12/04/24
February 06, 2012
Cat-Murdering Dog with Dorito's Wins Super Bowl Ad Meter: The USA Today Ad Meter panel's top pick during the Super Bowl was a spot -- produced on a $20 budget -- featuring a Great Dane that murders and buries the family cat and buys his owner's silence with Dorito's brand tortilla chips. The runners-up also featured canines in a VW spot about an overweight dog and a Skechers spot with a sneaker-wearing bulldog outracing greyhounds. The game's non-football content also featured a rapper flipping the bird during a Madonna halftime show that was highlighted by a slacklining acrobat.
That Eastwood ad should've been earlier in the broadcast.
I'd never heard of slacklining before. The acrobat is Andy Lewis, the Shaun White of the low-hanging bouncy wire.
posted by rcade at 11:38 AM on February 06, 2012
I liked the Doritos ad with the baby in the slingshot best. Probably because by the time it aired, I was about ready to put a baby in a slingshot.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:40 AM on February 06, 2012
With the deep (and ultimately justified) sense of foreboding I felt heading into the game, I couldn't bring myself to watch the ads. They were too jarring a contrast to the gravity of the business at hand.
I realized my level of concern over a sporting event was ridiculous, so during the breaks I kept flipping to old documentary footage of the Battle of the North Atlantic 1939-1945 for some perspective.
posted by beaverboard at 12:05 PM on February 06, 2012
This was a down year for the ads. No new product launches other than Bud Light Platinum and nothing newsmaking on par with the year Christopher Reeve walked.
Madonna's halftime show was good, but she's no Prince. And that "Oh, Mickey, you're so fine" new song she debuted is a bubblegum nightmare.
posted by rcade at 12:10 PM on February 06, 2012
Yeah, if anyone was going to flip off the world, it'd be MIA.
posted by tron7 at 12:14 PM on February 06, 2012
So, Michael Vick gets all kinds of crap for being involved in dog-killing, but the cat-killing dog is now America's Sweetheart? Double standard, anyone?
posted by holden at 12:33 PM on February 06, 2012
In fairness, holden, cats are assholes.
posted by Etrigan at 12:53 PM on February 06, 2012
So, Michael Vick gets all kinds of crap for being involved in dog-killing, but the cat-killing dog is now America's Sweetheart? Double standard, anyone?
The puss had it coming.
posted by BornIcon at 01:18 PM on February 06, 2012
This was a down year decade for the ads.
There was nothing too special last night, and it's been a good long while since the Super Bowl ads on the whole have represented any substantial improvement over the commercials shown on any other Sunday evening. I think many of the advertisers have gotten lazy. Of course there are some good ones, but for the most part, it just seems like they have mistaken spending a lot of money (both for making it and for putting it on tv) for making better commercials.
posted by bender at 01:19 PM on February 06, 2012
The double standard issue was debated at the party I attended. Most could see the difference between a guy torturing real dogs, and a dog burying a make believe cat. That, and cats are pretty disposable pets to begin with.
rcade, I could not agree more on the new "Mickey" song.
MIA ought to be brought up on indecency charges. What the hell was that all about? Plenty of avenues for that loser to vent any frustrations she has with the world.
posted by dviking at 01:43 PM on February 06, 2012
The dog only thinks the cat is dead. He's never quite caught on to the 9 lives thing. Fluffy is at this moment working underground with the rest of the neighborhood felines to make the dog's existence a living hell. The guy who was bought off will suddenly find mysterious souvenirs in his shoes. A strange plague of mice and small rodents will appear, due to the intentional negligence of the cats in doing their exterminating duties. Odd odors will be noticed on the doorstep. Dog, you just don't know what you have done.
The halftime show might have been rather tepid, but my 22-year-old kid said something to the effect that Madonna is "pretty hot" for a 50-something woman. I guess that's a compliment.
I must confess I'm a cat owner - or rather on the staff of a cat - but I found that Doritos commercial to be really funny. Saw it first on the NFL Channel on Saturday, and had my wife and kid watching closely for it on Sunday. A close second in my rating scale was the Doritos ad where granny had the kid on a spring-loaded harness launched to snatch a bag of the product. I might be influenced by the fact that I own Pepsi stock (off by 40 cents right now, what does that tell you?), but they were still pretty good.
posted by Howard_T at 02:07 PM on February 06, 2012
No new product launches other than Bud Light Platinum
And the Gillette groomer thing? But the ads were pretty depressing, aside from Clint (which I assume was still W+K, who are a class apart right now). And even more misogynistic than usual, which is saying something. Fiat selling the 500 Abarth with a woman's arse? Really?
MIA ought to be brought up on indecency charges.
Also, every player who says "fuck" in the vicinity of an on-field microphone. Calm down there.
posted by etagloh at 02:29 PM on February 06, 2012
And the Gillette groomer thing?
Did they expand the number of blades in a razor again?
posted by rcade at 02:42 PM on February 06, 2012
Fiat selling the 500 Abarth with a woman's arse? Really?
