My Favorite Super Bowl Commercials

Firstly, let me say that I didn't think the array of commercials was really that great.  Did they feature a lot of celebrities? Yes.  A lot of super heroes?  Also yes.  Did they hock a lot of beer?  Of course.  I still don't understand though why 95% of the commercials seem to target men, when women make up 46% of the viewing audience.  Every commercial seemed to be about beer, trucks, and action movies.  And then there are those awful Go Daddy commercials.  But, some gems prevailed with genuine humor over sleazy marketing, and these were my favorites:

M&Ms are sexy and they know it...

Matthew Broderick relives the glory days...

Chevy shows a sense of humor...

French Condom Ad

Sent to me by one of my Board members.  AH-MAZE-ING

Greatest Music Ever Sold

In his movie, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (see post below), Morgan Spurlock interviews some really cool bands about integrating their music into advertising and even has OK Go write his film's theme song.  I've found that lately commercials are featuring more and more interesting music (even if it does tend to bend a little towards the hipster set) and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Matt & Kim - Daylight

Fatty Gets a Stylist - Are You Ready?

Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness

Ingrid Michaelson - The Way I Am

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

This tongue in cheek documentary by the creator of Supersize Me is definitely worth a rental.  In The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Morgan Spurlock examines product placement in films while at the same time creating a film financed entirely through product placements.  You get to see him approaching skeptical companies to pitch his idea, and a few of the really cools ones actually accept.

I've always been sort of fascinated with advertising.  To me, its an intersection between two things I like: art and convincing people of things.  I almost always watch the commercials during shows, and like most people, and especially most females, I tune into the Super Bowl for one reason and one reason only: the commercials (okay and possibly also as an excuse to eat nachos).    There is good advertising and bad advertising of course, maybe even responsible and irresponsible advertising, but I don't think advertising is evil.

Like I said, I sort of enjoy being advertised to.  As you know from almost all my other entries, I used to live in New York City.  New York City is probably the capital of advertisements - hello Times Square.  But there are also advertisements in bus shelters, plastered on construction sites, on taxi cabs, even entire subway cars refinished on the outside and inside as advertisements.  We're such a big market we get commercials tailored to us, we get movie releases other parts of the country don't get, we even get product giveaways on street corners!  That's my favorite.  I've gotten Stacy's pita chips, Sabra hummus, Coca Cola, and Simply Orange orange juice.

The movie is really funny, but also thought provoking and interesting.  A brand personality company even notes that Morgan's brand is "mindful and playful" which sounds like a great combination for a Friday night rental to me.  Pick it up to find out what "neuro-advertising" is and then come back and decide whether you disagree with me about advertising being evil.