Uberfluff

Well, that was total bullshit.  (I refer here to the travesty that was the actual game, and which I can only explain by positing that the Pittsburgh Steelers have signed a deal with Satan.)  Of course, the ads were a bit on the disappointing side as well.  I know some people get all excited about the Superbowl commercials, but I tend to think there's a bit of a downward trend in ad quality over the last few years.  Sure, there were some interesting and amusing commercials, but nothing really stood out as water cooler fodder for me.  Still, I suppose we can dub a few of them winners by default.

My favorite of the night was probably the Conan O'Brian Swedish Bud Light ad--mostly for the send-up of foreign celebrity commercials, but the Times Square punchline was nicely done too:

Honorable mentions go to the Hulu Alec Baldwin ad, which was on track to be mildly amusing, but pulled out a score with a good punchline, and the Careerbuilder.com work frustration ad that included punching a koala.  I was all set for that to be another run-of-the-mill job search site ad, but since I was already in a koala-punching mood (due to the aforementioned game travesty and the obvious use of dark voodoo magic on the part of the Steelers), this one really tickled me.

So who really whiffed on their million dollar spot?  It's hard for me to just pick one because there are so many ways to squander the money and opportunity.  Personally, I loathe the Go Daddy commercials with every fiber of my being for 3 main reasons: 1.) It's not actually an internet porn site, but the commercials sure as hell give you that impression; 2.) You know, there are women out there who make web hosting decisions (ahem), and we're not particularly moved by the debate over which skanky chick's fan site has better hosting of her lingerie shots; and 3.) So you've decided to go T&A, but now you're going to half-ass it by using Danica Patrick?  I'm not saying that she's not attractive, but she's not famous enough or hot enough to warrant being used solely for sex appeal.  If I'm going to be influenced by the opportunity to watch a hot chick shower on the internet, I want someone a lot sexier than Danica Patrick.  She's what's known as, "sexy for her particular profession," which coincidentally is otherwise entirely male.

The other big miss for me was one of the Pepsi ads.  Actually, I'm not a big fan of Pepsi's advertising in general--they always seem to just miss the mark for me.  And I can't be the only one who finds there whole "new generation" shtick lame and tiresome.  You've been the, "choice of a new generation," for how long?  Frankly, every time I hear the, "new generation," line, it feels a little like the time my mom called something, "phat-with-a-p-h."  Anyway, their biggest miss for me this time was their MacGyver spoof--again, mostly for the missed opportunity.  MacGyver is some fertile spoof territory, and yet this is all you do with it?  Spend the whole time joking about the name?  Where's the MacGyver magic?  How can you give me a MacGyver spoof where no one actually rigs up any cool gadgets or disarms a bomb with a paper clip or anything?  That's the whole point.  Make a bomb shield out of Diet Pepsi cans, disarm the bomb with a mixture of Pepsi and toothpaste.  I don't care, but do something MacGyver-ish.  But they totally missed the opportunity.  And that makes for crappy spoof.

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