Funny, my wife and I were discussing that commercial as an example of using sex to sell a product, but doing it in a clever and actually fairly classy way. Compare the sexuality contained in the Abarth commercial to the crass shit flung about the room by the GoDaddy monkeys, and I think it shows the two ends of the sex in advertising spectrum. While the GoDaddy ads don't really convey any sort of message ("go to our website and maybe you can see a booby"?), the Abarth ad was elegant and simple. They compare the thrill of seeing their sexy little car for the first time to that of an encounter with a beautiful woman. I liked it.
posted by tahoemoj at 03:02 PM on February 06, 2012
The guy in the Abarth commercial was nerdy and shorter than the hot Italian woman. I thought that sent a weird message about the kind of guy their car appeals to.
posted by rcade at 03:25 PM on February 06, 2012
Fair point, rcade, but I'm sure Fiat realizes that the Carhartt-wearing V-8 driver is not its demographic for the 500. Maybe they swung too far in the direction of nerdy, but they probably weren't too far away from the actual demographic they are trying to lure. The Mini/BMW 3-series white collar driver who spends more time with his iPad than the open road.
posted by tahoemoj at 03:40 PM on February 06, 2012
crass shit flung about the room by the GoDaddy monkeys
Make them go away. Please.
posted by yerfatma at 04:09 PM on February 06, 2012
Yeah, the Abarth (Top Gear review) has been watched from afar by the kinds of people who read Jalopnik, but haven't been able to buy it in the US: "Finally We Get The Good One."
So I'll give you that -- and it's not difficult to be classier than the woeful GoDaddy ads. And I guessed it was for the 500 about half-way through. But that was after the initial "really?"
posted by etagloh at 04:09 PM on February 06, 2012
GoDaddy ads were pathetic. I personally liked the Audi vampire spot. I thought it was fairly clever and pretty funny.
posted by insomnyuk at 05:15 PM on February 06, 2012
I liked the Audi one and the brown M&M one.
posted by bperk at 06:47 PM on February 06, 2012
Ah, you know, I love cats, but the Doritos ad was more of a organized crime spoof than a call to murder cats. Neither dog nor human was shown to be an especially admirable character and the take-away was that, for this fat slob, a bag of Doritos was enough to keep him from turning in a hardened criminal.
Anyhow, real cat killers = assholes. Dogs that bribe fat humans to be complicit in their crimes = comedy gold.
posted by Joey Michaels at 06:50 PM on February 06, 2012
I liked the Doritos ad with the baby in the slingshot best. Probably because by the time it aired, I was about ready to put a baby in a slingshot.
That's hilarious!!
posted by kcfan4life at 07:02 PM on February 06, 2012
My fave was the E*Trade ad, if only for the end...
"Bobby, what are you doing?"
"I'm speed-dating..."
Kills me every time...
posted by MeatSaber at 09:57 PM on February 06, 2012
Also, every player who says "fuck" in the vicinity of an on-field microphone
Difference between a player's cussing and an "entertainer" flipping off the crowd. Players are held accountable for that gesture, she ought to be as well.
So, you calm down. not that I was really all that upset, just want her to pay a price since a player would pay a price if they did that. Fair enough?
I really liked the Fiat ad. Sexy woman, neat new car, what's not to like?
Also thought the Audi vampire ad was well done.
GoDaddy needs to rethink how they spend their money.
posted by dviking at 11:15 PM on February 06, 2012
I like to imagine that MIA was giving the finger at GoDaddy.
posted by Joey Michaels at 02:10 AM on February 07, 2012
...cats are assholes.
Here MIA. Have some Doritos. They'll turn you into a cat.
posted by roberts at 07:08 AM on February 07, 2012
dviking, I prefer to think that people who do business with GoDaddy need to rethink how they spend their money. GoDaddy can keep wasting it on ads that show just how classless they are.
posted by apoch at 08:08 AM on February 07, 2012
I didn't even notice the MIA finger, so I had no opportunity to be offended.
posted by bperk at 01:15 PM on February 07, 2012
About the MIA-gives-the-finger controversy...
posted by grum@work at 02:06 PM on February 07, 2012
My daughter was taught the middle finger on her first day of kindergarten by an older kid during the after-school program. I find the overly-sexed commercials a bigger problem for purposes of family viewing than a middle finger.
posted by bperk at 02:20 PM on February 07, 2012
apoch, I must confess that I have no idea what one would spend their money on if doing business with GoDaddy, so I'll take your word for that.
The over-sexed performance probably isn't family friendly, but given that it was Madonna, one should have been aware that those outfits were likely. Far fewer were probably aware that MIA would most likely be flipping us the bird. I had no idea who she was prior to the show, so no, I wasn't expecting that.
My main point is that players are fined by the league for such behavior, and she's just another entertainer hired by the league, so she ought to be fined as well.
For the record, I wasn't overly upset over it as very few actually saw it live. Like the infamous wardrobe malfunction, most only saw it via countless TIVO replays.
posted by dviking at 05:53 PM on February 07, 2012
GoDaddy offers confidential lab tests for STDs, no-fault divorces and natural male enhancers.
posted by rcade at 06:15 PM on February 07, 2012
Well, rcade, as the frequent visitor you obviously are, tell us: How racy is that web only content?
posted by tahoemoj at 06:33 PM on February 07, 2012
dviking, GoDaddy is a domain registrar and they lost quite a lot of business recently due to their support of SOPA. Obviously, they need to lose a lot more.
posted by apoch at 06:26 AM on February 08, 2012
My main point is that players are fined by the league for such behavior, and she's just another entertainer hired by the league, so she ought to be fined as well.
You don't really think that the NFL's players' conduct policies apply to a contractor hired for a one-time gig? That seems most unlikely.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:04 AM on February 08, 2012
Clint Eastwood, as always, kicks the shit out of everyone in the room and then goes to find more rooms. Pity it didn't "count" for the Ad Meter, but frankly, Clint could give a ripe fart for your stupid awards when there's work to be done.