you paid how much?

Let me preface this post: I watched the Superbowl in Germany so there was no American advertising... but I can't say that I missed much.

Maybe this is a little dated but I just watched the Superbowl ads on MySpace, which I think was an innovative way to feature America's most costly advertising. I'm interested to know how this works. Does MySpace pay advertisers to feature these ads on their site or was this part of the contract signed when buying Superbowl airtime? Either way it favors everyone involved, especially advertisers because MySpace users can even post the ads to their profiles.

On to the ads. This FedEx spot was the only one I thought was worth a damn, and of course, the Tide Stain ad is an old favorite.


Several others from Gatorade, Bridgestone and T-Mobile were okay... but nothing new and boring upon repeat views. And the only one that made me laugh was the E*Trade baby and clown.



Now onto the bad ones... Anheuser-Bush whether trying to be funny with Bud Light or serious with the traditional Budweiser Clydesdale's. The Claritin Nascar spot in the 3rd quarter was just bad. Never start an ad with: "Even if you don't drive 180 m.p.h. like I do...."

And the absolutely terrible: SalesGenie.com. These ads are normally horrible but this time around they seemed borderline racist and offensive to me... the pandas (named Ching Ching and Ling Ling) with Chinese accents and the Indian immigrant (named Ramesh) who has seven children to feed.

But the one that takes the cake, and even managed to make its way into the international broadcast, is GoDaddy... what's even worse about these always awful ads is the stuff that doesn't air on TV but is hosted on their site. You've been warned. See if you can find Ocho Cinco's spot... do you really think Chad Johnson updates his own webpage? Use their handy rating feature to tell them how much you love their stuff (it's created in-house).

Last but not least on the note of bad ads, what was with commercials featuring popular dance moves from 10+ years ago?

Diet Pepsi Max thought that it was about time to dig up Haddaway's "What Is Love?" and ride on Will Ferrell's coattails but without actually paying him to appear in the spot... maybe because Bud Light already claimed him for one of their SIX spots. And really, who was the genius who thought CG lizards doing MJ's "Thriller" dance were gonna sell Sobe Life Water? I would of been more interested (much more interested) in a contest to win Neverland before it goes to the auction block.

Even after Coca-Cola's 10-year hiatus from advertising during the Superbowl, their ads left something more to be desired. Disappointing ads from the Superbowl again... it seems like this happens every year.