Archives for February 2009

Hot sauce ads are a dime a dozen. And the strategy is always the same: Whoa! This is some really hot sauce.

Fire. Fire alarms. Sprinkler systems. Burnt moustaches. It’s all been done.

Personally, I think many, if not most, of the hot sauce ads I see are spec, meaning created without the client’s knowledge for purely portfolio-building purposes. Who knows? In any event, here’s the most recent addition to the category.

Is the hot sauce bottle supposed to be a lighter or a detonator? I’m not sure. And I don’t think it matters. Both work, I suppose.

Whoa! This is some really hot sauce!

A few months ago I discovered a wonderful little creative shop in Denver called Sukle Advertising & Design. They do quite a bit of government-sponsored work, like for water preservation or anti-smoking initiatives. I’m hoping they get a more substantial client soon. They seem to have some nice talent over there — as evidenced by their most recent work for the Wyoming Department of Health.

The idea is simple: make the term “secondhand smoke” synonymous with death. Literally. These outdoor boards do just that, replacing the word death or one of its derivatives with the term secondhand smoke in common idioms or phrases. There were several of these, but these two are my favorites. Special kudos to copywriters Jim Glynn and Zac Spector.

Here are what I consider the best and worst spots of the Superbowl. Overall, I thought this was a slightly above average year. There were a few that shined as well as a few that bombed, as there are every year. I say ‘slightly above average’ only because I went into this with such incredibly low expectations. These are dark economic days, and I thought NBC would have a hard time filling the time slots. Advertising budgets are some of the first casualties in a downturn, and Superbowl advertising, which everyone agrees to be exorbitantly expensive, is a shoe-in for places to cut back. Perhaps that would explain why some big brands were absent this year (Fed-Ex, McDonalds) and why Miller only gave us a one-second blip.

And yet despite the bleak economy, some brands ponied up the money not only for the media buy but also for the multi-million-dollar production fees. Seriously. Some of these spots cost more than some feature-length independent films.

The Best
This one had me laughing out loud for quite some time. Brilliant use of repetition. And the casting is spot on.

I’m not sure what this spot says about Bridgestone Tires, other than that they’re often stolen, but it sure is fun.

A very expensive, beautiful spot for Coke. It’s not as fun as last year’s parade blimp spot, but it’s fun nonetheless.

This spot for Hyundai isn’t a new idea. The whole “our product is so great, the competition is angry” has been done a million times. But I doubt it’s ever been done this well. Brilliant. And I love the last line.

This one for monster.com is my favorite. Simple. Hilarious.

The Worst
This one was done by amateurs in a contest sponsored by Doritos. But it certainly isn’t Super Bowl worthy. And certainly not worth the $1 million the winners and creators of this spot received.

This one is cruel and stupid.

This Sobe’s spot was in 3D, but that couldn’t possibly have helped. It’s ridunculous.

Go Daddy is always crude and lewd, but this one with Danica Patrick may be the worst one yet. Shameful.

This spot for Vizio is an easy target. It feels more like a Power Point presentation than a spot. And it makes the brand seem cheap. If your annual advertising budget is only a few million dollars, don’t spend it all on the Superbowl media buy. Be smart. Build a branding campaign inch by inch throughout the year.