's actions? GM's website has the new version of the ad, and you can watch the original Super Bowl ad below.

The Five Most Baffling Super Bowl Ads

BuzzSugar — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 15:16:41 -0800

There were a few bright spots in this year's rather underwhelming batch of Super Bowl ads; a ton of other commercials were downright bad. But several just left me shaking my head, not sure what exactly I'd just seen. Here are my picks for the five most baffling ads of the night; what were yours?

Budweiser Select
It's possible I'm missing something, but what was this ad about? Jay-Z and former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula played a chess-like virtual football game with their fingers while not drinking beer? I'm confused.

GM "Obsessed with Quality"
So a GM robot gets laid off after dropping a bolt, takes a variety of dead-end jobs, and ultimately jumps off a bridge - before realizing it was all a dream inspired by GM's quality-obsessed culture. The use of "All By Myself" as the background music was great, and I like a cute robot as much as the next girl - but with all the trouble the auto industry's been in recently, wasn't it kind of a bad idea to feature a spot where one of your robot-workers loses his job and commits suicide? Just a thought.

Three more, so read more

Salesgenie.com
I totally thought this was going to be a parody, but alas, it was for real. The plot and acting looked like something you'd see in between infomercials on basic cable at 2 a.m.

Chevy HHR
Props to Chevy for running an ad contest for college students - but really, a homoerotic car wash? That skinny old shirtless guy is going to give me nightmares for weeks.

Garmin
A guy's unwieldy map turns into Evil Mapasaurus, and he must rely on his portable GPS device to defeat the enemy while a fairly realistic-sounding heavy metal parody plays in the background. I won't remember what Garmin is two days from now, but this ad dropped me right back into my 1980s Transformers fangirl phase.

Honorable Mention: The "do something manly!" Snickers ad. It was like the Lady and the Tramp noodle moment, but with grody guys instead of cute cartoon dogs. And second, I don't want to see anyone rip off their chest hair, ever, unless it's Steve Carell being waxed in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

The Five Best Super Bowl Ads

BuzzSugar — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:55:34 -0800

I thought it was kind of a weak year for Super Bowl ads, and so far, you seem to agree. Still, there were a few ads worthy of a second look. Here are my picks for the five best; what are yours? Tell me in the comments below.

Bud Light "Rock, Paper, Scissors"
Call me juvenile, but I've been laughing at "I threw a rock" for, what, almost 24 hours now?

Nationwide Insurance
The most anticipated ad of this Super Bowl actually managed to be pretty darn funny. K-Fed rapping along with himself on the tiny TV was fantastic.

Three more, so read more

Late Show with David Letterman

Letterman. Oprah. Domestic bliss. This was 10 seconds chock-full of awesome.

Sierra Mist "beard-combover"
I'm not going to pretend this ad has anything to do with Sierra Mist. It does, however, have everything to do with Jim Gaffigan in questionable shorts and seriously bad hair, which is good enough for me. The roller skates were a nice touch, too.

Emerald Nuts
I love the premise of Robert Goulet as a guy who sneaks into your office to mess with stuff in the middle of the day; he just looks so gleeful when he dumps the coffee on the keyboard. But mostly, I'm just glad to know there's a proven antidote for Goulet.

Honorable Mention: Sprint's "connectile dysfunction" ad. All it was missing was the guy throwing a football around at the end.

What Did You Think About This Year's Super Bowl Ads?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:54:11 -0800

With the possible exception of Kevin Federline's Nationwide spot, there were very few buzzworthy commercials during this year's Super Bowl. What did you guys think of the ads this year?

TV Tonight: "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials 2007"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:15:10 -0800

After a while, all of the lists of greatest Super Bowl commercials start to look the same - the Michael Jordan vs. Larry Bird "nothin' but net" ad, Apple's 1984 spot, etc. At least CBS is doing something (slightly) different this year. A while back, the network ran a competition where people could vote for their favorite ad. Tonight, they'll reveal the winner during "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials 2007."

Viewers then can head online to decide whether it beats the classic Mean Joe Greene Coke ad, which has been voted the best for several years running. Voting starts at 9:30 p.m. Eastern, and you can get a jump on things by watching the potential winners. To see the ad they're all up against (warning: grainy 1970s video ahead!), read more