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Super Bowl Ad Reviews: Q4

The final installment....

Touchdown: The "Dish Up A Plate of Those for Me" Award: Budweiser "King Crab"

Crabs and beer, one of those perfect combinations, like milk and Oreos, or lobster and butter. So when Budweiser shows up on the beach, the word goes out in the crab grapevine and buckets-full of them come to worship at the cooler. As the sun sets, Stonehenge-like, between two long necks sticking out of the cooler, this crowd of crustaceans is ready for a big pot of boiling water. I'm getting out my crustacean-cracking tools. (I guess I'm really susceptible to this ad because I didn't have time for dinner while watching the game, reviewing all the ads, and blogging.)

Fumble: The "Let's Try Boring them Into Buying Our Product" Award: Prudential "Rock"

Being an Ogilvy-trained ad guy, I live and die by David Ogilvy's many pithy sayings, including "you can't bore the consumer into buying your product." Unfortunately, not every advertising pro has read Confessions of an Advertising Man.

Stonehenge makes another appearance in this ad as Prudential sets up all the wonderful things rocks can do for you: inspire, sooth, entertain, on and on and on. And, of course, you see it coming that the Prudential rock will help you plan for a "rock solid retirement". Funny, they didn't mention how you can use a rock to hit your opponent over the head and win a game of rock/paper/scissors to get the last Bud Light.

Now, I was a geology major in college (no I'm not kidding), and even I can't find anything appealing in this ad.

Posted by Jim Nail on February 4, 2007 at 10:35 PM | Email this post Permalink
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Tracked on Feb 5, 2007 9:50:41 AM

Comments

I agree with you -- up to a point. Yes, less creative stuff sometimes sells more, but as David Ogilvy always said "You can't bore the consumer into buying your product".

Posted by: Jim Nail | Feb 9, 2007 2:04:03 PM

If corporations really want to make consumers happy, they should forego costly Super Bowl ads and instead invest in a Chief Customer Officer, a single person of power charged with putting him or herself in the customers’ mind.

But instead they spend their time and money making sure their ad is funny and entertaining, which doesn’t mean it sells more products. A good marketer surprises consumers by giving them new ideas on how and why to use a particular product. Ads developed by typical people or starring famous celebrities may get laughs, but are unlikely to generate sales. For every dollar you spend you should be seeing a dollar back and I sincerely doubt that these companies are generating an additional $2.6 million due to these Super Bowl ads.

Marketers need to stop thinking that marketing HAS to be creative. It HAS to sell goods and services. Sometimes the least creative marketing is the most effective.

Mark Stevens
CEO of MSCO
www.msco.com/blog

Posted by: Mark Stevens | Feb 8, 2007 9:17:34 AM

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