This was originally published on thenflfieldhouseblog.wordpress.com.
Well, let’s be honest with ourselves. The best part of Super Bowl XLVIII really was the commercials. (Although, granted, the halftime show was better than expected, no thanks to Bruno Mars. But that’s not the point.) If by some chance you were one of those watching the game who focused less on the game itself and more on the commercials, you can’t have been disappointed. It wasn’t necessarily the strongest field in the game’s history, but it was definitely a memorable one. To wit, then, it’s time for the first annual NFL Fieldhouse Super Bowl Commercial Awards. We’ll get to Best Commercial at the end of the post, but first, we’ll take a look at some of the other categories.
Most Bizarre Commercial
And The Award Goes To: Audi’s “Doberhuahua” Spot
Do I really need to go over all the weird and crazy things in this ad? Ugh, fine. Firstly, the CG is so uniquely disturbing; the idea of a chihuahua with a Doberman’s head may not seem very fear-inspiring, but this ad makes the results out to be a veritable plague. (Think the Ratbirds from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and you’ll get the idea.) Quite frankly, I nearly had to go curl up in the corner afterward. It’s kind of weird, though, that it has absolutely nothing to do with what it’s trying to sell (namely, the new Audi A3); that’s one of my pet peeves when it comes to commercials, and it’s part of what kept this one out of consideration for my Best Commercial award.
Honorable Mention: Squarespace’s “Internet” Ad
Most Disappointing Commercial
And The Award Goes To: Hyundai’s “Nice” Ad
This ad had so much potential; Hyundai, perhaps the world’s most consistently entertaining advertiser, hired Johnny Galecki–you may know him as Leonard from The Big Bang Theory–to star in their Super Bowl advert. Hilarity was surely bound to ensue, right? Well…not really. The whole premise of the commercial is Galecki randomly pointing out the new Elantra’s highlights–invariably in the form of “Nice X.”, where X equals the part being referred to–and the random girl he’s talking to replying with a similar statement based entirely on a terrible, unfunny pun on said highlight. Seriously, just look at this line:
Galecki: Nice acceleration.
Random Actress Whose Name Escapes Me: Nice…detonation.
I mean, seriously? Even I couldn’t come up with something that puntastically terrible. All in all, just an unfunny ad and a waste of thirty seconds. Hyundai should’ve left this one on the cutting room floor.
(Dis)Honorable Mention: Oikos’ “The Spill” Spot
Most Epic Commercial
And The Award Goes To: T-Mobile and Tim Tebow’s “#nocontract” Commercial
Surprising? Maybe. But if a commercial can suddenly make Tim Tebow, one of the sports world’s most…intriguing figures, into the second coming of the Old Spice Guy over the course of a minute, then it’s an automatic win in my book. This actually aired originally as two separate 30-second ads during the game; I’ve attached the full-length version for your viewing pleasure. I personally think it’s amazing that Tebow had the guts to poke this sort of fun at himself, and it paid off big time in this case. Maybe not on the level of one of the umpteen million Peyton Manning spots, but without a doubt one of the best Super Bowl ads featuring an actual football player in quite some time.
Honorable Mention: GoPro’s “Red Bull Stratos” Ad
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