So, last night I had my first Super Bowl experience, but since I still don't understand the game, I watched the ads instead (watching the Super Bowl for the ads must be like buying Playboy for the articles). NY Times says the overall level of the commercials is up, but I'd say that at $2.5M a pop, it isn't terribly impressive. My favorites: Hummer's little monster (love the new tagline), FedEx's caveman, United's knight, Budweiser's wave, and Burger King's whopperettes.
The coolest thing is that marketers seem to have finally realized that if they are paying a fortune for everyone to see these ads, then there might be some people who actually may want to see the ads more than once, and so the commercials are widely available online in a variety of formats. Hats off to CP+B for the Whopperettes website where you can find not only the original commercial, but also a nice bunch of bonus material that includes ringtones, MP3's, lyrics, and even sheet music and raw music files in case someone wants to come up with a remix.
The site for the Hummer's monster, done in the visual style of 1996, is also great. You can call the robot's office at 1-888-robo-job (that's 1 888 762 6562) and leave him a message. Note that your call can be recorded for quality assurance purposes.
Finally, a bonus pop quiz. Match these brands - Sony, Hummer, Mercedes, Haagen Dazs - with their slogans: "like nothing else", "made like no other", "like no other", "unlike any other".
