I RATE ADS

Shhhhhhhh, let’s try and make our ads as quiet and ignorable as possible. We don’t want to wake up anyone who might be sleeping during the Super Bowl. Nor would we want to interrupt their conversation about the game. I think people will respect us for being polite and tactful; that should translate into increased car sales. ERROR.

Hyundai Genesis — Crazy Big Twist

jtherkal: First, ads that are self-aware of themselves always feel like a hack-job. So this already has that going against it. This ad barely even registered on my radar. More poignantly, no one who is shopping for a Mercedes is going to have Hyundai on their radar. Not even after 1000 soft-spoken, “think about it” commercials. And if you can’t afford a Mercedes, do you really care that you can get a car that’s “as spacious”? Is that really what luxury means to you? At least tell us it has the same engine, or safety features, or in dash nav system as the Mercedes. But then again, maybe all you can talk about and still be in the same ballpark is space. Congrats. Does it look and feel like a Lexus or Mercedes ad? Yeah. Was that the point? I think. Is that a good idea? No. D+.

Hyundai Genesis — Aren’t Gonna Like It

jtherkal: I’m pretty sure the USA Today Ad Meter is going to say this ad sucked. No one is going to remember it. And if they do, they’ll probably think they saw an ad for BMW, Mercedes or Lexus. That’s the problem with making your ad look like the ads of your competitor, then saying the names of said competitors in the same ad. People will think they saw an ad for your competitor. On the bright side, the car looks nice and I like that typing sound at the end when the words come up. D+.

sjbooher:
“Ooooooooooo!!! He dropped it on Mercedes head like that, son! Ish was deep, kid!” Who are they kidding? A Hyundai is Hyundai and a Mercedes is a Mercedes. If you can get Jay-Z to talk about his Hyundai, then you’ll have my attention. Until then, stay in your lane, pun intended. F.

Bud Light came strong, or at least frequent, for the Super Bowl, and it was largely a trainwreck of advertising missteps, with only 2 above average grades.

The Mouth:

Going with quantity over quality was clearly the strategy here. Bud Light serves up a little of everything, so one of these is probably bound to be funny to most groups of people. For the most part, I thought this was a pretty weak effort this year.

Breathe Fire — C+

This is an attempt at a lame joke that has nothing to do with the product. What in the hell does breathing fire have to do with drinking beer unless you’re talking about the heartburn that comes after drinking nasty-ass Bud Light? Spots like these only work if they’re funny, and this is not. At least they do a good job of branding, as far as mentioning and picturing the product up front.

The Mouth:

This concept has the potential to be really funny, as is displayed in the dog talking about sausages commercial. This one isn’t that great, although I’m sure if they thought harder about it, they could have come up with a funnier situation for breathing fire. I’ll agree with C+.

Wine and Cheese Party — B

Now this one is clever and funny. Good job.

The Mouth:

Hard to argue with that. This one is dead on for the target audience. Man no like silly wine and cheese parties. B+.

Carlos Mencia — Foreign accent — F

One word: lazy. “Hey, let’s show another of those Carlos Mencia spots.” “Ehh, what the hell?” A) This campaign wasn’t funny the first time around. B) I’m not sure how much star power Mencia actually has. C) The humor is lowbrow, if not offensive. Horrible.

The Mouth:

Yeah, this one is bad. I actually think I like the old one, where he’s teaching the class to say “Give me a Bud Light.” But this one is just plain lame. Although I will say, even though I don’t ever watch his show or anything he does, Carlos Mencia seems to have some star power. D-, because I like the little fellow who says Buuude Light.

Cavemen — D+

Why are those Geicko guys drinking Bud Light now? Umm… I think ya’ll missed the memo: Cavemen are played out! Unoriginal and not funny.

The Mouth:

Oh, wait, I get it. They invent the wheel, then they use it to carry the beer instead of rolling it. Dumb, stupid and bad. I guess someone at Budweiser issued a mandate. “Those Geiko cavemen are popular, we need a caveman commercial in the Super Bowl this year. Cavemen are all the rage right now.” No, they’re not. F.

Flying man — D-

See the above review of “Breathe fire”. And honestly… he’s alive in the terminal later on? We’re not that dumb.

The Mouth:

I thought this was even worse than the fire breathing one. Is it even possible that they could have come up with something MORE predictable than having the guy get hit by a plane? I really don’t think so. On Family Fued, if they showed the first half of this commercial and asked how it would end, there would only be one answer. 100 out of 100 people would guess “guy gets hit by plane.” Ding ding ding ding. With the freedom that beer advertising gives creatives, whoever is responsible for this spot should be forced to write salesgenie.com spots for the rest of his natural born life. Double F.

Will Ferrell as Jackie Moon — A

This cross-promotional ad for Ferrell’s upcoming movie, Semi-Pro, is a winner. In character, Ferrell is his usual funny self, dropping Bud Light-related one-liners. Good.

The Mouth:

Just Will doing what Will does. “A magical blend of barley, hops and delicious alcohol.” Delicious indeed. A.