Cedric the entertainer, Bob Dole and a monkey on a horse. No, this is not a whacked-out Republican convention, it is the new millennium’s first prime-time sporting extravaganza: The Super Bowl, the one game that football fans and sports foes alike sit to watch two teams play for the world title.
Nay, nay I say! Everyone watches it for the commercials, the laughs and this year, a great half-time show. There are Super Bowl parties and beer, but that is a different story.
Super Bowl XXXV has come and gone. And sadly, this was hardly a year to trump “the game of the century.” With the Ravens 34-7 victory over the Giants, the “super slaughter” looked more like a regular season game. There must be a better reason why 131 million people were watching at some point.
Entertainment and humor were the name of the game this year. Advertisers, paying $2.3 million for 30-second spots, spent less time selling and more time amusing.
There were no talking lizards, and the “wasssssssup” guys had a small cameo, but Anheuser-Busch led the pack again, with some great commercials. Cedric led off the beer commercials with an instant classic in which he accidentally explodes a beer all over his girlfriend.
As a tribute to the annoying catch phrases that have swept the nation, Budweiser offered the perfect anti-wasssup commercial with the three yuppies shouting “What ARE YOU doing?” while “reading the market breakdown and drinking a European import.”
Self-mockery always works, and this spot is no different. The new “catch phrase” is sure to not catch on, but it maintain itself as a punch line from now on.
E*Trade showed some wit with its monkey-on-a-horse ad. E*Trade also did a superb job with The Matrix spoof of the elderly security guard fighting bank robbers. If the Internet trade company keeps this up they may become a permanent fixture in Super Bowl commercial lore.
Former Senator Dole’s debuted as Pepsi’s new spokesman in a mock Viagra-Pepsi commercial. Everyone watching stared in terror as he prepared to tell a youthful nation how a product has changed his life-thank god for Pepsi. Once again a clever attempt at self-mockery has a successful finish, much like the limber back flip from Dole’s stunt man. Advertising note: Sexual humor with an old guy works!
Volkswagen proved that whenever you have three random guys throwing stuff at a tree and down crashes a car, it can be funny. However, the problem is you can only watch this spot once, anymore and it is just not that funny.
Diet Dr. Pepper and Cingular both had burly men dancing in their ads. From a pseudo Riverdance to boxer break dancing, one can only imagine what the advertising department was thinking. There were other standouts, but they focused their advertisement on the human condition.
The rest of the advertisements were disappointing, and watching movie previews during the Super Bowl is not entertaining. The quality dipped significantly as the game wore on, with many repeats and stupid commercials already shown prior to the Super Bowl. Subway, we’re looking in your direction.
Notes for next years Super Bowl: have a fourth-quarter Bud Bowl with a monkey on a horse officiating and ballet dancing football players for the half-time show.
