Font Size:

blog by Dave Johnson

Superbowl XLIV (that's 44 by the way) was another great one!  The game was competitive and shocking to many with the much admired Peyton Manning being left unable to pull out the win and the city of New Orleans got to celebrate in the biggest way.  A city that probably deserves some good news for a change.  But the Saints players weren't the winners on Sunday night...

Superbowl 44 advertisers some years are hits and some are misses.  I thought last night that, for the most part, they were hits.  From the Doritos kid, the Bud Light voice box, the Bud Light house, the Budweiser human bridge, Betty White with Snickers, and the surprise of the night...David Letterman on the couch again with Oprah AND Leno!

There were so many great ads but I thought the surprise of the night had to go to David Letterman for his Late Show ad.  And big credit to him because it was his idea.  Often times those late night guys have so much stuff written for them that they don't know what they're saying...but Dave conjured up the whole Oprah/Leno promo himself.  And Oprah reportedly said yes to the idea instantly.  And credit to Leno who I've often been a critic of...said yes too and flew all the way to New York from L.A. for the :15 second Superbowl ad.  Such a big drama in late night with Conan getting bounced created perfect timing for this unlikely promo.  And Jay deserves so much credit because it was a promo for Dave's show on CBS and while Jay sure gets a lot of publicity from the spot, he doesn't really gain NEARLY what Dave does because Jay doesn't even come back on the air until after the Olympics on NBC.  It was a classy move by Jay who isn't known for that kind of thing.

It's amazing looking back at ALL of the ads because I missed a bunch of them...but of course in the digital age you can catch up and watch your fav's again too.  Here's a link with all of the ads by quarter:  http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/

Some of the losers in my view were these: the creepy Careerbuilder.com ad with dudes in undies, any movie promo I think look silly within the context of a Superbowl, Coke's sleep walking, GoDaddy needs a new idea, and the Monster.com beaver was dumb.  Just my thoughts!

What were the winners and losers in your eyes?