February 1, 2004
THIS YEAR'S SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS SUCKED!
About the only thing more boring than the first 26 minutes of the Super Bowl game itself had to have been the equally disappointing commercials. I stopped keeping track midway thru the 4th quarter, but of the 85 or so commercials I saw:
- 34 were for CBS's own shows
- 9 were for beer
- 7 were for movies
- 6 were for Internet service
- 6 were for sodas
- 4 were for smoking / drug prevention
- 3 were for automobiles
- 3 were for 'male enhancement' products
- 3 were for the National Football League
- 3 were for online job and resume listing services
- 2 were for computer operating systems
- 2 were for fast food
- 1 was for cell phone service
- 1 was for overnight / express package delivery
- 1 was for potato chips
Aside from the fact that most of this year's commercials sucked wind, here's what I'll remember:
The Ford GT commercial featured the following small print in the bottom right corner of the screen: "Clearly a professional driver on a closed course."
Best one-liner: "Baseball could use Levitra," spoken by Mike Ditka in an ad for the 'male enhancement' ad he's now 'pumping' in print and TV ads.
AOL's commercials featured the father and son team from the Discovery network show, American Chopper, but I don't think enough people watch that show to have made the on-screen combative relationship between the father and older son relevant to the majority of people watching this year's game and commercials.
Around 10 or so of this year's spots featured animals, including one farting horse!
The best commercial was the last one shown... the Subway spot, which put to rest for once and for all that Wang Chung will not have a reunion tour.
CBS, which refused to show a MoveOn.org commercial criticizing President Bush (the network indicated that they didn't accept the ad because of their position of never allowing "advocacy advertising") did air an anti-tobacco commercial which featured "Shards of glass freeze pops." The commercial itself wondered aloud why we can't get the same truth in advertising about tobacco. Hmmm, that ad sure seemed like "advocacy advertising" to me. (Regardless of how I may feel about Bush or anyone else, give me a break CBS! Be consistent with your policies, not political. Not allowing the to run was a form of advocacy advertising in-and-of itself.)
My alma matter, The University of Houston, got some major props during the telecast. The U of H marching band backed up some of the lip-synced half-time acts, and former of U of H star Antoine Smith played a solid game at running back for the Patriots.
Finally, who could forget Janet Jackson ìunintentionallyî exposing her right breast during the half-time performance. Final score... Super Bowl Game Itself: 28; Super Bowl Commercials: 7
Posted by Mikal at February 1, 2004 10:28 PM
I disagree with you slightly. The first Bud commercial with the highly focused Side Judge was incredibly funny. And, none of the guys I watched the game with saw it coming. In fact, I think we missed the next commercial because we were laughing so hard.
The anti-baseball commercial was AWESOME!!! Baseball does SUCK and someone's finally saying it to 1 billion people. Go Levitra!
I think that the Subway commercial was weak. Okay, it had Wang Chung, but nothing else. I'm glad that they put Jared to rest; that was a pleasant surprise.
My favorite moment, suprisingly enough, was Justin's "wardrobe malfunction." The reason being it has insured that MTV will not be producing another SuperBowl halftime. I did enjoy your alma mater's marching band. Wish they had shown more of it.
Not much has been said about the streaker.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs03/news/story?id=1724961
