Super Bowl Commercials Live Blog

by

Feb 7, 2010

Super Bowl Commercials Live Blog 9:57 p.m.: So there you have it: the 2010 Super Bowl commercials. If you are not easily enticed, then you probably laughed, cried, got upset and made fun of some dumb commercials.

If you are a sucker, then you’re probably trying to make an “American Car Bomb” out of Bud Light and Coke, pounding Doritos, two domain names richer, texted “What is the phone number of that girl in your ad?” to 542542, and plan on waking up early Tuesday morning to enjoy a Denny’s “grand slam” breakfast. (Wait, I think I just threw up in my mouth.)

9:53 p.m.: The commercials were a little weak this year, but there were some solid ones. My top three:

3. Doritos ad with the cute kid protecting his mom and his Doritos.

2. Kia Sorento ad with the toys dreaming about partying.

1. Snickers ad with Betty White.

9:50 p.m.: E-Trade, please do something new next year. You peaked at “Shankopotamus.”

9:46 p.m.: Congrats to the New Orleans Saints, who capture their first Super Bowl championship.

9:41 p.m.: Shape-ups from Sketchers may feel good, but they look absolutely horrible.

I restate my position on GoDaddy.com. They need something new.

Great, now Denny’s is giving away a free “grand slam” breakfast on your birthday. If your birthday is this Wednesday, please — please! — do not visit Denny’s two consecutive days for back-to-back “grand slam” breakfasts. You might never recover.

9:35 p.m.: Bud Light book club. Bud went to the beer/girl well again, but I enjoyed it.

9:31 p.m.: Tim loves Doritos. I love it. Don’t be stealing my Ritos.

9:29 p.m.: Much like Denny’s, $5 for a Taco Bell Box is a bargain for your wallet, but not for your stomach.

9:23 p.m.: Another Denny’s ad. You can eat there if you like, but know this: You get what you pay for.

9:19 p.m.: Video games really are big business nowadays. Dante’s Inferno ad. CBS made them change the ending, from “Go to Hell” to “Hell Awaits.” Not really sure what the difference is there.

 

9:09 p.m.: Vizio with an ad for getting Twitter, Facebook and the like on your TV. (I must confess that I am not a fan of these social networking sites.)

The NFL draft will be in prime time this year. I absolutely love the NFL draft. I’ll watch every pick.

8:56 p.m.: There we go — finally, a great ad. It was for the Kia Sorento and featured children’s toys and stuffed animals dreaming about going to Vegas. That was some innovative stuff.

Next up is Budweiser Select 55. At what point do we say “enough already”? 64, 55, 25?

RoundUp drops $3 mil for a little ad. Apparently there’s a lot of money in wedding-killing.

8:52 p.m.: Wow, an ad for the U.S. Census Bureau. Your tax dollars are hard at work.

8:48 p.m.: Again, this blog is only for the Super Bowl commercials. If you are looking for the game blog, click here.

8:45 p.m.: Nice homeaway.com ad featuring the Griswolds from Vacation. Back in the day, Chevy Chase was terrific. If you don’t know what I mean, go watch Fletch again.

E-trade is trying to stretch this baby thing too far. Plus, was that commercial insinuating that the babies were getting romantic? But for the record, yes, “milkaholic” is a funny term.

8:32 p.m.: I know that I’m in the minority here, but I just don’t get the whole Megan Fox thing.

Great punch-buggy ad with Tracy Morgan and Stevie Wonder.

Denny’s is giving away a free “grand slam” special this Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Good luck if you decide to go.

8:22 p.m.: An ad just directed us to paystobecurious.com. I tried to check it out, but I couldn’t get to the site. I think their servers just exploded.

7:54 p.m.: Some local ads, plus a Flo.tv ad where they changed the words to “My Generation.” Why would they do that? I hate when they change the words to great songs.

7:50 p.m.: The first half of the game is over, and we’ve seen zero great commercials. An embarrassing showing for the ads. There was not a single commercial that got a big laugh from the crowd.

My favorite: Snickers ad, “You’re playing like Betty White!” Good, but certainly not great.

7:44 p.m.: Did you even realize that Don Rickles did the voice-over in that Teleflora ad? How do you waste the talents of Don Rickles like that?

7:42 p.m.: Tru.tv is going to have a great show featuring a tiny Troy Polamalu. At least that’s what I got out of that commercial.

7:38 p.m.: Nice ad for the Dodge Charger, featuring beaten-down men. Favorite line: “I will watch your vampire TV shows with you.”

7:31 p.m.: Dove For Men. I just took a poll here and it’s official: No man cares about his soap. When I asked what soap people use, the most common answer was “whatever is on sale.” I agree.

7:29 p.m.: Does Brett Favre have any shame? In a Hyundai ad, he mockingly wins the 2020 MVP Award. No one loves Brett Favre more than Brett Favre. OK, maybe John Madden does.

