Commercials I’m Loving: GE’s Cow Concert Commercial

I know this is old and apparently also aired during the Superbowl, but I love it anyway! This is GE’s commercial promoting the fact that they’re focusing on bio-fuels that come from a variety of sources – including cow waste products (cow pies for those of us from farm areas). I ♥ this commercial because in the final seconds, a cow decides to go crowd surfing.

Now, who knows what would happen in real life if a cow bum rushed a crowd, but in this commercial it was hilarious! ^_^

Old Spice: Capitalizing on Known Facts About Retail, Marketing, Women & Sex Appeal

So,

Apparently Old Spice launched their “Scent Vacation” commercial during Superbowl Sunday (clearly it must have aired during half time when I was playing flip-cup with the crew! ~_^). For the past few years, Old Spice just can’t go wrong…when it comes to snazzy ad campaigns that is!

And best of all, for the last year or so, Old Spice has selected a choice eye candy spokesmodel, Isaiah Mustafa, to be the spotlight for an over the top ad campaign that keeps in line with the Old Spice tradition of a product that is made for only the most manly of men. Most importantly, Old Spice puts the focus on a well known fact about retail and marketing products to men: women buy for men more than men do for themselves, and when buying for themselves…men buy what women like to see or smell on them.

And the best part is, both men and women love the Old Spice spokesmodel as well as his crazy antics. In fact, you know something has gone extremely mainstream when it’s copied and simplified for Sesame Street! For those of you who haven’t seen the Sesame Street spoof that replaces the Old Spice guy with Grover to promote the word “on”…enjoy below!

And, if you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know about the Old Spice phenomenon…check out the rest of the commercial collection here.

My Take on Superbowl Ads 2011: The Good, The Bad & The Confusing

Okay…

Another Superbowl is done, congrats to the Packers…better luck next time to the Steelers. Now that we’ve got that lil bit out of the way…let’s talk business – Superbowl commercials. Everyone knows that just as many people watch the biggest football dance of the season just as much (if not more) for the commercials as for the actual game itself. So, here’s my top contenders for the following categories: The Good, The Bad & The Confusing.

The Good:

Hands down Doritos took the crown for “Good” commercials. Some were fan submissions (very smart on the part of the Lays Corp. considering the typical amount of money spent on commercial production – not including buying the ad time) but there were 2 that in my opinion were the best:

Entitled “House Sitting” the anecdote for this commercial is that Doritos brings everything back to life. The best part? A sprinkle of Doritos chip crumbs even brings poor grandpa back to life after the not-so-amazing house sitter spills his ashes on the floor. A little crazy but good.

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I’m not 100% on the title, but in my opinion it’s between “Finger Licking” and “Mmmm Cheese”! The premise…a creepy office co-worker stalks people while they eat Doritos and then enjoys the forgotten bits of Doritos-goodness that the unsuspecting co-workers leave behind. Crazy, weird, but memorable and hilarious!

The Confusing:

Lipton Brisk revives their claymation ads and brings in Eminem to help bring interest to their new line of oversized cans (a la Arizona Ice Tea sizes). It’s not that this wasn’t a decent commercial…but Lipton revived an old ad concept that hadn’t been used in years! Kind of a FAIL for lack of originality.

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And one last one for confusing (and for some reason I can’t seem to find the embed file for it) – especially for those of us in the NYC tri-state area. We were treated to excessive repeats of a car commercial set to Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind”. I can’t remember if it was Chevrolet or some other car company…but after it initially launched during the 2nd quarter, that commercial kept playing on almost every other commercial break. I REALLY hope that it only launched for those of us in the NYC metro area…otherwise it really failed to make sense as the rest of the country doesn’t have immediate access to NYC. If I find the link, I’ll definitely post it. Plus…the song is DEFINITELY overused…especially for those of us who live here AND travel to other parts of the country or world and STILL hear this song playing on unending rotation! Please no more!!!!

The Bad:

Hands down Groupon failed with this weird attempt to contrast the true atrocities happening in Tibet with their ability to provide users with cheap deals on “Tibetan cuisine” in their local ‘hood. Literally when this commercial came on…all of us were shocked, horrified and confused on who in the marketing department decided that this was a good idea.

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Coca-Cola’s “Border” campaign was (in my opinion) a runner up for bad – not because it was poorly shot but because I was expecting more from a major company when unveiling an ad that will probably run for the next few months. We all agreed, this one was “interesting” but boring…it didn’t have the gripping appeal that Doritos offered.

So, that’s my take on this year’s Superbowl commercial spread…of course there were plenty of other great commercials…but the ones I mentioned are the ones that, for the most part, stuck out in my head and the heads of my friends while we watched the Superbowl. Feel free to comment or counter if you think that there’s a different commercial that belongs in my list!