Super Bowl LII Ads

[TravelGal]

What's yer take? I looked at all the major headlines online when I turned on my computer this morning and not one even mentioned the ads. TravelGuy kept asking when the ads were going to start, meaning what we were seeing was not worth commenting on. I sort of agreed but I did chuckle at Lionel Richie and, of course, I loved the Turkish Airline ad, even though I don't like Dr. Oz at all.

[SteveH]

Did you see Emmo? I'm pretty sure he was at the beginning of the Kia Stinger commercial. The one where Steven Tyler drives backwards on an oval to go back in time. Pretty random that it included Emmo, if indeed it was him. Not sure why he was needed for that commercial. All he did was get out of his car wearing a drivers suit and helmet.

I wasn't impressed by the commercials for the most part. Danny DeVito in the MM commercial was good but nothing incredible. The Tide commercials were cute but became repetitive. The Viking commercial for Dodge Ram(?) was sort of catchy maybe because it showed Iceland in the beginning.

[TKGAngel]

Did you see Emmo? I'm pretty sure he was at the beginning of the Kia Stinger commercial. The one where Steven Tyler drives backwards on an oval to go back in time. Pretty random that it included Emmo, if indeed it was him. Not sure why he was needed for that commercial. All he did was get out of his car wearing a drivers suit and helmet.

I wasn't impressed by the commercials for the most part. Danny DeVito in the MM commercial was good but nothing incredible. The Tide commercials were cute but became repetitive. The Viking commercial for Dodge Ram(?) was sort of catchy maybe because it showed Iceland in the beginning.

Yep, that is Emmo. Not sure how many people outside of race fans would know that.

I thought the Eli/OBJ NFL ad reenacting Dirty Dancing was hilarious and the Aussie tourism ad was well played. Other than that, a lot of 'meh.'

[nrc]

I spotted Emmo right away, I just didn't get why he looked liked that until the end of the commercial. I doubt that many people caught that. Emmo didn't look all that young even when he was young and I'd guess that almost nobody in the American mainstream recognized him.

Here's TiVo's Top 10, ranked by actual how many people actually watched or re-watched.

TiVo's Top 10

PepsiCo: Doritos Blaze vs. Mountain Dew Ice: “Battle”
NFL: “Board Games”
Pringles: “Wow”
Michelob: “The Perfect Fit”
Squarespace: “Make It Happen”
M&Ms: “Human”
Febreze: “The Only Man Whose Bleep Don’t Stink”
Movie Trailer: “Solo: A Star Wars Story”
Tide: “It’s a Tide Ad”
Tourism Australia: “Dundee: This Isn’t a Movie”

I thought the Dirty Dancing bit was better than "Board Games" but if you look at TiVo's infographic (http://blog.tivo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TiVo_post_game_report_2018.pdf), all the big viewership ads were in the first half. I think people tend to lose focus on the ads during the second half, especially in a good game.

I liked the Tide bits and I'll bet they got better brand recognition from their spots than a lot of these other ones. I liked the PepsiCo "battle" but I thought Dinklage crushed it and Jackson let it down a bit.

Looking back at some of the best ads from past years I think we may be past the golden age. Everyone wants to be safe and that means a lot of "feel good" stuff designed not to offend anyone.

By the way, in case nobody noticed they did do a half time show. No need to go back and check to confirm, the only worthwhile part of it was the Prince tribute. Even if you like Timberland, the rest of it seemed like something that could go and see at any stop on his tour - maybe just with a bigger stage and more expensive production.

[TravelGal]

I've now watched that Kia ad twice. On OUR TV, the first 20 seconds showed a graphic with "AAA Speedway" or something like that. I must have glanced away during the few seconds Emmo was there. If he was at all on our screen, I definitely would have recognized him. Funny, I remember the ad but didn't realize it was the Kia ad. We always watch for them because a shirt tail relation works on them.

Just before the game started there was a Mass Mutual ad showing all the good people do to help each other. That was a winner in my book. Also, although the horses are gone, Budweiser did a nice job showing how they can change from beer to water in an emergency with the flick of switch. It's something very few people knew (me included. LOL).

I completely agree with nrc. The golden era of ads is over. Now it's feel good (fine with me); stupid (not my demographic), or trailers for movies.