7:25 p.m.:  Two no-pants ads in a row. One great spot for CareerBuilder.com, where all the employees wear only their underwear on “casual Fridays.”

The other ad is for Dockers. I am not sure why, but a bunch of men were singing, “I wear no pants.”

7:19 p.m.: What? Leno, Oprah and Letterman in a commercial for The Late Show? Leno looked really bad during that Oprah interview. I guess he is willing to do anything to try and improve his image.

7:11 p.m.: The crowd here thinks Cars.com and GoDaddy.com have the same problem. They just need some new ideas.

7:08 p.m.: GoDaddy.com ad. This thing was decent, but the idea is getting stale. They need to do something new.

Bud Light tries to recreate some of the magic with their “Wassup” ads, but fails.

7:04 p.m.: We get a long Coke ad featuring characters from The Simpsons. Mr. Burns is broke and forced to sell everything, but Coke reunites everyone. Long ad, but not that great.

6:59 p.m.: I almost forgot. My wife and I have a great “house rule.” Any time you open a fresh bag of Doritos, you need to notify everyone else in the house. A great rule, since the first 24 hours of Doritos life are the best time to consume.

6:55 p.m.: Doritos strikes back. We get a funny ad with a kid acting like a father, telling his mother’s date to keep his hands off his mom and his Doritos. I love Doritos!

Wonder if there will be a Doritos ad with Jay Leno and Conan fighting. We love you, Conan.

6:50 p.m.: We start out strong, then go downhill in a hurry. Two bad ones.

There is a Doritos ad with a dog putting a bark collar on its owner. Just not funny.

The other is a Boost Mobile ad with a version of the ’86 Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle.” Terrible and completely outdated.

6:46 p.m.: Starting strong. The house made of Bud Light commercial was solid. “There’s Bud Light inside the fridge made of Bud Light.”

And the Tim Tebow commercial just aired. Nothing special.

Snickers ad featuring Betty White. She is great in everything.

6:31 p.m.: Just a reminder that this blog is only for the Super Bowl commercials. If you want to read a live blog of the game, click here.

6:26 p.m.: A nice MacDonald’s ad featuring Dwight Howard and LeBron James parodying the old Magic vs. Bird commercials. And Larry steals the food at the end. I like that. Bringing generations together.

6:09 p.m.: If I had $3 million to spend on one 30-second Super Bowl ad, I would probably do a version of Brewster’s Millions. I’m picturing a shot of me wearing a diamond-encrusted platinum necklace of a huge question mark, sitting in my backyard with three of my friends, Hulk Hogan, Bill Belichick and six koala bears, watching Latrell Sprewell and Antoine Walker play one-on-one for $1 million, in a game officiated by Tim Donaghy, while the original members of Guns N’ Roses play “Welcome to the Jungle” in the background.

Then a voice over guys comes on, “Log on to NESN.com to see who wins.”

Are you kidding me? Who wouldn’t want to watch two ex-NBA superstars battle for what used to be pocket change and is now more than their combined net worth.

Side note: If you have never heard of Brewster’s Millions, it’s a movie. Do yourself a favor and check it out. Trust me.

5:30 p.m.: I was going to propose an idea for a Toyota commercial involving a speeding car driven by Keanu Reeves, with a voice over from Edward Norton’s “automobile recall specialist” character from “Fight Club.” However, in light of the fact that people have died as a result of this issue, I am going to pass.

On a serious note, read this article for what to do if your Toyota accelerates unintentionally.

12:30 p.m.: Super Bowl Sunday is practically a national holiday. Every year, millions of Americans get together to watch the big game. They come for the food, the friends, the halftime show, the game and, of course, the commercials.

Super Bowl commercials have become their own subculture. We talk about them a week before the game and two weeks after. Entire Web sites exist solely to preview, review, rank and criticize them.

Even more astounding is the kind of money that is being thrown around. From 1990 to 2009, the Super Bowl generated more than $2 billion in advertising sales. With the economy in a downturn, the cost to advertise during this year’s Super Bowl actually dropped for the second time in history. It cost a mere $2.75 million for a 30-second spot.

When it comes to Super Bowl commercials, no one does it better than Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser). Last year, Budweiser purchased 4:30 worth of ad time. (You do the math.) But it’s probably worth it. From the Bud Bowl, to the Clydesdales, to the frogs, Budweiser has dropped some great ads. They may not be the “King of Beers,” but they are certainly the King of Super Bowl commercials.

As usual, there are sure to be surprises, both good and bad. Here are some of the interesting pre-Super Bowl commercial twists:

1. As usual, there are always some banned commercials.

2. For the first time in 23 years, Pepsi decided not to advertise during the Super Bowl.

3. There will be a Focus on the Family ad featuring Tim Tebow.

Previous Article

Tuukka Rask, Bruins Shut Out Canadiens 3-0 to Snap 10-Game Losing Streak

Next Article

Saints Slow Peyton Manning, Top Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl

Picked For You