jtherkal: Boring. How was this a Super Bowl Ad? I like the insight, which has them taking credit for a lot of the innovations Apple developed, but this does nothing to differentiate itself within the Super Bowl Ad bonanza. I guess it’s not a car commercial, which is a start. D.
sjbooher: I have no idea what you are or what you do, other than you are sort of like an iPhone. Hmm, when’s the next iPhone come out? F.
jtherkal: I like it. I’m already a fan of the NFL, so you don’t have to do anything to convince me to watch more, but this was great. A pure celebration of football and pop culture. A.
sjbooher: Co-sign. A lot of this was CGI-ed, right? How many of the scenes required no editing? Any of them? A.
jtherkal: Yesssssss. I love seeing Detroit. The beautiful. The ugly. The real. Even being from the suburbs of Detroit leaves you with Detroit pride, so I hope some other people in America realized that even a dying city can still be great at the one thing that once made it great. Because it’s all they have left. At first I didn’t like Eminem going into the Fox, with the choir singing, but I’ve since come around. This is the motor city, and this is what we do. A.
sjbooher: Yesssssssssss x 2. The only thing that could, um, get me back behind the wheel is Eminem. It’s a little bit corny and cliche, and I wonder how I would feel if I did not love Eminem and had my own Detroit experiences. I saw R. Kelly in the Fox, if that counts. D, for Detroit. Just kidding, A.
Also, who knew Eminem would be the biggest celeb of Super Bowl Sunday?
jtherkal: Carmax. Carfax. Cartracks. Carstacks. Caracks. It was a little bit funny, but I didn’t walk away knowing anything more than I did before, nor did I remember who the spot was for. Fail. But slightly better than failing. C-.
sjbooher: I can’t handle it any more. Cars. Stop. Pass.
sjbooher: Stella Artois WOULD have Adrien Brody performing in a Speakeasy. I like it. You are what we thought you were. It’s probably good if everyone hated it. The people that hated it are supposed to hate it. It is still not that great, in and of itself, so I can only go as high as C+. I should give it an A just for not being about cars.
jtherkal: What? Terrible. Za! Za! Za! F.
sjbooher: Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrr-iiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggg. D+
jtherkal: Amazing, when I was clicking into this entry that’s exactly what I was going to write. But probably just as “boring.” It’s almost as if we’re on opposite sides of a border, and we both want to say how boring a commercial about our job would be, so we give an ad the same grade. D+. Now back to work.
jtherkal: Well, no one thought this was very funny. And my criticism is almost the same as it was for HomeAway. This is such a great, simple product, and somehow they managed to make it way more difficult to understand than it should have been. Of course, now the ads have been pulled due to people being offended, so I can’t watch them again to make sure I’m right about this. I wasn’t offended at all, and in fact I don’t mind the gag, but it isn’t a clear illustration of the power of groupon or how it works. Now we won’t even get to see the Elizabeth Hurley rain-forest/Brazilian wax joke, which may have been better for a Super Bowl audience anyways. D+.
sjbooher: Nothing says Super Bowl star power like Timothy Hutton! I was going to give an F, but they somehow managed to create a controversy which is the only way I would have remembered this service. C. No doubt the Hurley jammy would have been better for this event. Here it is for good measure:
Or even the Cuba Gooding, Jr. jammy:
sjbooher: Cars! Cars! Cars! Buy a car! Brainwash! De-program! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F. And by the way, “Compact cars truly can get better mileage”? Also, sports cars TRULY can be fast, SUV’s TRULY can be convenient to carry a lot of stuff, and sedans TRULY can be useful for hiding dead bodies in the trunk. If I get a compact car that thang better have good MPG, girlfriend!
jtherkal: I’m sorry, I can’t write this. I just realized that compact cars don’t have to be boring. I have to go buy one now.
.
.
.
.
Psyche! D-.
sjbooher: Huh? Huh-what-say-what? F.
jtherkal: I could not agree more. What an absolute clusterfuck disaster of a spot, for what is essentially an awesome and easy to understand service. This makes me embarrassed to work in the profession. Shameful. On behalf of all of advertising, I’m sorry HomeAway, that you blew your money on such a piece of dogshit. And then put that piece of dogshit on television for half a billion viewers to step in. Next year, I will write you 25 Super Bowl spots for free if you contact me. All better than this. You read that right. 25. F-.
sjbooher: What? Oh, almost forgot… Cars! Cars! Cars! Buy A Car! F.
jtherkal: I don’t know if that’s just car commercial fatigue, or if you’re not happy about the reference to anal here, but I think F is a bit harsh. I like sex jokes of all types and I’m sort of surprised they got away with what is essentially a guy shoving a six foot sandwich up a car’s ass. Yeezy taught me. B+.