jtherkal: Hahahahaha. Sort of funny. Although Brett Favre unretiring jokes aren’t really new territory. Also, I’m not sure I would have remembered this as Hyundai, since I think I just saw a bunch of Sears ads with Brett. Was that Sears? C+.
sjbooher: Good point. I definitely remembered the ad, but not the product, at all. My initial A is now also a C+.
jtherkal: I don’t understand. Were those men not really men, because they weren’t wearing their pants? I like the campaign thought for Dockers, men starting to wear the pants in the family again. But this ad missed the mark. And could it have come in a worse spot? Right after the Careerbuilder underwear spot! Take that, Dockers. D.
sjbooher: Let the manvertising begin. This ad set off a sickening trend in this year’s Super Bowl ads that left me near nausea. Over the past year or so, I have learned and thought a lot about what I will somewhat ignorantly label as “sexism”… probably “gender something or other” is a closer term, but whatever. This was sparked by conversations with my dear friend Colleen and my (at the time) impending fatherhood. Writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates and Peter Alilunas, who runs manvertised.com have provided written catalysts for this education, especially the latter when it comes to advertising. He can speak on these issues at much higher level than I, so I’ll leave the meaty critique to him. All I know is, I have no problem letting my wife make a decision, I like the color pink, I LOVE the Rachel Zoe Project and I will freely admit Mark Sanchez looked good in that CBS Cares Ad. And I am VERY MUCH still a man. And if I decide not to wear pants? I am still a man. So don’t put me in your crude, neanderthal box, Dockers.
If you weren’t sure, that’s an F.
jtherkal: This year was the year of the underpants joke. Of the bunch, this was probably the best. Anyone have an opinion on why you’d pick one of Careerbuilder or Monster over the other? No? Because their ads don’t really tell you either. B-.
sjbooher: Apparently you pick Monster if you are a non-human (AKA a Boogie Man or a beaver). If you are a sophomoric idiot, you pick CareerBuilder. C-.
sjbooher: Huh? Cross-brand-competition-disco-hell mix. C. For confused.
jtherkal: Sheer star power earns this an A. Nice try at not looking like a dick anymore Leno. Nice try.
jtherkal: Good, I guess? It’s probably not PC to give this a bad grade? Yawn. C+.
sjbooher: Dude… CBS Cares. Don’t you get it, jtherkal? Woman HEART Mark Sanchez. Mark Sanchez HEARTS women’s hearts. Get it? A.
sjbooher: Whatever swayable beer market share is out there, it is Bud’s. There was no beer competition this year. This is one of those that was a good, kind of clever idea on paper, but the final product did not have “it”. And I do not like it, but I have to give Budweiser credit for simply raising the IQ level of their ads. B- on the curve.
jtherkal: Predictable. Bud clearly goes with quantity over quality. What did I give that space ad? This should probably be the same. D.
UPDATE: From sjbooher’s wife, an 8th grade teacher: “8th graders think that the human bridge is real and that it was done with real people. Amazing”
jtherkal: I didn’t mind the original version, because I’m a sucker for that kind of Wes Anderson junk. I even liked it. This time around, the writing wasn’t as good. There was nothing that really topped the first one of these they made (except maybe that baby tiger). I won’t remember who this was for in five…four…three…two…one…C-.
sjbooher: It’s pretty horrible to have a series of adds appear of multiple Super Bowls, and no one knows where you are advertising. You probably should have branded yourself by now. You haven’t. This ad makes me want to stick needles in my eyes and think about Tim Tebow doing circumcisions. D-.
sjbooher: What just happened? What’s going on? The hilarious part, is that I GUARANTEE Joe Montana refused to let himself be filmed actually, you know, WEARING Shape Ups, and they still had him do a voiceover! Awesome. The sheer confusion this ad induced makes it a winner in my book. A slightly above-average winner, that is. C+.
jtherkal: Wait, that wasn’t a local cable ad? That wasn’t for Mr. Allens? 29.99 or 2 for 50! This guy knows what I’m talkin’ about. When I found this on YouTube, it was labelled: “SKECHERS Shape-ups Super Bowl Commercial feat. Joe Montana” Featuring Joe Montana!? Joe! Get a job in the booth! Sketchers?! This had no place in the Super Bowl and it made me feel sad. F.
sjbooher: I have a long history of criticizing ads that do not prominently display their product. You know what this ad is for, as far as I could tell? SeaWorld. Why… I’m not even going to get into the details of the “nonsensicalness” here. And I just bought Generals. Suck it. F.
jtherkal: Get it? Killer whale? Bachelor party? Hey Bridgestone, we all saw The Hangover. Best to not try doing a :30 second gag biting off the funniest movie of the last year. Only the line “it’s in my mouth” saved this from an F. D-.