sjbooher: F. And I don’t have to explain why at this point, right?
jtherkal: How can you give an F to an ad with such great jokes! Man abandons softball for book party! Do you like Little Women? Yeah, I’m not too picky! Kazam! That’s gold, Jerry, gold! Now you’re going to tell me you don’t like Seinfeld. Go back to Russia. It is what we thought it was. C+.
sjbooher:We’ve proven throughout this year’s review process that you CAN make great ads without using lazy stereotypes… gender or otherwise! And here’s further proof, USA Today’s top 10 based on actual people’s reactions. So that’s how I can given it an F. Not only is it lazy and offensive, it’s ineffective.
sjbooher: And there’s some creepy manvertising going on that I didn’t even catch (although I did subliminally, I guess… as I remember thinking, “Damn, I wish the Losties had ignored Jack. Then someone else could have been the main character!”). D. From manvertised.com:
“This Bud Light ad, though, is by far the most disturbing. The woman, attempting to take charge of the group of survivors, demonstrating a technical aptitude and leadership skills, is immediately drowned out by a prototyptical manvertising character, the dumb guy who only cares about beer. Her efforts are thwarted, twice, by his unwillingness to let her spoil the fun. Here, the woman’s voice is an disruptive annoyance.”
sjbooher: Jay-Z deaded autotune for those in the know, but it’s still valid for the hopelessly culturally behind. This probably could have been funny… but it wasn’t. Only T-Pain saves this from a D. C-.
jtherkal: I heard that Jay-Z song. It didn’t say anything about the death of jokes about autotune, did it? It should have. Autotune jokes have been done, but I guess we shouldn’t expect Bud Light to do anything not already established as a proven gag. Here’s the best autotune skit I’ve seen:
sjbooher: If I’m drinking Bud Light when the world ends… F.
jtherkal: There’s no way that’s bad enough for an F. Science party, featuring the guy from Dharma initiative (?). Maybe it’s because your wife went to Space Camp without you. Bud Light ads are just what their beer is. Light, thoughtless, fodder that doesn’t really fill you up or taste bad. C+.
sjbooher: Whaaaaaaat? Bud can actually come up with a semi-original/creative joke and dip down to the lowest common denominator? Amazing. C+
jtherkal: A house made of beer cans. I like that idea, but it falls apart from there, literally. Bud Light in a fridge made of Bud Light saves this one from falling lower than it did. B-.
sjbooher: Awesome effects, dude. I like this one a lot. In these cold winter days, if your product can make the consumer think about a nice summer atmosphere for even a minute, it’s probably a win. A.
jtherkal: I feel like I’ve seen winter in the summer or summer in the winter a bunch of times before. I live in the cold. And no crappy lime-flavored Bud Light is going to make me forget that my feet are numb right now because the floor in my apartment is akin to an ice rink. Winter sucks, but there are beers made for winter. Like Guinness. Not Corona, not Bud Light Lime. Know your place. Also, I just don’t think it’s a very clever idea. Oh, look at me, my six pack turns winter into summer. Blah. D.
sjbooher: You are right on one account, at least. I definitely remember the Coors Light ads that sweep snow in on a hot summer day. So I guess I have to count this as a jack. Downgrade. B.
sjbooher: I sort of like the drawing whatever you want concept, but don’t like the actual execution of it, here. Drinkability, itself, as my cohort said, is sort of dumb. Blah. D+.
jtherkal: I hate the drawing concept. Seems like something that sounded good on paper and turned out to be awful and boring in execution. And “Drinkability” is the worst, though it seems to be catching on as a joke. I’ve heard people talking about it. This particular ad is terrible, but I can’t deny enjoying watching the skier crash through all the tables. D+.
sjbooher: Who knew I would like this? I don’t really like Conan, but this is pretty funny. Of course, the Conan parts do not make me laugh, but the pedestrian at the end doing the robot and imitating Conan, that makes me laugh. But I still don’t know what this ad is for. Is it for Conan? C for Conan.
jtherkal: Oh, wait, you mean everyone saw that ad? Even though they said it would only be in Sweden? Conan should have kept not doing ads. F.
jtherkal: Violence is never the answer. I guess the challenge with beer commercials is that you can pretty much do anything, so unless you really hit it out of the park it feels sort of average. I like “does my pen have writability?” But overall I think drinkability is about the dumbest claim since Coors Light started selling on a platform of “cold.” C-.
sjbooher: Wow. To start off the festivities we are treated to an ad which is a completely an unoriginal idea, as it spoofs another commercial. I think the new saying is “epic fail”. F.
jtherkal: Dude. This idea had enough legs to be good for about one commercial. Dude. I think this was about the third or fourth version. Dude. And while it’s still pretty entertaining and true, it’s starting to get old. Dude. And a little annoying. Dude. Know when to say when. Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. C.
sjbooher: Dude. I generally lean anti-dude… except in the Hip-Hop slang context, used when describing another person, as in: “that dude can hit the 3″. So the fact that I sort of liked the original of this campaign, was a bit of an upset. My colleague has nailed this one. While there is definitely something to be said for incessantly hitting the consumer of the head with the same idea, I just realized that as many times as I have seen or heard these spots, I could have maybe guessed it was for a Budweiser product, but I could not have had told you which one. Maybe the guy should have been saying “Bud”. Bud. Bud. Bud. C-.