Brand Bowl 47: The Millionth Recap

As if there aren't enough of these, I figured I'd recap of a handful of Super Bowl 47's commercials. I believe a handful of spots put the "Brand Bowl" on its back and made it worthy to the viewer, some below are not a part of those handful.


A-B InBev "Budweiser Black Crown" [Anomaly] - I don't mind the idea of launching a new product during the most watched sporting event in the country however the product better be good. A-B InBev should have saved the money from the spots and produced a good beer with it. On a side note, Anomaly's work on "Brotherhood" for Budweiser was outstanding.

Audi "Prom" [Venables, Bell & Partners] - Awesome. It managed to squeeze an excellent narrative into a minute piece that left you thinking what you should have done at prom back in the day. If Audi makes a limousine, there are going to be a lot of black eyes.

Even Nissan used it to build on.

Best Buy "Ask Amy" [CP+B Boulder] - The crew at CP+B used Ms. Poehler well in this spot. Light-hearted, fun and a great use of character. A good look for big box stores, which is hard to find — like the Cloud.

Blackberry - Next.

Cars.com "Wolf" [McGarryBowen] - There's always a humorous animal component to Super Bowl ads and this one definitely outdid Skechers' cheetah. Great way to bring the simple "no drama" message to life.

Coca-Cola "Security Camera" [Landia] - Completely refreshing, more so than the drink itself. Coke may not be great, but people can be. Thumbs up.

GoDaddy "Perfect Match" [Deutsch] - I was asked for my thoughts about this spot more so than any other ad in SB47. I'm not really for it or against it. It took a loosely-related "match" theme and brought it to life in a "what-the-f*ck" kind of way. I think the real winner here is Jesse Heiman.

Hyundai "Team" [Innocean USA] - More excellent work coming out of Innocean on behalf of Hyundai. The "Team" spot was memorable, well-casted and overall pretty badass for 10 year olds.

I wonder if this guy really laughed his ass off?

NFL Network "Leon Sandcastle" [Grey] - One of my favorite spots of the day. Deion Sanders played himself only as Deion could and the writing is superb. "You attracted to him? Obviously." Not sure if it will make a dent in NFL Network revenue but I'm sure the name Leon Sandcastle has already been cast on a newborn.

Oreo "Whisper Fight" [W+K Portland] - Big risk to whisper to 108 million Americans jabbering around their televisions but Oreo and W+K pulled it off. The Instagram call-to-action was fresh and executed extremely well. Outside of the spot is where Oreo really shined. Their timely content caused as much (if not more) of a stir than the whisper match — what a strong client/agency relationship.

Ram Trucks "Farmer" [Richards Group] - It shut the room up and made people pay attention. I thought it was a brilliant use of photography to support exceptional writing. "Farmer's" praise is best sung in the following tweet.

Samsung "The Big Pitch" [72andSunny] - Using celebrities might not be the most original strategy in the world but 72andSunny did it right by teaming Rudd, Rogen and Director Jon Favreau together to create this spot. The clips that didn't make it to the Super Bowl are just as solid and telling of a fun production. This is just a cherry on top of the great work produced for Samsung by 72andSunny, however I suspect most of the 72'ers still rock an iPhone.

Taco Bell "Viva Young" [Deutsch] - I won't beat a dead horse; despite the tagline, it was a home run for such an expensive ad buy. I was hoping to see some of the teaser footage of the old man ripping up a football field on his scooter would make it, but that's what YouTube is for.

Tide "Miracle Stain" [Saatchi & Saatchi] - My favorite spot of the entire Brand Bowl. The relevancy of it was crucial and production itself was damn funny. I would definitely try a "Stain-on-a-Stick!"

Volkswagen "Get Happy" [Deutsch] - Another good piece from the folks at VW and Deutsch. To all those criticizing it for the Jamaican theme, give it a rest.

And the best post-SB spot was Jell-O's "Surprise Pudding" - Take it or leave it San Fran!

[9] Ad Agency Drops Ball at the Super Bowl

I spend the majority of my non-Twitter internet time perusing Adage, Adweek and the like. I enjoy seeing which accounts are in review and which agencies replaced the incumbents of open accounts. A lot of the time the end of these agency-client relationships are the result of the departure of key figures in either of the two parties. Rarely ever do I come across an account that has been dropped due to a botched job by the agency that resulted in turmoil for the company, until today.

Earlier this afternoon I came across a tweet from GSD&M, a full-service advertising, graphic design and marketing agency located in Austin, that announced they would be welcoming the newest account to the GSD&M family with HomeAway. Also included in the tweet was a link to an Adage article that further detailed review process and acquisition. What was not highlighted in the tweet was why the HomeAway account was up for grabs.



Turns out HomeAway's previous agency Vendor, also based out of Austin, dropped the ball on a 30-second spot during the 2011 Super Bowl. Mind you that Super Bowl ads can run around $3 million and the estimated media budget for HomeAway is between $10-15 million (according to Adage).   Simply put, the commercial displayed a family in a sardine-can-sized hotel room where the chaos led to an infant being tossed face first into a glass pane accompanied with the tag line "Test Baby". Showers of criticism covered HomeAway as they took heat for making light of child abuse and injuries. The ad was yanked and the company quickly began a search for a new agency that could help them recover from the misstep. 

This begs the question of who is to blame for this? Was it the creatives fault for the controversial idea? Should the planners and strategists be held responsible for not accurately gauging the emotions and reactions the consumer would feel? Was it the fault of the HomeAway executives for green lighting the ad to air? On a whole I believe it is the fault of both the company and the agency as the entire process is a two-way street. Whatever the case is the ad should not have aired, especially on such a costly and crucial day for advertising.

The best decision HomeAway made was to start fresh. Selecting GSD&M to help them do so is as equally great of a move. You can see the influence of GSD&M behind many great campaigns including BMW, Southwest Airlines and The PGA Tour. One can only hope HomeAway can reposition themselves in the hearts of the consumers, but with the help of GSD&M it is probably a safe bet to say they will.