Abandoning Humor, Super Bowl Ads Mostly Miss
OWEN HEMSATH
PRIDE STAFF WRITER
Image courtesy of stupidcelebrities.net
The Super Bowl is the new Christmas, and the commercials are like the stocking stuffers. While they may not be the main attraction, they are certainly one of the best parts.
However, this year, the lighthearted humor that we expect from America’s most watched commercials was replaced with interactivity and special effects technology. A great example is Fox’s preview of the animated bird movie “Rio,” which featured a hidden clue used to unlock a mystery level in the popular smart phone application Angry Birds. Once unlocked, those who found the code earn a chance to win a vacation to Rio de Janeiro. Get that? While the interactivity and colorful animation benchmarked a new era in interactivity, the commercial just wasn’t funny.
Special effects also played a key role. Big players like Coke spent millions on a commercial aimed at gamers, comprised entirely of computer animation. Companies like Brisk and Chatter.com also focused on animated themes with commercials starring celebrity voices and likenesses like the Black Eyed Peas and Eminem. Hollywood continued the trend with hi-tech super-previews for the season’s upcoming sci-fi/action films. Movies like Steven Spielberg’s “Super 8,” the western-hybrid “Cowboys and Aliens,” and the comic book manifestations “Thor” and “Captain America” each presented a visually stunning demonstration of their product. This might have been a good idea if we all had movie-theater televisions, but we don’t. Everyone can enjoy a good joke but these commercials just weren’t funny.
It wasn’t like humor wasn’t in the cards. To the contrary, some commercials tried to be funny but the punch lines never hit. A few standouts did prove to be crowd pleasers and while they represented only a minority of total advertisements, they deserve some recognition. Bud Light’s first commercial called “The Hacks,” for example, was by far their funniest. The commercial mocks a before-and-after home renovation scenario where the only renovation in the “after” shot was a bucket of Bud Lights on the countertop. The line, “it really opens up the place” got a laugh out of the whole room. Doritos launched a commercial called “Funeral Guy” where a house-sitter successfully saves a dead fish when he sprinkles Dorito crumbs into the fishbowl. He saves a dead plant the same way. By commercial’s end, an urn is over-turned and the rest is obvious. Finally, Bridgestone garnered a chuckle with their ad, “Carma” which featured a man, and beaver, and great traction. Google the ad for its full effect.
So the humor wasn’t huge and tech toppled the rest. The commercials were visually appealing but the scripts were weak. We may never see the funny commercials that we once expected from the Super Bowl. Instead, we may be wise to expect more special effects, technology, and interactivity that begs the need for a bigger television and a better phone.