Yes, let’s just get it out of the way: as game watchers were wondering when the clear victor of the Brand Bowl would emerge, the answer came late in the game when the Budweiser Clydesdale “Brotherhood” spot aired.
Set to Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide,” music which she had never before licensed for commercial usage, this sentimental spot read like a 60-second version of War Horse (only with a much happier ending). Men and women teared up at this simple beautiful mini-movie – and kids loved the cute horsie. Beautiful branding execution by the King of Beers with their continued tie in to these equine kings. They even brought the spot some social media life, giving viewers the chance to name this foal by tweeting suggested names with hashtag #clydesdales.
There were some other interesting sentimental spots – like the polarizing (and long) Paul Harvey “God Made a Farmer” commercial for Ram Trucks and Jeep’s “Whole Again” ad supporting Operation Safe Return for military, but the as-yet-unnamed baby Clydesdale ran away with the emotion show. Besides, neither of these other two spots offered brand memorability.
On the humorous side, Tide’s “Miracle Stain” nailed the funny meter – AND got major points for being eerily on track with the unpredictable nature of the game right when it aired.
How could anyone have known that the 49ers would mount an incredible comeback attempt in the second half…and then that the Ravens would hang on to just enough of their lead to “erase” the mark that San Francisco was making? It was almost as if that Joe Montana stain was urging on the team to near victory then all hope was washed away. Tide could not have been more memorable, although there was some negative chatter from Niners fans…
The user-generated Doritos spots were funny. Personally, I preferred “Goat for Sale” (screaming goat only placated by eating bags of Doritos – and possibly the evil twin of the McDonald’s “Goat Eating Right” animated spots) over “Fashionista Daddy” which seemed painfully predictable. Then there was GoDaddy, who aired two different spots during the Big Game. Let’s not even talk about the second spot, since nobody else will, based on the utter grossness of the first ad featuring a long close-up of model Bar Refaeli kissing an unattractive nerd. “Kiss” got people talking…about how turned off they were by GoDaddy’s lack of aesthetic appeal. While the brand will certainly be remembered as one of the stand outs from this year’s Super Bowl Ad-o-rama, it will be because of their simply nauseating spot. And here it is, just in case by some weird chance you haven’t seen it yet:
One more thing worth mentioning: Oreo, whose “Whisper Fight” commercial got people talking (quietly) lit up the Twitterverse when the stadium power outage happened, thanks to quick thinking and forward thinking agency / client efforts.
Within minutes, they tweeted this photo about dunking in the dark – which was retweeted about 10,000 times immediately and will certainly be included in “best of” ad discussions. I’m pretty sure it cost less than $4mil per :30, too. (Go social media!)
~ @AdvertGirl (Denise Blasevick, CEO of The S3 Agency)
