I RATE ADS

jtherkal: It’s not a bad ad. It’s not a good ad. It’s just bad during the Super Bowl. C-.

sjbooher: Done and Done. Word to Bill Simmons. C-.

sjbooher: Mascots and push button engines? I’m in. A.

jtherkal: Boom! I love this. So many great moments, just pure fun. I like the music, the bits, the toy choices, Vegas! Although it misses on branding, since Shannon thought it was Hyundai, and really it was Kia. And he thinks “toys” are called “mascots.” A.

sjbooher: Hyundai and Kia aren’t the same thing? C+, then, I guess.

jtherkal: Someone has been trying to sell a Christopher Guest script forever and they finally did it. Congratulations! You’re an unimaginative failure! Since it’s my job to know something about advertising, I read the trade publications and this has been a bit of a hot topic. The fact that this director appeals only to a certain high-brow, liberal audience, when really something much more mainstream is called for has been stated over and over. And rightly so. Not so much because only a certain type of people like this humor, but rather because it’s so dry and so subtle that you don’t even know what in the world they’re talking about! You don’t know what it’s asking you. And you don’t care. If your job is to tell America the census is happening, explain what it is, and why it’s important, you should never, ever put this on TV. F-.

sjbooher: The Census has a much better ad that appeals to the need of communities to get their proper funding based on the Census info. That one is a win, this one is a fail. D-. I do like Ed Begley, Jr. though, if that counts.

sjbooher: Amazing… they even pulled off sexism/misogyny with babies! But the people love it, apparently… C.

jtherkal: The people love it indeed! This is one of the only ads that quieted the entire Super Bowl party. People want to know what that baby is going to say. Milkawhat!? A.

jtherkal: If you like Coke that much, keep some at your camp, jackass. Don’t go steal it from some poor African. This didn’t really live up to the level that Coke has set for itself recently. Plus, that song was from an old-time porno I had as a kid, so whenever I hear it, that’s all I can think of. C.

sjbooher: Ha, I love: “If you like Coke that much, keep some at your camp, jackass”. Also, Coke joined the male pantsless club, with this one, if that counts. About halfway through, I thought “What’s the product? I’m no longer watching, let’s go buy some Ambien.” F.

jtherkal: Aside from the fact that this is just not a good commercial, it’s one of the worst products known to man. $1 to get an answer to a text question? If you ever use this service, they should put you on a list of people who should not be allowed to be in charge of anything, ever. I’m sure there were a stack of funny scripts involving some sort of race to avoid physical pain by answering a question, I’m just not sure how this one was the winner. Product, F. Ad, D+.

sjbooher: And the fatal flaw? As my wife pointed out, the second guy should have obviously repeated exactly what the first guy said. F.

jtherkal: I bet I watch over three National Lampoon’s Family Vacation movies per year. As a movie franchise, that puts it up there with The Bourne series, Rocky, and Rambo. Well ahead of Superman and Friday the 13th. Watching the Christmas Vacation is one of my favorite parts of the holiday, and some of my first tits were seen with Rusty in Europe. I even suffered through Vegas Vacation one a few weeks ago. So I’m sort of excited to see the Griswolds here. I didn’t love-love the commercial, and I can’t view the episodes on the website on this shitty laptop, but I can’t give this any lower than an A-.

sjbooher: I may have never seen a Griswold movie… but I still recognized them. I can’t say that added or subtracted from the value of this ad, for me, though. It probably did hit the age demo that typically rents hotelts, though. I love puns and cats, so I laughed at both the “complementary” and cat poster jokes. I may even have had that poster as a kid, and if I didn’t, David Proudfoot did. This product seems like a good idea. A+

sjbooher: I admit to being totally biased here… I hate Lance Armstrong. F-.

jtherkal: I guess you’re not accepting the old one-nut sympathy card. I don’t like this for reasons other than Lance. First, I’ve always hated the beer-for-trim-lean-athletes-that-you-should-drink-after-exercise positioning. Although I guess it works, since I can think of at least two people who buy this shit. Second, where’d you find that song? FIFA ‘98? Come on! You spend all that money to get Lance Armstrong, go shoot him in the mountains and then pick that tired piece of shit song? Ugh. F.

jtherkal: Did I notice it? Yes. Was it funny? Pretty funny. Did I remember what it was about? Yes. Do I want to think about eating unborn chicken babies for breakfast? Not really. That’s the only flaw I can find here, especially when I think of the follow-up ads they did. A-.

sjbooher: Complete agreement. I love those screaming chickens! Denny’s even took a subtle jab at themselves, after last year some of their locations ran out of ingredients during this giveaway. A+.

sjbooher: At first I wrote, “Completely unmemorable”… But I think that’s because I was on beer 4, entertaining guests, playing with my 5-month-old, and logging all these damn ads! What could grab my attention over all that? Oh yeah… Megan Fox in a tub. Now that I watch it again, this is awesome, and completely memorable. Perfect Super Bowl Ad, to me — a known product re-emphasizing their product with a little star power and comedy. A+.

jtherkal: A nice way to showcase the cars and say absolutely nothing about them. Nothing like making a blind joke in a car ad. It’s not like they’re going to boycott your product. And until I went back and payed closer attention to the end line, I thought they had a flaw in their slugbug logic. But they did say ‘It’s a whole new Volkswagen and a whole new game.” B+.