Celebrities, animals and surprise endings dominated the advertising action during Super Bowl XL, but it was in-your-face humor that proved to be a winning play with many viewers this year.
In early results of a reader poll last night on The Wall Street Journal Online, FedEx Corp.'s spot featuring a caveman crushed by a dinosaur after failing to use FedEx was scoring highest with respondents. In an interview, Bill Ward, professor of advertising at Michigan
State
University
called it "pre-hysterical."
Sprint Nextel Corp.'s ad showing a guy demonstrating the "crime deterrent" feature of his cellphone by hurling it at his buddy's face was running second in the online poll.
"I loved it. It was so unpredictable," said Tony Smith, a 29-year-old teacher in Denver
, of the Sprint spot, crafted by Omnicom Group Inc.'s TBWA\Chiat\Day. "They nailed it," said Toby Barlow, executive creative director at WPP Group PLC's JWT. "Superlative, it blew away my expectations."
Anheuser-Busch Cos., which typically dominates the Super Bowl ad action, was also a high scorer with a clever commercial crafted by Omnicom's DDB that showed a group of guys bowing before a "secret" refrigerator they'd discovered that was full of Bud Light.
That ad "broke through and was attention-grabbing," said Emily Raman, a 28-year-old ad student at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston
,
Ill.
, who was watching the game with 35 other students.
Another Bud Light spot, showing husbands pretending to be working on their roofs, also tickled ad executives and consumers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, as did the Budweiser spot showing a sheep streaking through a football game being played by Clydesdale horses. "Well-done, classic Bud," said Steve Doppelt, creative director at MDC Partners Inc.'s Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners.
Roughly 90 million people in the U.S.
were expected to tune in last night to watch the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, and the close game kept many of them watching to the end. Such an audience, three or four times the viewership of most hit TV shows, makes the game a showcase for advertisers that can afford to pay as much as $2.5 million for a 30-second spot-up from $2.4 million last year.
For that price and exposure, most Super Bowl marketers go extra lengths to produce memorable ads that will score highly with viewers in postgame media polls. With the Internet, a winning commercial can have legs far beyond the usual office chatter or water cooler buzz. Web sites such as ESPN.com and NFL.com will replay ads while companies like Anheuser-Busch will post their ads online shortly after the game so consumers can view or download them.
New Media Strategies Inc., an online intelligence company based Arlington Va., that tracks online buzz and blog activity, says ads getting the most positive buzz online during the game included Sprint's "crime deterrent" spot and Bud Light's secret fridge commercial.
Ads with sophomoric humor and clever gag jokes reigned supreme last night, according to the people polled by the WSJ. But one serious spot also scored a touch down. Unilever's Dove spot featured young girls struggling with self-image issues gave many watchers goose bumps and was a crowd-pleaser.
"A great message for our cynical world," said Rob Feakins, a father of two teenage girls, who serves as executive creative director at Kirshenbaum.
Heather Pflederer, a 34-year-old stay at home mom in Oak Park
,
Ill.
, said the spot "was very moving."
Commercials during last year's game were toned down amid the indecency debate. Consumers, in general, rejected the safe and sweet ads that appeared during last year's big game. Ad executives said many marketers brought back their "A" game last night as ads seemed to be funnier. "I think a lot of the ads were good. Some were hilarious," said Andrew Ault, a creative director at JWT.
The Cinderella story of the night was Ameriquest Mortgage Co., which kept its ad under wraps in the weeks leading up to the game-unlike many other advertisers who share their spots with the media to generate attention. Ameriquest's tactic paid off. "Hilarious ad, everyone here cracked up laughing," said Matt Banchek, a 30-year-old public relations executive in St. Clair Shores
,
Mich.
, who was hosting a Super Bowl party. "Everyone laughed out loud," said Tony Colella, a 33-year-old who was attending a party in San Francisco
.
The spot, from DDB, depicting a mother and daughter in a hospital room had viewers buzzing about the unexpected plot twist. "Tons of impact and very memorable," said Ewen Cameron, chief executive at WPP's Berlin Cameron United. "The ad didn't try too hard and still worked."
Another popular entry last night was Careerbuilder.com. The online-job site's ad, following the story line of its last Super Bowl ad, showed an office run by a gaggle of chimps. Once again, it drew plenty of chuckles. "I am a sucker for monkeys," said Robert Rasmussen, a creative director at JWT.
A long list of celebrities took the field last night, including Fabio, Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy, actor Jay Mohr, rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, TV star Brooke Burke and baseball player Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees. Outshining all the famous names was actor and martial-arts expert Jackie Chan, who appeared in a Diet Pepsi ad pretending to co-star in a movie with the soda. The twist: To protect the beverage-turned-movie star, Mr. Chan uses Coca-Cola Co.'s Diet Coke for less-glamorous stunt work. Pepsi received high marks for a clever jab at its rival. "Very memorable," said Sarah Forti, a 27-year-old student at the Kellogg
School
.
Not every ad scored well. Burger King Corp.'s much anticipated elaborate song-and-dance numbers featuring the "Whopperettes," created by the hot Miami
agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky fell flat. The ad showed a group of women dressed up as lettuce, tomatoes and mayo coming together to form a Whopper. "Hold the pickles, hold the drama," said Dave Regan, an ad professor at Michigan
State
University
, who was watching the Super Bowl with 30 colleagues from the school. "They should have had it another way." Dave Alldredge, a 45-year-old customer service manager in Seattle
, labeled the burger barons ad as "horrible."
Among the other fumbles were expensive pitches for new products from Procter & Gamble Co.'s Gillette and Motorola Inc. For its new five-blade razor, Gillette produced a razzle-dazzle ad portraying a scientific experiment with men in white lab coats. But the ad didn't cut it. "Is this a real product?" asked Mr. Feakins at Kirshenbaum. "I was waiting for a spoof. When does the eight-blade razor debut?"
Motorola's ad hyping its new PEBL phone showed a meteor hurling through space and being battered by the elements until it becomes a pebble. Creative executives gave the spot credit for being "beautifully shot" but some suggested the commercial didn't have enough pizazz for the big game. "Usually you are making cool ads for boring products, here is a cool product with boring advertising," said Mr. Barlow of JWT. Average consumers were also less than thrilled. "Sort of a boring ad for the Super Bowl," said Luke McFadden, a 32-year-old government consultant in Washington
D.C.
With the game taking place in Detroit, auto companies were out in full force -- including hometown titans General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Corp., as well as foreign rivals Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. But none of the car-maker ads generated much heat. Ford topped the less-than-stellar crop with its spot for Ford Escape Hybrid starring Kermit the Frog.
"None of the car companies have done well this year," said Griffin Creech, associate creative director at Berlin Cameron. Mr. McFadden in Washington
D.C.
said he didn't "even notice" the car ads.
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