Here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of Campaign Outsider, we’ve always adopted a flood-the-zone approach to Super Bowl coverage. So the hardworking staff was on the Super Bowl ads like Brown on Williamson.
Overall impression: With far too many of these spots, the game wasn’t worth the candle. As in past years, the commercials were, for the most part, overproduced and underexciting (see, for starters, Budweiser’s “Human Bridge” ad).
(You can see them all here.)
But the hardworking staff is renowned for its optimism, so let’s start with the good ones.
The Snickers “You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hungry” ad was a hoot, and Betty White is a joy to see even in the mud. Volkswagen’s “Punch Buggy” ad had a good punchline, and Audi’s “Green Police” cleverly kept you wondering if it was sponsored by some tree muggerati group.
Cementing the Automotive Division’s dominance, Kia’s “Sock Monkey” spot (big shoutout to the red pickle guy from “Yo Gabba Gabba”) was, well, a dream. The Bud Light “Lost” ad worked too.
As for the rest:
• Weirdest Moment
When the careerbuilders.com’s “Casual Friday” cringer was immediately followed by Dockers‘ “Wear No Pants” toe-curler. What was it, the Tightey Whitey Bowl?
• Most predictable
GoDaddy.com’s always sophomoric and breast-obsessed spots, which actually were less T, more Ad this year, and Anheuser-Busch’s annual Clydesdale tearjerker, this time with a calf-turned-bull.
• My Life in 60 Seconds
DoveforMen, Google, and Monster.com all ran variations on “This Is Your Life” (the fiddling beaver won hands-down). Memo to ad agencies: Get a life.
• What a Bringdown
The thoroughly overhyped Focus on the Family Tim Tebow “Celebrate family. Celebrate life” spot was subtle to the point of invisible, and nothing like what the news media had predicted.
But it did feature the Super Bowl Annual Terry Tate Memorial Out-of-Nowhere Tackle.
• The Dingbats Took My Baby
Why is there a new E*Trade spokesbaby?
What ad agency Baby Einstein came up with that?
• Stupid Bowl Trophy
Easy choice: the Doritos ads, individually and collectively.
• Stupor Bowl Trophy
A tie: Round Up and Shape Up.
Shut Up.
• Simper Bowl Trophy
Man up, you weenies in the Dodge Charger and FloTV spots.
See you next Super Bowl.
Campaign Outsider 
I like most of your top picks, but I thought the Audi ad was a *huge* misstep — it sets up a world in which police enforce environmental PC rules and just as you’re starting to wonder what right-wing outfit sponsored this ad, they show how the Audi is following those new rules. What’s the message here?
I liked the essentially silent Google ad a lot, but I was watching in a loud bar — talky ads like the eTrade babies (isn’t this campaign played out already?) just don’t register at all when it’s hard to hear the TV.
Didn’t watch it, and if I had, would have changed the channel when the ads, and especially the overblown, self-involved half-time show. It’s what I did when the Patriots were in it, only now, I had no dog in the fight. Call me when the thing become the NFL Championship game, and the celebrity bloated stupor bowl returns to the fans instead of those with the connections to be seen at the next big event.
I sense that the ads are being developed by younger and younger creative types every year.
My guess this all was the work of 7-year olds.
“What ad agency Baby Einstein came up with that?”
That’s funny.
John, I loved your take on the Stupor Bowl commercials that ran on Emily Rooney’s “Greater Boston” show for a few years. In your absence, the show doesn’t even bother with the topic any more.