The most superest of bowls.

The game was rife with fighting and near misses and unexpected gains and staggering losses. The commercials were... eh. It's been a bad few months for advertisers, and it showed. It wasn't until days ago that all 67 of the game's 30 second 3 million dollar slots were bought up.

The noted economist (and eugenicist) John Maynard Keynes once said that in a depression a government should pay it's people to dig holes, then fill them back up again. Seeing the lackluster dreck that was shoveled onto our plates last night leeds me to believe that the creative teams at the helm of these multi-million dollar campaigns are perhaps filling these make-work, government subsidized positions. But alas if that were the case there would be a lot fewer unemployed ad executives, marketing consultants, or art directors.

The stultifying lack of inspired communication, exciting presentation, or even the presence of a new and unique product was so blatantly apparent that the next few days' water cooler talk will likely be limited to discussion of the ACTUAL GAMEPLAY. A sure sign of wasted advertising dollars.

Some highlights:
•NBC itself probably netted the most laughs at my party. The laughing my ass off commercial in particular was fine blend of culturally relevant and sassy enough for the kids but safe enough for the parents. What really is worth talking about was the use of their network stars in non-clip based commercials. The cast of Heroes battles NFL greats on a dark grid iron, the cast of Medium lipsyncs oldies pop, It may not have been groundbreaking, but it was cheap to produce. For an underperforming network it was a great use of resources and speaks to NBC's well strategized marketing.

• The "art house" filmic style commercial was represented a few times this year. Audi gave us a chase sequence through time action piece, starring Jason Statham. Statham feels like a good choice, he's well known for his "Transporter" film franchise, a series of films that butters it's bread with kinetic chase sequences. After actually seeing the commercial, though, the viewer is confused, because you're not sure if you're actually seeing a spot for a new Transporter movie. Well edited, well shot, but the casting muddled the message, and in the end I think it left more people geared up for an unrelated (and non-existant) product than anything else. There was a little dig at competitor Lexus thrown in there, Implying it's a car for old people. See if you can catch it.Check it out here.

The second cinematic bit came from the recently re-branded pepsi. Pepsi was really pushing it's bank account this year, it's rebrand only launched earlier this week and it had a lot of varied spots for it's product. A smart choice i think. I'll end up talking about another campaign from the cola giant in the coming weeks and a few of the SB's better commercials below but for now i want to focus on the Bob Dylan/Will.i.am "Refresh Anthem" bit. It compares the similarities between the mid-late 60's and present day. It's a nice bit of clever archive research and spot on editing. In another year this would have probably been lost in the shuffle, but surrounded by lackluster performances, this was stand out. Also, you have to wonder if Pepsi got some dollars from Toyota for cross promoting the Scion as young and hip.
Watch this one on youtube

Not to be outdone by a competing cola company, Coke had an elegant touch this year with a Arthropodic Rube Goldberg CGI nightmare. Watch it, and never again sleep out of doors.

• As always lots of movie trailers. A first look at GI Joe, Transformers, Land of the Lost, Fast and Furious, and Angles and Demons. A new look at Star Trek, Up, Aliens Vs. Monsters, Race to Witch Mountain, and Year one. The studios don't want us to forget that there is monetized content out there. Big movies move popcorn, and in an industry as shaky as film, you need to get the word out.

• Speaking of Aliens vs. Monsters, and the 3D Sobe bit. Offset color is what killed 3D in the 70's, who thought it would be a good idea to step back from polarized lens tech? Did this person not understand that it makes you sick watching it without the glasses? Seriously, how dumb do you have to be?

• Doritos and Budlight had the usual fart/balls/giant horses humor that we've all grown woefully bored of. Retire the clydedales, people stopped giving a shit about that years ago. You don't see us all wondering where Spuds McKenzie went, do you? (Hint, he works for target now).

• Overstock.com bores us to tears with a celebrity endorsement that doesn't really go anywhere. Remember they spent 3 million on this. What would you have done with that money?

• Ed Mcmahon and MC Hammer for Cash4gold.com. Best use of forgotten celebrities, a superbowl staple. Usually this company has the "late night infomercial on cable access" style spots, and while this bit didn't have the polish that the rest of the lot had, it was funny, clever, and right on time.

In the end we ended up sipping some pretty weak tea. A few stand outs, a few honorable mentions, but no real winners. Pepsi, hulu.com, and careerbuilder.com got some laughs, but nothing that's going to stand out in our minds for weeks to come. There wasn't an apple 1984, nor was there even a budweiser frogs. Tomorrows a new day in the world, and it would appear we have our work cut out for us.