Well, another Super Bowl has come and gone.  It’s almost like a national holiday now.  And like most national holidays, I have a tradition.  And for Super Bowl, my tradition is talking about the commercials in a blog.  Now, I know you can watch them all on YouTube now, but it just doesn’t feel right to me.  Plus, I just like commercials period.  Yeah, I know, I’m weird.  But anyway, here’s my play by play commentary on this year’s Super Bowl ads!

But before we do that, I’d like to talk about another one of my Super Bowl traditions: watching the Puppy Bowl before it!  I love the idea behind the Puppy Bowl.  Just get a small studio, decorate it with football garb, and have a bunch of puppies play around in it!  What first seemed like Animal Planet’s defeatist attitude knowing full well nobody would watch them during the Super Bowl has turned into a big success.  Probably because it’s so cheap to make, and very cute, too.  I love how there’s a Puppy Bowl Fantasy League now.  And I liked the movie tie-ins with LEGO and The Muppets.  And the fact that one of the puppies was named Pong.  Naming puppies after classic arcade games seems like a cool idea, don’t you think?

OK, now onto the commercials!  One thing to note is that I’m not going to talk about ALL the commercials.  Only the ones that grabbed my attention.  I wasn’t interested in most of the car commercials, because I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth and can’t drive anyway, so I’m not in the market for a car.  Also, I’m not much of a drinker, so the beer commercials were out, too.  I’m surprisingly low-tech, so all the cell phone and iTunes ads didn’t tempt me either.  Neither did the previews for TV shows.  And since I’m not into fashion, clothes ads won’t get me, either.

However, there were some exceptions.  I was getting worried that Budweiser wouldn’t do an ad with their Clydesdale horses, but the one with the dog was very cute.  There were a couple of car commercials that got my attention, too.  Like the truck one about a cow romance (animals in ads are gold).  Also, the VW one where the German engineers grew wings and farted rainbows.  The Doberman/Chihuahua cross breed car ad was weird and disturbing, but also funny.  And in the car ad that spoofed The Matrix, it looked like he blew into an Oreo cookie.  One of my favorite commercials was also a car ad, but we’ll talk about that later.

Lots of movie previews, too.  I can’t believe they’re making a Need for Speed movie.  Didn’t think you could make a movie out of a racing game.  They should make a Ridge Racer movie next.  But who would play Reiko?  Other previews included Captain America and Spider-Man sequels, and I can’t believe they’re making ANOTHER Transformers movie.  The folks who made the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron game should be making the next Transformers movie, not Michael Bay.  The Noah movie also looks interesting, but not very Biblical.  The Puppy Bowl also had neat ads and tie-ins with the LEGO Movie and the new Muppet movie.

I have to talk about the Doritos and Pepsi commercials since I have close family members who work for the company who makes those.  Apparently, every year they have a contest for making Super Bowl Doritos ads, and this year the cardboard time machine and cowboy kids won it.  Both were pretty funny.  I was also surprised to see a Subway ad with a sandwich that had Fritos corn chips in it.  Usually Frito-Lay only does cross promotions with Taco Bell.  I didn’t really pay much attention to the Pepsi Half-Time show ads, because during the half time I usually go to the potty and finish folding laundry.  But I did like how the giant hand used the football stadium like a volume control knob.

Seeing as though we can’t live without food, there were a lot of commercials about the stuff we eat.  The mixed race Cheerios family returned.  I don’t really see what was so controversial about the first ad, really.  I’m surprised a pistachio company paid for a Super Bowl ad spot, but it wasn’t very long so that explains that.  I don’t like pistachios anyway.  My favorite nuts are cashews and macadamia nuts.  The mafia kidnapping the yellow M&M was funny.  Did you know the same ad agency that did the California Raisins and Noid commercials now does the modern M&M ads? 

I don’t get why there were TWO yogurt ads during the Super Bowl.  Doesn’t seem like it would be football food.  Plus I don’t like yogurt anyway.  But at least the one with the bear was cute, except bears don’t eat yogurt unless it’s fish or honey flavored.  The other yogurt commercial where the guy kept spilling yogurt so the pretty lady would lick it off of him was pretty weird, though.  I was surprised everyone was using the glass bottles to pat out the Heinz Ketchup; I haven’t used one of those in years.  The farting noise the squeeze ones make, I consider a bonus.  I would think the Reese’s folks would sue about the Butterfinger peanut butter cups, though.  And finally, the Jack in the Box bacon burger ad with the cow-pig was funny.  Jack in the Box ads are usually pretty humorous.  It’s a shame some of you might’ve not seen that one since Jack in the Box is a regional franchise.

There were also a lot of technology related ads, some of which I didn’t understand.  I didn’t like the TurboTax prom ad, because my memories of high school aren’t quite as good, so I never went to my high school prom. College was much better, though.  When GoDaddy first did Super Bowl ads, I had no idea what they did.  But now their ads are much clearer.  I liked it when the lady used a puppet to say that she quit her day job.  And the one where all the bodybuilder guys and gals running to the spray tan store (is there really such a thing) was pretty silly, too.  The Carmax ad seems unintentionally insulting because it felt like everyone was doing the sarcastic slow clap.  I have some questions, though.  What does WeatherTech do besides hire Americans?  And why were all those girls bringing their pink toys to the park and blasting them off like a rocket?

OK, now to talk about my favorite Super Bowl commercial.  It’s actually a tie between two ads.  One was the van commercial where the guy picked up the Electric Mayhem after their bus broke down.  Of course, anything with Muppets is tops in my book.  The other was the Radio Shack ad, where the guy called and said the 80’s wants their store back, and all these 80’s icons raided the store (like ALF and the California Raisins).  Yeah, you can tell I was a child of the 80’s.  That commercial hit the nail on the head, too, because I don’t think I’ve set foot inside a Radio Shack since the 80’s!  I didn’t even know they were still around, honestly.  I wonder what they sell now?  I know at Christmastime, it was fun to go into that store to see all the cool RC cars you could get.

So anyway, that’s my blog about the Super Bowl ads.  Not much I can say about the regular game except I guess the Seattle Seahawks ate their spinach and the Denver Broncos didn’t.  Oh well.  What were YOUR favorite Super Bowl ads?  Let me know in the comments section!  --Cary