I guess I would watch this TV show.

Instead of leading off with some thoughts about the commercials, I would like to begin by saying the remnants of The Who sounded pretty terrible at half time. I think it’s clear CBS decided that the band should play to level up their synergy with CSI: Miami (since their opening theme is Baba O’Riley) but failed to make sure none of the surviving band members were dying from a disease that first becomes symptomatic with a horrible, grating death rattle that occurs when the infected attempts to sing.

Terrible. Just terrible.

There were a lot of large rodents in the Super Bowl 2010 commercials. There was at least one beaver, two prairie dogs, and one ground hog. There were also many shots of men in underwear, and men being emasculated. Then several ads shared the theme of the faux-cheap production. I think the connection amongst these three themes is clear. I won’t condescend to anyone by spelling out the obvious.

As usual, Taco Bell did not fail to disappoint. Click here to watch Charles Barkley take you his own strange Willy Wonka boat ride through the magical land of refried beans and globs of melted cheese. Watching this I was reminded of Burger King’s strange attempt to simultaneously resurrect and re-kill Hootie’s career several years ago.

For some of the best of the faux-bad, Boost Mobile should be embarrassed forever that it made this. Gross guys, just gross.

And I really wish Godaddy would put their designs on their on-going campaign to bed. I assume it’s working for them but it is overkill on the lowest common denominator. Class it up, jerkasses. Why do I have to be the only classy thing what cares about what is classy and what isn’t classy.

With advertising inventory reportedly still available a recently as a week ago, the 2009 Super Bowl ads threatened to be a mediocre lot at best. Rumors of Cash4Gold buying a spot prompted thoughts of a text-over-stock-photo 500 dollar production running in a million dollar time slot.

Advertisements were indeed bland. It’s kind of shameful when the network bumpers are better than the actual commercials. “If your Conan last longer than 3 hours..call a doctor.” -Tina Fey.

Continuing our tradition of pointing out puzzling Super Bowl commercial themes, we present the following oddities (video provided by Hulu, so not available outside the U.S., my apologies):

Smashing through glass or other structures

Used by:
Bud Light
Bud Light again
Doritos
Pedigree campaign

Wealthy African Americans and Bling / Gold

Used by:
Overstock
Cash4Gold
Career Builder

The smashing through glass and buildings meme just seems coincidental, like the slapstick fad last year, or the talking animal Super Bowl fad of the year before.

The bling meme sticks out like a sore thumb when you watch the ads back to back. The Overstock ad isn’t really offensive. It’s curious though that the other commercials makers would still push the line and endanger being accused of using offensive stereotypes.

This isn’t overreacting if you will recall the tragic story of Just for Feet’s Super Bowl ad that allegedly killed their business. These businesses are potentially one slow news cycle away from some bad press.

Tomorrow we’ll post our most hated ad of the Super Bowl this year.

‘Yabba dabba doo’ is like a racial slur to these guys

After a brief eclipse, Geico has apparently started running the cavemen ads again. This ad, which aired during the Super Bowl, features two cavemen panning the television series. They cite some common fan complaints: that the makeup looked pretty awful; and they didn’t even use real cavemen. (Or the original cavemen actors).

I have it on hearsay that the company was purposely not running cavemen ads while the television show was on. That’s good, because, you know, you wouldn’t want this whole thing done to death or anything.

Click here to see yon video

With some time to digest on the 2008 Super Bowl Ads and sober up, I think it’s clear that another horrible hive-mind theme has emerged on the day some in the industry call ‘the Super Bowl of advertising’. Last year the airwaves were rife with talking animals, (an observation which pissed off, of all people, the California Cheese Council, go figure. I have framed your cease and desist letter guys, it helps motivate me when times are bad).

But this year the offensive theme is something not quite as bad: good old all American racism.

Sales Genie has to take the cake with their ads calling out Indians and Chinese for having hilarious accents, lots of kids, and bad grammar. (Click here for the first ad, click here for the second).

Personally I think there’s nothing blatantly offensive about this kind of humor, where I think they make a giant blunder is that they were most certainly trying to appeal to business owners and sales people specifically in these two nationalities. What better way to appeal to your potential customers than to completely and utterly mock them.

(Oh there is more…)